Trying to Keep Up with Myself

Today, a local friend that I haven’t seen for a while asked me how I was doing, and the title above was my instinctual response: “Trying to keep up with myself.” Literally, there is just so much going on in this country, that I’m hustling to keep up with all that sights, sounds, smells, and other attractions. I put my blog in list form this time, so that you can read the blog like chapters in a book, taking in one story at a time. So, grab a cup of coffee, sit back and relax; you’re in for quite a ride.

1) Tagging along with the UCT Mountain and Ski Club, I went camping and rock climbing in Montagu, a small town located 2.5 hours North-East of Cape Town. The grape-growing, wine-producing inhabitants can’t help but be humbled by the surrounding gargantuan mountains. I was hoping to get in a few good climbs, but that turned out to be quite a challenge, as the biggest size climbing shoes available were 12s (Remember the 5 shoe store story? Discrimination in South Africa doesn’t pass over tall people). I gave the 12ers a shot, forcing them on, and shuffling myself painfully over to the cliff. With my toes curled 180 degrees, I barely got two feet on the wall before my high tolerance for pain gave in. (I get my cavity fillings done pure- No Novocain, so you know it really hurt.) I then tried climbing in my hunky climbing boots- no success, they were just too monstrous. One last try, I attempted to scale the rock barefoot, but my tender feet quickly alerted me that it was simply a bad idea. Ultimately, I settled for sitting on the sidelines, lazily spending the time watching other people climb. But even this was not without its excitement as I got to witness some lekker (Afrikaners for awesome) climbing from the leader of the trip, Joe, who has the reputation of being one of the best rock climbers in all of South Africa, a country known for its lekker climbing. The past 7 years, Joe travelled around the world, climbing whatever he could get his hands on, as well as making a career for himself by climbing up huge buildings to set up Christmas lights in the holiday season. Watching him climb was like was witnessing an Olympic athlete, live in action. Even when climbing the steepest of overhangs, this specimen of nature scurried up the rock with the swiftness of a startled lizard. But of course, as any good camping trip goes, the highlight is never in the hike or the climb, but rather it’s in the food and the Joel Jokes. (And since Joshie wasn’t here, I had to restrict myself on the JJs.) Having no kosher meat on me, I resorted to a classic Israeli camping trick- take whatever vegetables you have and throw them in an open fire. This included peppers, potatoes, a can of beans, and of course, the sacred eggplant. My South African friends never heard about burning up a whole eggplant, and were quite skeptical about how it would go. Yet, I was confident in my choice and it didn’t take much to convert them to avid fans. Scorched black on the outside, mushy and gooey on the inside, that purple heart of goodness melted in the mouth like a stick of pure butter.

2) The past few weeks I’ve been getting involved volunteering with an organization called hoops for hope (H4H). H4H works with Township kids in South Africa and Zimbabwe, empowering the youth with skills for life in a very clever way. Essentially, H4H runs basketball clinics for Township kids after school, teaching the youth the fundamentals of basketball, such as dribbling, passing and shooting. On my first day in the field, there was one court for over 100 kids, but the over crowdedness was irrelevant for them, as spending an hour and a half of their day in a warm, encouraging environment, chasing balls and performing goofy warm up dances, was enough to lift their cheeks in the biggest of smiles. All of a sudden in the middle of practice, the main coach blew his whistle, and the swarm of kids hustled to form a giant circle in the middle of the court. The children, quickly calmed and collected, listen carefully as the coach told a story about a kid who practiced basketball every day, with the dream of one day going pro. After a few years of working on his game, the kid’s friends were doing drugs asked him to join. Putting the ball in the hands of the kids, the coach turned to the circle and asked: “What should he do? What would you do?” The story continued like this, with the children involved in thinking and responding to these hypothetical situations that are in reality, not so hypothetical for them. H4H’s style of teaching is very effective, because rather than telling the children what to do and what not to do, it gets the kids thinking about these important life questions for themselves. This way, when a situation confronts them and their tempted to follow their friends down a dark path, they’ve already thought it out on their own and are armed with the right decision. So far, I’ve been helping out H4H by selling some slick T-shirts as a way to get some fundraising going. Check out the link:http://www.h4hglobal.org/h4hglobal.org/h4h_Blog/Entries/2010/2/26_Calling_All_Social_Entrepreneurs!Putting_People_Skills_to_work_at_H4H.html




