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October 2000 Issue

Eden 2000 Goes to Kenya: A Personal Account

By Y. Hoffman

Tuesday, 5:00 P.M. We just took off en route to Kenya. Every few minutes I scan the seats around me wondering which of the other holiday travelers are among the forty-five members of the Eden 2000 group. Carla and I had decided to be brave, to take initiative. We wanted to take a vacation but we also wanted to meet some new people, so, for the first time, we joined a "singles group" and were on our way to Africa.

We got our first real look at the group at the airport in Mombassa. It was the moment of truth. Not exactly what we expected. Having been to several Eden 2000 events in Jerusalem--one of the foremost religious, Anglo-Saxon, enclaves in Israel--we had anticipated a mostly English speaking, more or less religious, basically homogeneous group of people. What we found in Mombassa was much more eclectic.

We pretty much covered the entire religious spectrum (in typical Israeli fashion, this observation was based entirely on what people were wearing--men with and without kippot; women in shorts, pants and skirts of all lengths), a variety of ethnicities and were (currently) from all over Israel and Europe. Though I have lived in Israel since I was a child and am accustomed to all sorts of Israelis, I wondered what we would say to each other for a whole week.

Surprisingly, most people actually had plenty to say. While soaking up rays in our "dhow" on the Indian Ocean, bumping along in our safari van at Tsavo-West National Park, canoeing through the mangrove trees and walking along the beach we got to know each other and became a group.

We sang songs together, (in our safari van, when we began our repertoire of songs from Broadway musicals, we found ourselves singing "Doe a Deer" simultaneously in English, Hebrew, and French), and laughed together at the Israeli political jokes told in perfect, idiomatic Hebrew by our native Kenyan guides.

We were all horrified as we saw a group of Masai men draw blood from a cow and drink it with relish as part of a traditional Masai ritual. We groaned at the thought of yet another dinner of grilled/baked/fried fish--although the food was delicious and Kosher--and "oohed and aahed" at the elegant giraffes, vibrant zebras and majestic elephants that we encountered in the wild. I realized that despite our differences we had much in common and were having fun.

Tuesday, midnight. I look around me at many familiar faces and many wooden giraffes all making our way back home. There are at least four new couples and we wonder whether they will last. People are chatting and exchanging phone numbers and email addresses. We may not actually keep in touch with each and everyone, but at this moment we intend to.

Most of all I wonder where my experiences in Kenya may lead; what new thing or what new person may enter my life as a result, somehow, of taking this trip. At home, I smile as I flip through the pictures that I just had developed. I had a great time.

Y. Hoffman is a 30 year old attorney living in Jerusalem. For more information on Eden 2000 and its travel tours, please log on to www.eden2000.org.il.

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