Ohio Jewish Chronicle, 1992-05-21

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THE
The Ohio Jewish Chronicle
Serving Columbus anefjbe Central Ohio
Jewish Community since 1922
VOLUME 70
NUMBER 21
, MAY 21,1992
18 IYAR 5752
DEVOTED TO AMERICAN AND JEWISH IDEALS
Wexner Heritage Village
to hold Annual Meeting
page 2
Women's rights at HMO
'      , page 3
OSU Hillel to host
celebration dinner
7'<    ■ ' "'-'-,     '^page 4'
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Shlock Rock concert
dedicated to Zofan
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page 5
Af{
HIAS resettlement seminar
being held in Columbus
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THE JEWISH TRAVELER
Kosher Safari to J^ricajuljills dreams
By Gedalia Gurfeln
JERUSALEM — The first
time I went to Kenya, we
touched down in Nairobi on a
flight that continued to South
Africa. It was' the middle of
the night and, as I was leaving
the plane, a half asleep Israeli
looked up at me, noticed my
kippah and politely said,
"This is only Kenya."
"Kenya! I thought this was
Brooklyn!!! You mean I got on
the wrong El Al!!!" He clearly
couldn't believe a Shomer
Shabbat Jew could be going on
safari in Kenya. It took me,
one breath of the sweet Afri"-
can night air to realize I was
not in Brooklyn,
Enchanted even by the airport, my mind raced with excitement thinking that I was
actually standing on the equator. Actually, without realizing it, I was standing on the big
toe of Yosef! My six foot five
inch Kenyan guide not only
spoke the Queen's English but
even knew the names of all the
animals of Africa in Hebrew.
The first stop on this kosher
safari was Mt. Kenya, a two-
hour drive from the airport.
We were greeted by the lodge
manager : who brought us
through a wooded alleyway to
what was like a fortress in the
middle of the rain forest.
This was a childhood dream
come true — the ultimate tree
house! All four floors of the
lodge are built out of wood on
the tops of tree trunks. Each
bedroom faces the local animals' watering hole. While
others in the group jumped
into the shower or lounged on
private bedroom porches, I
zipped to the roof.
This was the first time I understood the Talmudic expression that "there is no comparison between hearing about
something and actually seeing
it." This was not a friend's
photo collection or video or
the Discovery channel. This
was live and happening to me!
What was really wild (besides the animals) was the
"night spotter." The lodge has
this guy who sits watching for
animals all. night long. You fill
out a form, handed to you at
dinner, requesting to see certain animals. He spots them,
then runs and bangs on your
door yelling, "Rhino, rhino."
By the second night, we
were in Masai Mara at the 01-
kuruk lodge, and I had no
question where I was. It was
Africa in 360 degrees. Yosef
was quick to point out that
this was where Out of Africa
was filmed.
Spending almost eight hours
out in the bush, I felt like I was
a guest in the animals' homes.
I couldn't observe long enough
the nature of the different species — from white monkeys to
giraffes to wildebeasts and lions — to see how they lived
among themselves or with one
another.
That evening in the lodge,
each family had their own
five-star hut with zebra sheeted beds and bark wood paneled private showers. We-
found bottles of Camel wine in
ice waiting on our front porches. Dinner was a western barbecue With live music and
dancing by the local Masai
warriors.
The Masai had never met
Orthodox Jews before and
quickly told us of their own
legends of being one of the lost
tribes of Israel. Someone told
them all Jews are lost tribes
and asked if they had ever
tried to find their way around
the streets of Tel Aviv. I don't
think they got the joke, but
they certainly got the warm
vibes.
see SAFARI pg. 8
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