By far, the coolest part about joining the H4H team is that I had the privilege of meeting the single person most responsible for the Celtics 17th Championship banner- a man named Kita from the Democratic Republic of Congo. My first day at the H4H office, Kita came charging into the room, quickly hollered at me, “want to play ball in the Townships?” and whisked me out of my seat before I had a chance to reply. We headed down to his car, a well-maintained, Mercedes Benz from the 70s, stylish on the outside, with lush, comfortably worn-in leather seats on the inside. I sat down, opened my window, and let the breeze blow in, not knowing that I was about to absorb the coolest story I’ve heard since arriving in Cape Town. Kita initiated the conversation, asking me where I was from. After telling him about my Boston roots, he casually replied: “Boston? Oh yea? I’m boys with Ray Allen. Pierce- that’s my man. KG, yea, I got KG’s number.” Being an avid Celtics fan, I begged him to elaborate, and he went on to tell me how every year he works with the Celtics on various drills in training camp, such as shooting with Ray Allen. When he got to Boston after the KG deal, there was an urgency to create some kind of unity amongst the stardom of the Big Three: Pierce, Allen, and Garnett. Burrowing a South African word that has been used to unite the diverse population, Kita introduced the Celtics to the word, “Ubuntu”, meaning unity, as a way to cultivate a sense of togetherness on the court. For those of you that are Celtics fans, you certainly know what I’m talking about. From pre-season to the finals, there has been countless media coverage of Ubunutu, ESPECIALLY coming from KG. Interestingly enough, as Kita tells it, KG was initially very resistant to this whole idea of Ubuntu. He thought it was a bunch of trash and wanted nothing to do with some weird slogan from another continent. Yet, Kita kept insisting that although the word would not yield benefits at first, during adversarial times, Ubuntu would serve as a vital tool in lifting the Celtics over the toughest of challenges through cultivating a deep-found sense of the spirit of unity. Only when the Celtics would be down, would “Ubuntu” reveal its full power. Finally, after Kita’s persistent and stubborn encouragement of Ubuntu, KG adopted the word and the rest of the team instantly followed. For the entire season, Ubuntu was the slogan that the Celtics lived, breathed, and played by. But as Kita prophesized, its full power only came alive during one of the biggest challenges of the season- Game 1 of the NBA Finals. In the third quarter of the game, Paul Pierce, the Celtics star player, went down to the ground, clutching his knee in pain. As he was carried off the court, the Celtics chance at a 17th banner seemed to be slipping away. Without Pierce, the Celtics were demoralized. Yet, Coach Doc Rivers saw it differently, and wasn’t about to lose the momentum of this crucial game due to Pierce’s injury. Somehow, he had to inspire the players on the court to believe in themselves. If you watch the Celtics championship DVD, you can see exactly what he did. Screaming from the sidelines, with a desperate passion, Doc shouted towards his players: “Ubuntu! Ubuntu! Remember what that guy from Africa told us! Ubuntu!” The Celtics heard Doc’s call, and responded with incredible play for the rest of the half, ultimately winning the game. The C’s carried the energy from Game 1 into the rest of the series and went on to capturing the 2008 NBA Championship. Ubuntu worked and “that guy from Africa” that Doc was referring to in Game 1 was Kita. I couldn’t believe it- I was riding shotgun in a classic Mercedes Benz on the way to playing basketball in the Townships on a brilliantly sunny day with the very man responsible for the Celtics 2008 Championship Title- Kita. Man, was I ballin’….


Interestingly enough, H4H is also connected to the local Jewish day school, Herziliyah, as one of the H4H staff members, Thabo, coaches the girls middle school team. One day I joined Thabo, hiking up half of table-mountain to check out the school. The location of this building is just marvelous. When you walk out the front doors, literally all you can see is mountain above, and ocean out in the distance. The school had a great vibe to it, as kids were busy engaging in afterschool activities, involving everything from basketball to water-polo. Wandering around the school, I saw signs of everything you would expect from a good Jewish day school: science contraptions, art projects in memory of the holocaust, and posters addressing discussing Jewish values. It’s nice to travel half way around the world and up a mountain, and see that Jews everywhere are pretty much doing the same thing: using Jewish education to pass on to their children a lifestyle and tradition of community, knowledge, values, and of course, fun. (Mom, you would be proud.)


3) I spent a weekend at Maya’s (amazingly nice girl from Blog 1) beach-house in Hermanus. A small town snuggled against the Atlantic ocean 1.5 hours South-East of cape town, whales migrate here, splashing and mating during the winter months. One of the days, we grabbed some lunch at a beautiful grass park that literally drops into a cliff overlooking the ocean. Just a typical town in South Africa hey.

