My First Jewish Holiday

I finally got over the fact that my parents were not going to send me to public school when I was about 15. It may have taken a long time, but I realized that the bomb threats and gang violence were probably excellent reasons I shouldn't attend Longwood. However, I still have not gotten over the fact that all those years when the Jewish holidays came about, I was still putting on my ridiculously stereotypical Catholic school girl uniform. Never mind the fact that Catholics enjoyed many more religious holidays, and usually at better times (such as the day after Halloween, which would have been my favorite had my parents allowed me to celebrate the holiday), I was jealous that Long Island was full of Jews and that they and their friends didn't have to go to school.

Who would have thought that I would travel across the world, to a nation where many people don't even know that Judaism exists (and if they do are shocked at the fact that people actually follow it), and have my first Jewish holiday. My program is filled with Jews, and unlike my days on Long Island, I am now enjoying the fruits of it.

I was even going to go to the temple services with them (although I have a feeling that going to a temple in Nairobi is not exactly a great example for my first Jewish experience), but unfortunately my stomach has decided to go haywire for the past week and has experienced every possible ailment known for a stomach, on a rotating schedule that I haven't quite figured out. So instead of enjoying my first Jewish holiday, instead I lay in bed and watched the best of Jennifer Lopez and Kate Winslet, because China has poured the best DVDs into Kenyan society that include 36 movies on one DVD, and have titles like "Lopez vs. Winslet". I love it. Now I can watch Monster in Law and Quills without ever having to get up to change the disc. I've also caught up on all the sleep I lost when I decided to have a sleepover to watch the debate and pig out on American food. I would like to think we got up to watch it because we like to be informed citizens who care about what is going on in the world, but really I think we just wanted an excuse for an Oreo overload and a feta cheese fest.

Of course it was also nice to actually see the candidates, and not just read the newspapers in a country where most people have decided Obama is already president, and that there is nothing wrong with him (ask someone if they know his views and policies you'll get a mighty laugh). This is the country that just deported the author of an anti-Obama book and didn't even really attempt to hide that it was for bogus reasons. You gotta love corruption and government organizations that make up their own rules on each of their whims.

Hope all is well in America and that the economy hasn't completely collapsed yet. It really stinks to see prices rising in Kenya and the cereal that I had put off buying because I wanted to save it until I really craved it, is now actually almost out of my price range. That being said, my price range has radically changed in a country where I can easily live off of nothing, and spending the equivalent of $5 is absolutely appalling and almost unconscionable.