It
is often said that homesickness hits around the holidays. For me this was
definitely the case. Though it is not the classic homesickness holiday of
Christmas but rather the Jewish holiday of Passover. Passover celebrates the
Moses leading the Jew’s exodus from slavery in Egypt to the desert outside of
Israel thousands of years ago. Part of the way the holiday is celebrated is by
having a “seder” or ceremonious meal to retell the story of the exodus. For me
Passover has always been a very family oriented holiday and is one of my
favorites. When the holiday started to approach I realized that this would be
the first time I was away from my family and it was more difficult than I
thought it would be. I knew I did not want to be alone for the holiday but was
unsure where to go. Before I had left for Cape Town my mom had given me the
contact information for a very distantly related cousin, named Juliet that
lives in the area should I ever need anything. I promptly forgot to email her
but once the holiday rolled around I figured it would be nice to reach out to
see if she knew of anywhere I could go for Passover. She quickly responded and
invited me to stay with her and her husband for both nights of the holiday.
The
day of Passover I met her at the
Jewish Museum, where she works, and she drove
me back to her house in Camp’s Bay. The house was beautifully designed to
reflect the mountains in which it was situated with stunning views of the
ocean. I was very impressed to say the least. They were extremely hospitable
and I enjoyed getting to know them. For the first seder we went to the Garden’s
synagogue that is located in the same campus as the Jewish Museum and the
Holocaust center in the Company’s Gardens. It was a great seder, though much
longer than I am used to and I got to talk with some very interesting and
diverse people. Coincidently enough one many was from Stanford, Connecticut!
The
following day my cousin took me with her to the Camp’s Bay Senior Citizens
Association where I heard a woman speak about the assassination of her husband
who was a white anti-apartheid and black consciousness leader in Namibia who
was killed by members of the South African Police in the 1980s though his
murderer has never been brought to justice. We then headed to walk along the
beach at Clifton beach, which was beautiful. For the second seder we went to
the local Rabbi’s house. He was very nice and I had a great time talking to his
parents, his father is a Judge, from England.
Overall I had an amazing time with my relatives,
experiencing a very different side of Cape Town. As I stood out on their
veranda overlooking the ocean, I could not help but think of the townships I
have seen. I have definitely been aware of the economic disparity in Cape Town
during my time here but it was not until I was with some of the elite minority
juxtaposed with the poor, especially children begging in Camps Bay, that I
realized how stark it was. I don’t have any answers for how to fix it; at this
point it is so engrained in the country that I think it would take generations
to fix it. It is often difficult for me to reconcile the darkness of this
country’s past with it’s beauty, though as I stood overlooking the ocean, I
could not help but hope that South Africa’s future would be just as beautiful
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