They grew up in warm Chabad communities and chose to leave the capitol of Chabad in Eretz Yisroel for the jungle and dangerous wilds of Kenya, and no, they did not go there to convert the lions or to shecht giraffes … * The story of an African shlichus in which every Jewish neshama is more precious than pearls. * “If I can do it, then anyone can. This is our derech, to prepare the world for Geula,” says Chaya. She tells us of her doubts, disappointments and even an ultimatum she presented to the Rebbe on her birthday.
“Safari najama!” (have a good trip). You are invited to get aboard the jeep together with us and pay a visit to the land of safaris – “Krivu Kenya” (Welcome to Kenya).
Although in Nairobi, the capitol, you don’t see giraffes among the cars, just five minutes away you can see zebras, giraffes, antelopes and other animals on the sides of the roads.
It’s a country that is fascinating, infuriating, and completely different than anything you know.
The locals are not particular about the commandment “keep a distance from lies” and are not even ashamed by this. Promises are not worth a shilling (the local coin), and “tomorrow” means some time in the future between tomorrow and two weeks from now.
Nairobi is constructed as a teeming riot of streets, roads, residential areas, slums (tin shacks or mud huts), neighborhoods of poverty and street crime and all this with numerous traffic jams lacking beginning and end.
Being white means you are rich, very rich. Therefore, everything is very expensive, rentals, shopping at the supermarket and anything big or small that you need to buy here.
Just six months ago, R’ Shmuel and Chaya Notik landed in this colorful country. Half a year, about 180 days. How much can be accomplished in that period of time? It depends on who you ask and when, but if you ask Mrs. Notik, she will tell you that in half a year you can start a huge revolution.
SHLICHUS
“The desire to go on shlichus is the result of the chinuch we absorbed at home, at school, and in programs such as Achos HaT’mimim,” says Chaya. “Shlichus seeped into our bones. It was a given – it’s what the Rebbe says, so it’s what we do. The thing is, as a girl it’s very easy to talk and to make pronouncements on dates. The world seems rosy and sparkling, and so, with the utmost fervor and seriousness, we decided on our dates that after a certain amount of time after our wedding, we would be going on shlichus.
“The truth is, many couples talk about it. I didn’t check it out but I think that at least 70% of girls talk about it and maybe 30% actually do it. Because talking is easy. I hoped I would be one of those who actually did it.”
Why Kenya?
“At first, it wasn’t so clear that we were going to Kenya. On the contrary, it was clear to me that we were going on shlichus but not abroad. I have uncles on shlichus in Ukraine. As kids, we heard about their experiences and saw how hard shlichus is abroad. Later on, as a girl in seminary, I went to them on shlichus. I saw for myself what being far away is like. It’s not just that you’re physically far; it’s that you are cut off from your family and you miss them so much.
“Aside from that, I saw how outreach is done with Russians and I knew it wasn’t for me. I have no patience for this culture. I want to work with Israelis, people whose background and mentality I know, so shlichus in Eretz Yisroel was preferred.
“We started looking for a shlichus position in Eretz Yisroel but quickly saw it’s not for us. We decided to look further afield, abroad. After checking out a number of options, we heard about Kenya. R’ Eliyahu Chaviv, shliach in Ethiopia and a good friend of my husband, told us about it. Since our wedding he began speaking about it, but as I said, there was nothing to talk about then. Now the time had come. We decided to finish the school year in Eretz Yisroel for my teaching work and to start the next school year on shlichus. We debated about whether to first go to the Rebbe and then to Kenya, or the other way round. We decided the other way round, Rosh HaShana and Yom Kippur in Kenya, Sukkos with the Rebbe, and then back to Eretz Yisroel. This would be to see whether a shlichus like this is for us.
“The day of our flight was also the day we cleared out our rented apartment. It was hard to both clear out the house and pack our suitcases; not everything you clear out are you taking with you on the plane. Many things had to go into storage, and so we worked and packed until the last minute. I arrived at the airport exhausted. It was a night flight and I longed to sleep, but an unpleasant and nerve-wracking surprise awaited us at the airport. The ticket for Mendy, our baby, was not issued. Paid for, yes, bought, yes, but not issued in ticket form.
“What does that mean? A significant delay and tense conversations with anyone possible. It turned out that the delay had us boarding the flight after the gates had been closed and for this reason, we did not pay anything for our overweight luggage, a practical outcome of ‘every delay is for the good.’
“We traveled into the unknown. When I say ‘the unknown’ I mean it! We had no idea where we would sleep the next night, how the new country would look or how the people would look. We had no idea how many Jews were there and whether they existed at all. On the Internet there is plenty of information but you can’t really know anything by reading it. It was only when we arrived that we understood what it was all about.”
NICE TO MEET YOU!
“We landed. With our million suitcases. Oops. A million minus one. One suitcase was lost. The one that contained my and Mendy’s clothes. Lovely. My husband ran around the airport to try and find the suitcase because without it we weren’t going anywhere. It was twelve noon and since I hadn’t said brachos yet, I hadn’t eaten anything. I was tired, Mendy was crying, and I only wanted to drop everything and go to sleep. I looked at the Rebbe’s picture which is always on my cell phone screen and said, ‘Rebbe, I am here because of you. I am here for you. Help me start out on the right foot with joy.’ I hadn’t finished making my request when my suitcase was found!
“Great. We departed. To where? In Eretz Yisroel, we had contacted someone who lives in Kenya. It was a little complicated telling him how we got to him (R’ Chaviv heard from someone about a friend who had a friend in Kenya. Go and explain that to the friend of the friend of someone who knows R’ Chaviv…). But he was not willing to talk on the phone. He said, ‘Come and we’ll talk.’
“So there we were. We called him and he was nice and he invited us to his office. My husband told him that we had a suitcase with frozen things in it and did he have a freezer?
