More teaching (including some--limited--male participation! yay!) and some ample time to ruminate over what is I'm doing here, what it is I came to discover and what I have actually found. Just to note--if some of these seem negative, that in no way indicates I'm not immensely enjoying my time here and learning valuable things constantly. These are merely what comes with much time spent in one place, with much opportunity both to explore and to reflect. A few of these reflections:
1) The romanticization of this community, of which I am certainly guilty as are many of the visitors who come here and those who hear about/from Abayudaya in the States, has really started to bug me. That is not to say I have stopped appreciating its uniqueness among Jewish groups, the intelligence and ingenuity of its members, and the singular challenges it must meet. It is rather, perhaps, a sort of distaste for the veneer of awe that is smacked across one's face upon soaking up the superficial oddities--Oh look, there are Ugandans praying in Hebrew! I feel myself still thinking this, and it's easily sensed in visitors who come for a short while. And this is coupled with the fancy speaking tours community members regularly go on to raise money, in a way continuing this mythical image. It is somewhat deserved, for sure, but nonetheless it makes me somewhat uncomfortable, now that I've gotten used to them being, well, just a community of people.
2) I'm increasingly struggling with what I can bring back with me to share, what I can record, transcribe, and maybe use. I just had a long discussion with the one other muzungu (foreigner/white person) here about recording etiquette, and I'm still trying to pin it down. Often, I'll sit down with someone, pull out my notebook and a recorder, and everything's clear and open--this is an interview, and I'm recording our voice and taking notes. But other times, I'll be talking with someone and I realize how much I want to capture the exchange, so I'll pull out my iPod (which acts as my recording device) and press record, not realizing until after that they may not have realized what was going on, not sure whether I can justly utilize, in any way, what I've learned. My instinct now is to go back and ask, though I fear the awkwardness that may bring...
3) The weird intersection of higher levels of observance than their American counterparts with a largely lower level of knowledge is a continuously bizarre one. Also, I've often been thinking about what it means to define oneself as so strongly aligned with a denomination when the others are not around to contend with (except for that one Orthodox bugger, with whom they are of course on tense terms).
Essentially: This faith--which came first from the Torah and then from foreigners--where can it trace its authenticity? What makes it unique, if we know it, think it to be so?
No comments:
Post a Comment