Thursday 29 March 2012
Lily n I went adventuring in Ranana (Fontein).
Yay! Extreme right wing South Africans!
I spent the morning doing handstands in the living room. I was waiting for it to be 12:00 so I could meet Lily at the bus station in time to head off to Ranana. A few last minute grabbing of warm clothes and a pair of jeans for the unceremonious changing in the bus before the cold of Jerusalem and I made my way across town to the CBS.
I met Lily outside and we eventually found Guy after having to phone him four times because we kept forgetting the platform number. On the bus we chatted about the plans for the day, the Shnat gossip and Guy told us a whole bunch of cool places to go camping. He had a great book with pretty pictures, unfortunately it was all in Hebrew so that's all we could look at.
We started our South African (and Israelie) adventures at a place called: Beit Issie Shapiro.
It was started by the same family who started Selwin Seagul in South Africa, so it was really cool to learn more about it and see that people who make Aliyah are actually making a difference in life here.
Thee centre is for people with mental and physical disabilities. They have this really cool thing called the "Snoozalin" where they take kids before scary things like dentists appointments or surgery to calm them down. They have pools for physiotherapy and specially made playgrounds for kids in wheelchairs, they even have swings!
The multicoloured light flowed from green to red to blue and purple beneath my feet. The light was distorted by the clear balls of the ball pitt that we all sat around. Hannah was talking but I had stopped listening as soon as we walked into the room. The walls and floor were soft beneath my bare feet, and the stairs were made from foam too. It was hard to walk over them, but the softness was comforting, because if I fell it wouldn't hurt. There were coloured lights hanging from the ceiling and the white flowers on my pants glowed from the luminescent light. I felt calm. Serene. Surreal. There was nothing else like it in the whole world and I wanted to stay there forever. Nothing could hurt you there.
We went on a tour of the building and helped pack things for them to sell.
After that we had a very architecture car ride to TELFED. We had an interesting conversation about what they do for South Africans who make aliyah and how they help them. He told us about the "South African Shop" that sells "South African Food". But he lied.
There was no Rusks or Biltong or Peppermint Crisps or Jelly Tots or Chutney.
We had another architecture walk to this really religious girls house who was hosting us for dinner. It was really lovely to be in a house, with throw pillows, and carpets and all these books on Nelson Mandela. There was so much shwehshweh. Everywhere.
Then it was off to meet a strange, eccentric, Canadian women who was the rabbi of this Reform Shule in Ranana. Our visit was cut short by us not wanting to miss the bus back to Jerusalem. It was 9pm already, and we didn't want get home too late.
Lily and I fell asleep on the bus, and I did my fun Lets-Get-Changed-On-The-Bus trick while she organised a way for us both to get into Kiryat Moriah and have a party in The Zen Room. A total stealing of The Dojo, but The Dojo is soooo much better. Ari met us outside, and we just walked in, no sneaky-ness needed. We spent the night in Gal n Aris room, Gal left for Poland at 3am and I spent the night remembering all the times that Sebastien used to mock Old Gregg with his Mangina because we watched The Mighty Boosh and I didn't have the heart to tell Ari that that's my least favourite episode.
I woke up alone in the early hours of the morning. It wasn't pleasant, I felt hurt. Betrayed.