Owing to the unfortunate continued indisposition of Rabbi Harris and Rev. Brickman's holiday, WHAM 's "away" visit to the main synagogue on Shabbat 9th July was somewhat different to our previous visits. I was asked the previous week if WHAM could take the whole service, to which I was happy to agree. Thanks to all the people who agreed at short notice to play their parts, we did take the service and I, for one, enjoyed it far more than on previous occasions. While there is always someone who is unhappy, we received many thanks and compliments from Hampstead congregants and I believe this is the sort of area where we can co- operate with Hampstead.
For the future, you will see in this issue that we are proposing a WHAM weekend away in Oxford. This is an experiment which, if successful, we hope WHAM will repeat in future years. For now, if either you are interested or you know that you are not interested, please let us know as this will help us in our planning.
Andrew Hougie
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Rachel Anticoni, a Health Service Manager and Sam Clarke, an Accountant, have been married and lived in East Finchley for 2 years. In July 1994 Rachel went to Goma in Zaire to work for the Red Croiss during the climax of the Rwanda crisis.
One year on they both recall memories of the time spent apart.
About a year ago the crisis in Rwanda reached a climax with the cholera epidemic. For most people this was a news item that may have caused a sympathetic reaction - but then life goes on and this was somewhere in Africa. For me it was more relevant because there was an inevitability about Rachel's need to take more positive action and go, which she did as part of the British Red Cross Cholera Team.
When we got engaged just under 3 years ago we went out for a celebratory dinner with both sets of parents. The conversation turned to the relief work that Rachel had done in North Sudan before we met and Rachel's mother suggested that "it would all finish now that you are engaged" but we both knew that the relief work would continue after we married.
In fact shortly after we were married an opportunity came up with Save the Children to go to Waat in South Sudan for 3 months running a nutrition programme. Rachel did not hesitate to take up the position. People felt sorry for me, the poor husband left behind. But I was not the one who gave up the comforts of suburban life in East Finchley, for a village with a population of 60,000 in the middle of the desert, with no communication to the outside world and no real means of getting through to home. We saw each other half way through the 3 month contract when we met in Kenya for a week's holiday. The experience was good for both of us although it did take time to readjust when Rachel returned.
Six months after her return from South Sudan, Rachel was off again to Rwanda on a high profile mission for one month. We were able to communicate by satellite phone which gave a new meaning to peak rate phone calls (£10 per minute!).
I was able to hear at first hand the suffering and distress that was hard to relate to from the TV pictures.
The phrase Rachel always used which sticks in my head is "the stench of death" and the descriptions of the things she saw were straight from Holocaust literature. Has the world really made no progress in the last 50 years?
Rwanda was a year ago and maybe there will be more similar trips in the future - it's difficult to say at this stage.
When we socialise and meet new people their reaction is "Oh hi, you're the accountant but your wife does relief work which is much more interesting".
We have both learnt from Rachel's experiences in Africa - it's opened a whole new one for me and for everyone that meets her.
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The night I got to Goma I remember sitting in a bath in a Nairobi hotel room. It was the first time in a month that I had been on my own for longer than it takes to go to the loo, and the first time that I had been able to wash properly.
Water in Goma had been very scarce which seemed crazy when the city is situated on the edge of a lake but the lake was contaminated - not only with the atrocities you could see such as floating dead bodies, but with invisible cholera germs.
This night in Nairobi was the first time I was able to use more than my four inch allowance of water to wash with. I scrubbed my body with nail brush over and over again to try and rid myself of the terrible stench which hadn't left me for all these weeks.
When I watched the coverage of the Rwanda crisis along with millions of others everywhere in the world I felt a terrible pang of guilt that I should be out there. One night I burst into tears and Sam just told me that if I wanted to go I should do it.
I had spent the two years before I met Sam in North Sudan and then another three months in South Sudan after we had been married. I'd fallen in love with what I knew was Africa.
But Goma was not the Africa that I had previously known and loved. Goma did not have the stifling, sandy desert conditions of the Sudan, but the cold, high altitude temperatures and the volcanic rock of a once beautiful national park - now torn apart by the sudden influx of refugees.
The vast numbers of people were astonishing. This was the largest refugee camp the world had ever seen. From the road which runs alongside the valley filled with refugees the people looked like ants but on the other side of the road piled higher than houses were all people - but dead people who had been thrown into mass graves.
I used to drive past these mass graves many times each day and each day they grew bigger and smelt even worse.
The cholera had taken thousands of victims and the volcanic rock had meant that graves were almost impossible to dig - and the victims were dropping too fast to bury each one. Everyone had been told to bring out their dead and thus corpses were laid sometimes three high along the road-side.
I don't remember how long I spent in my bath trying to scrub away the stench, but it took a long time before I realised that what I was trying to scrub away was a memory - one so vivid that even a year on I can still smell the camp and still find it difficult to talk about.
It will be a while before I could return to a similar situation. The thought of what people are capable of doing to each other, and seeing such unforgettable suffering, will take a long time to heal.
It was not all bad in Goma.
I watched a woman squat down in front of me and give birth to a perfect baby boy on the grass. I set up a dispensary and re-hydration unit which is still functioning today. I played with children who had been orphaned. These very same children had witnessed massacres, killings and other atrocities that I still find hard to accept and which they will have to face up to living as refugees.
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Summer Special
Just add summer sun
(well maybe next year then).
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BLACK TIE ON KOL NIDRE
The committee are currently considering inviting people to wear Black Tie and Kol Nidre.
NO, WE ARE NOT COMPLETELY MAD! [that's a matter of opinion- Ed]
It would not just be an excellent publicity stunt (though there is that) and it would not just be an inspired post-modern piece of irony (though there is that) but it will also be an eloquent throwback to the days when shuls could really mount occasions. In the 20's and 30's when it was de riguere, the shuls were jam-packed and the atmosphere was electric. The formality was a key part of that. Hampstead abandoned it only a few years ago but perhaps it is our view that they will come to regard their Modernism as precipitate.
We are now considering that all committee members sit in the box. With 8 men, a Mechiza and Aviva it would be a bit of a squash, but we would welcome feedback on the modest proposal of black tie wear for this one night.
Strong feelings either way to be communicated to any member of the committee by 15 August please.
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Last week, due to circumstances beyond our control, we had to replace all the leiners at very short notice. We would like to thank all those who stepped in at the last moment.
This occurrence highlights a problem which is beginning to occur in our community. We are finding it increasingly difficult to find volunteers for leining.
As a result, certain members of the community have kindly offered their services, free of charge, to teach people how to lein and how to read Hebrew in all discretion. It is possible to learn with very little previous experience. It is our community and we have progressed so far as to be able to conduct the service ourselves. It would be a pity if we were unable to continue this. Reading and leining are lifelong skills and this is a perfect opportunity for people to learn them.
If you are interested, please contact Aviva (0171) 435 5304 or any other member of the committee.
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2nd August with David Coleman
London's most eligible Bachelor
Yours for only UKP12.50 (Members), UKP15 (Non-Members)
Contact: Dan Cohen 0181-625-9027
6th and 7th September in Oxford
Contact: Charles Coleman 0181-452-9733
18th August - Against Dunstan Road
Contact:
Start shopping for that holiday swimsuit
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