4) I went to the Soweto Gospel Choir concert at the usual Mecca of music, the Kirstenbosch Gardens. (The word SOWETO, stands for South-West Township, an area located just outside Jo-Burg that is famous for the Soweto uprisings during apartheid.) This was one of the most intense concert experiences of my life (I feel like almost everything I talk about in this blog has been described as a peak moment of my life, but honestly, it’s just the way I’m feeling about many of my experiences here. Hopefully, I haven’t reached the top yet; it would be a shame if it was all downhill from here…). Using only their voices and a single drummer to set the beat, the Soweto Gospel Choir threw their entire souls into every song they sang, smiling during the jolly ones, and almost coming to tears during the solemn stuff. Let me tell you folks, this show was an emotional roller coaster. They played a few of my favorites, including Awimaweh, the namesake of this blog. Many of you probably know Awimaweh as “the lion sleeps tonight,” from the movie the “Lion King.” The Choir did an incredible mix of the original song and the lion king adaptation, going back and forth from singing in Zulu to English. Besides a host of incredible African songs ( which I’m listening to right now by the way) they sang a few international classics such as Amazing Grace, and closing with Happy Day. Boy, and happy day it was! Butterflies flapped so hard in my gut, that I felt like my stomach was internally bleeding.

5) I went to a local shul for Megillah reading for Purim. In contrast to the States in which people Boooo when they hear Haman’s name, at this shul in Sea point, a gang of wanna-be Blue-Man groupies performed a brief symphony on various pots, pans and horns every time the big bad wolf’s name was called out. Interesting twist hey. After the reading, there were celebrations in the back which included beer, boerwurst (kosher!), and some ridiculous stand-up comedy, in which the crowd simultaneously laughed with and at the comedian on stage.

6) The next day, I woke up early to begin my scuba dive training course. I’m going to Mozambique in a few days, which is supposed to have some of the best scuba diving in the world. We’re talking Whale Sharks folks. To say that I’m AMPED would be an understatement.

7) Later in the same day, I joined a group of fellow exchanger students, including Tinker Bell (please don’t be like my parents and assume a romantic relationship- she’s just a very good friend!) on a hike up Lion’s head. Lion’s head is a huge chunk of rock that comes right up in the middle of Cape Town, having its own separate geographical identity from Table Mountain. This particular Sunday, a full moon was in the forecast, and hoards of folks gathered to climb up with the light of the sun, and hike down with the glow of the moon. To give you a glimpse of the beauty of Lion’s head, check out the picture below taken around the Lion’s nose- way short of the crown of the head. Upon reaching the top, I was hoping to have a nice snack session, bringing more wine than water in my backpack. But the hike was more challenging and hot than I anticipated, causing me to wish I had done the reverse. By the time I got to the top, I was just praying that the sun would set before dehydration hit. Just as the sun was setting on one side of the mountain, the moon was rising on other, making me feel like I was in the exact center of the world. Cape Town, the ocean, the suburbs, Table Mountain with its cable car glistening in the sun as it was making its last few trips of the day, boats out at sea, helicopters flying overhead...all of this was part of the panorama view. We hiked down in the dark with a few challenges, including a scorpion in the middle of the path that I had to take care of, but ultimately we made it down safely.
When I got home, I passed out in exhaustion (after passing out in the cab-ride as well.)

8) With a friend name Keletso, another person from the friend list provided by the Great Ezra Waxman (For now on, my frum friend will simply be referred to as GEW) I went to a showing of the famous Mozart opera “The Magic Flute”- adapted to the marimba! Imagine, the complex sound of an orchestra of violins, horns, cellos, drums, flutes and more, all transformed to sounds coming out of a band of vib-a-phone percussion like instruments, the Miramba. What’s more, the actual songs were adapted to various languages including English, Zulu, and Khosa. It was a show marked by its eclectic character. On the way back from the show, I met two people that have close working relations with Desmond Tutu. Wiki his name- he was and still is a very important man.

