From the looks of my most recent posts it must seem like I
spend more time in transit than in one place, and it definitely looks like the
most productive thing I’ve done is eat my way through a bunch of different
cities. It definitely doesn’t help that I’m writing this post from a bus on my
way to Tallinn, but we’ll get there. I swear that in between the travel to
cities and seminars (so many seminars!), I spend at least enough time in Riga
to have learned how to say good-day, thank you, and cheers (what else do you
really need?) and have explored enough to find a few more wonderful markets.
And a bunny farm in the middle of town.
So now I guess it’s time to talk about
the “work” that brought me to the Washington Posts proclaimed “in” part of the
world and Lonely Planet’s number 4 city to visit (which, obviously my granny
gives me full credit for. Thanks granny).
So
before the New Year I spent 5 out of my 10 weekends on seminars in various
parts of the country and baltics. So many seminars. Holy Moly. After the first
one in Estonia, the seminars were largely about program planning for the Riga
Jewish Community Center. For these seminars I had my chance to lead some
sessions and sit in on hours and hours and hours of meetings in Russian. After
all the Russian words floating around me I would say the most improvement my
language skills saw was in the way of new curse words, thank you large groups
of Russian teenagers. I did finally make it to Sigulda, a town that is about an
hour outside of Riga and has incredible nature with bike paths, ski tracks, bob
sledding, and all the other outdoorsy things I love. I didn’t get to take
advantage of any of these things yet, seeing as I was on a seminar and it was
the first (and only time) we actually had snow. But I shall be back. Oh, and on one of these seminars the
youth movement started. So that’s pretty awesome.
The
youth movement. The real reason I’m here. So the madrichim used to plan all the
programs and such for the teens, but no more! The teens are taking over. Scary
image, I know, but possibly exciting? In order to formally change over the
system we did what the Riga community does best, held a seminar in a hotel an
hour outside of town. There, the teens elected a board, wrote a constitution,
established their shared values, and, as is typical of youth movements, had
some strange ceremony involving fire.
Since
then, the teens have had some more programs, weekly meetings (which are more
like weekly gatherings of cookie eating but we’re working on that), and the
BBYO international presidents visited for ice skating and advice. There is
still a long way to go in terms of organization and management, but at least
there’s passion and vision. And a whole lot of silliness.
I’ve
also gotten more involved in the Kindergarten, where I started teaching English
and challah making and leading Shabbat prayers. These few hours a week are
still the highlight of my time here because what could be better than smiling
children and homemade challah? I can honestly tell you, not a heck of a lot.
Oh
yeah, and I started teaching Hebrew. And I taught more cooking classes. And I’m
finally going to meet the Jewish Community of Tallinn, even though most of the
teens are in Israel (hence the bus ride. It’s a little work related at least!) To
be honest, even after writing this post I’m still not really sure what I do
here or what will come of the next few months but I’m pretty darn sure that
it’s been an adventure.
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