Thursday, October 8, 2009

BARBY? Braii? Anyway you say it, it means Aliya

Okay, I ate a boerwor (actually, I don't know exactly how you say it or how you spell it) yesterday. It's a kind of spicey meaty frankfurter. It means farmer's sausage in Afrikaans. It's dark reddish brown, and it is BELOVED (I mean, they really really love it) by the South African expatriots living here in Israel and I guess just about everywhere else.
Well, it was good and spicey, but I guess you have to be raised on it to really really love it. I hear that South Africans will travel really far to find butchers that sell their childhood food. Hmm. I can't think of anything I'd travel miles for, not even an Entenman's donut.
The South Africans got to gether in Kfar Etzion's giant Sukkah for a meeting to encourage Aliya, actually it was to encourage one another to encourage others to make Aliya from South Africa.
There are currently 100 South African families living in Gush Etzion. In all of Israel there are 20,000 South Africans. But there are still 100,000 living in South Africa.
The GEers want them to come and come soon before it's too late. Former South African Yoana Yehudah organized the BRAI (which means barbecue, or more rightly "Barby") and it was great fun. One after another SA ex-pats told their early Aliya stories, which were very inspirational.
South Africa's Aliya organization had a hand in beginning more than 20 communities, including Efrat. That's pretty terrific.
At the end of the afternoon, I was urged to taste a boerwar (sorry for the mispelling), and you know what, IT WAS LEKA!!! (That means terrif in Afrikaans.)
What do we want?? Aliya from South Africa!!

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