9) Yet, no matter how fun and exciting things are in this country, I am constantly reminded of the poverty, hunger, and serious challenges that face an overwhelming proportion of the population in South Africa on a day-to-day basis. This is not a place where the poor and homeless are merely pushed to the peripheries, out of sight and out of mind. The haves and the have-nots live side by side, and there is no getting away from being a firsthand observer to some extremely depressing situations. On a Friday morning a few weeks ago, I took out the trash from my house ( There are 22 people in my house. 22 people=a lot of trash.) Only to be greeted by a crew of homeless people, ready and eager to help me carry the trash to the corner. Despite the fact that I insisted on doing it myself, they took whatever bins that I could not handle on my first trip, and brought it over to the corner to be collected. Then, they surrounded the trash bins, and proceeded to open them up and shift through the various bags one by one, hoping to find some half-eaten piece of bread, some half-sour cartoon of milk, or even merely an empty plastic bottle to fill up with water- anything at all that could be of use to them. It was just sad for me to think that we live in a world in which literally one man’s trash is another man’s treasure. It just shouldn’t be that way. They actually gave me a thumbs up and smile as I left the bins behind, and although I politely smiled back, inside my guts turned in disgust, not at them, but at the system, which I myself admittedly am a part of, that allows for such injustice and inequality to exist.

7) On a lighter note, I finally got to do some surfing at Muizenburg, a break that is perfect for beginners, discounting the fact that it’s one of the world’s most popular hot spots for great white sharks. But don’t worry, every time a shark is spotted, a horn goes off, signaling all the surfers to come in. I was half-hoping and half-dreading to get a chance to hear the horn, but for better or worst, it didn’t go off during my surf session. Later in the day, I got my first opportunity to drive a car in South Africa, which was exciting, because due to the continual influence of British Colonialism, South Africans still drive on the left side of the road. Once, I almost forget this (only once, pretty good for me, right?) and came close to a near side-swipe collision, but quickly finagled out of it, and avoided the collision all together. So all in all, I felt satisfied with the day and was glad to be alive, having survived the sharks and the lefty roads.

8) The last event of great importance, this past Friday I debuted in my first Bollywood film! Needing extras on a shoot in Camps Bay for a Bollywood film called Crook, a friend texted me Friday morning, telling me that if I come for the day, not only would I get 200 Rand, be able to chill with movie stars, and act as an extra in a bollywood film, but I’d also be granted a free lunch. Mmmm…. Money, Celeberties, Bollywood and Food? It was a no brainer, and I hoped out of bed, taking the B-line straight to Camps Bay. In contrast to my high spirits at the start of the shoot, by the end of the day, I was tired, exhausted, and sick of Bollywood. As extras, we were supposed to be spectators of a cricket match between India and Australia. I didn’t have much of a choice on roles, as the director ordered all the white people to root for Australia, no exceptions allowed. Every time Australia scored we shouted and cheered and every time India scored we booed and cursed. As time wore on and I was getting increasingly impatient, bored, and antsy, I would have greatly preferred if India had scored more simply to provide me with an opportunity to boo and thus a means to vent my genuine frusturations.. All in all, it was still a worthwhile experience, as I got to meet and chill with Emraan Hashmi, literally the Brad Pitt of Bollywood, as well as get a feel for how the movie business in India works. Now I know I don’t want to be an actor, because there is way too much waiting time, and at the end of the day, the director rules the set. I think I’d rather do something with less waiting, more doing, and the ability to be the captain of my own ship, which is why I’m interested in writing. Nevertheless, being filmed in a Bollywood movie is going to be worth it for the sake of that one moment when I go back home, rent Crook, and show it to my Indian friends, casually waiting for scene of the Australia V India cricket game. They’ll be shocked.

Besides all of that above, there’s been a lot going on with the Township Debate League. We had a beginner’s tournament this past weekend (my kids are advanced) and I had a really productive discussion about celebrity activism with my students a few days ago. Saturday night, I went to a rugby game. I had two tests today (one in Film/Media and the other in Scuba Diving, so don’t worry Mom and Dad, I’m still working hard in school!) And basically, life is full, exciting, and I couldn’t ask for anything else. On thursday, I’m going to Jo-Burg, for a 10 day trip to Swaziland and Mozambique as a way to spend my school vacation. I’ll be out of touch for the entire time, and I’ll try getting around to giving ya’ll an update on my Scuba trip as soon as I can. Honestly, I’m living the dream and so grateful for it. Just trying to keep up with myself…

(Just to Give you guys a feel for what I mean by “just trying to keep up with myself”, when I started writing this, I got a call from one of the Bollywood producers. They wanted me to act as a cop in a full day shoot from 9 am to 9 PM tomorrow. I’ve been acting in Bollywood for one day, and I already got promoted! Even though I had such a tiring experience the first shoot, I was tempted to take on the role, but ultimately couldn’t, because I have too much to do before I head out to Mozambique. Folks, do you understand? I just turned down Bollywood…)

By the way, if you have reached this point of the blog, thank you for being such a loyal reader! I encourage you to submit a comment below, as a formal recognition of your loyalty. Seriously, write something!