“He said, ‘In that case, go to my home. The maid is there. She’ll open up for you and you’ll set yourself up.’
“That is how in the most matter of fact way in the world we were granted the softest landing possible, a big, beautiful house, empty all day because the man worked from eight in the morning until six at night. A huge and kosher kitchen that I could use. And comfortable beds to lay down my weary bones. The Rebbe made sure I could be b’simcha.”
TISHREI
“We spent an entire week with our gracious host. During this week, we began getting acquainted with the area and looked for an apartment. We also got acquainted with people in the community (yes, although at first they laughed about our going to ‘convert lions and shecht giraffes’ – there is a community of about eighty families plus fifty to sixty businessmen who are here without their families).
“Rosh HaShana arrived and boruch Hashem, we were able to put together a three day Yom Tov including koshering a kitchen and utensils, cooking, giving out apple and honey kits (which, by the way, were the main reason for our excess baggage) and hosting. Yom Kippur also went by quickly and then we were on our way to the Rebbe.
“While we were there, bachurim who had come to us in Kenya as reinforcements a few hours before Rosh HaShana, stayed on. We did not know whether we would be going back after Sukkos, but if we had made a start there in Tishrei we wanted the work to continue.
“Sukkos at the Rebbe is always special. But this year it was extraordinary. The year before, we were unable to fly for happy reasons. All year though I felt I had missed out. I yearned to go to the Rebbe. We finally arrived after a very long flight. I landed in 770 in the middle of the Shir shel Yom and with a song in my heart I ran straight into the front row together with Mendy. It is hard to describe how you feel when you go to 770 after a two year break, and after going on shlichus. It’s like going home and it feels like you’re giving nachas to Abba.”
A DECISION
“Sukkos passed quickly and we returned to Eretz Yisroel. We sat together for an open discussion. We had seen that Kenya is full of opportunities for outreach work and there would never be a dull moment. The question was whether we were made for it. Were we willing to handle it? In the end, we decided that with Hashem’s help, yes, we were willing.
“From when we made the decision we had two weeks to organize ourselves and go back. We ran from store to store to buy necessities and then, there we were, back on the plane to Kenya. The bachurim who had stayed there did great work while we were away. They met many Jews and arranged successful activities.”
HAPPY BIRTHDAY?
“After the excitement of Tishrei, we landed in Cheshvan, a quiet month with nothing happening. I felt we had come for nothing. My friends were active in Eretz Yisroel and I was bored here. I tried to arrange evenings for women that are successful elsewhere, but nobody came. Time and time again.
“Women told me, ‘You do it at night and that timing is not good for us. Do it in the morning and we’ll come.’ I arranged it for the morning and still nobody came. It was a stinging failure. For three weeks I went around with the face and feelings of Tisha B’Av.
“Then it was my birthday. I wrote to the Rebbe that if at least three women did not show up for my birthday, we were going back to Eretz Yisroel, because there was nothing to do here. I felt that the Rebbe was with me. It is impossible to describe the feeling in words. I invited everyone I knew for seven o’clock, figuring that if anyone came it would be at eight o’clock. Just one person told me she might come. I prepared the house in her honor.
“At 7:20 I heard a knock at the door that caught me in a kerchief, tying balloons to the ceiling. I opened the door and found five women, five! Then more came. In the end there were eight women at my birthday farbrengen. It was uplifting; eight women sat with me and really listened, without playing with their phones. I was smiling from ear to ear. I had gotten a special, personal, and serious injection of encouragement from the Rebbe.”
OUTREACH
“A busy season began with a Yud-Tes Kislev farbrengen followed by preparations for Chanuka. Chanuka falls out at a time when the entire community goes to Eretz Yisroel. There is vacation from school and businesses give off to their employees for the secular New Year, so they take the opportunity to go. This is why, despite our telling people and advertising the Chanuka party, we prepared for very few people. We had seven children including our Mendy, who was the star of the event. My mother, who came to visit us, worked with the children and the parents were thrilled.
“At the end of the party I announced a Torah Kids program for Sundays. Unfortunately, it still hasn’t gotten really established. Sometimes more kids show up, sometimes less, and sometimes nobody comes. I learned not to prepare for it a week in advance, but to start on Thursday when I try to feel out the parents about who plans on coming. On Purim, though, we had a nice seuda which was attended by twenty people and we had minyanim. That was the biggest event we arranged thus far and was very successful.”
HOSTING MADE NOT SO SIMPLE
“Sometimes, the difficulties turn out as ‘sweets’ in the end. For example, one Thursday we had a serious blackout. My husband went to the mikva and on the way he called to tell me that he met Israelis from Nigeria, a couple with three children, who came to Kenya on vacation. It was the woman who urged her husband to approach my husband, in shock at meeting a religious Jew in a place like this. My husband invited them to visit us and they happily accepted.
“A few hours went by and we both continued our usual Thursday routine: my husband gives out challos and I make Shabbos. Then, around four, the phone rang. It was the Israeli from Nigeria. They were on their way to us for a meal and wanted to know our exact address.
“I swallowed hard and tried to understand what meal he was talking about; there was no electricity, no bread in the house, nothing at all really, and they were on their way?
“I explained how to get to our house and then thought hard. I decided to make pasta, the only thing I could make that sort of makes itself. Then I took out of the fridge and freezer everything I had made for Shabbos. My husband called and said, ‘He’s on the way.’ I asked, ‘The guests or the electrician?’
“They both came, my husband and the electricity (the electrician did not come; my husband took matters into his own hands). Ten minutes later, the guests arrived. I put challos into the oven and they had warm, fresh challa.
“Although this sounds like an unpleasant experience, it was actually very pleasant. They were pleasant to talk to and during the meal I thought, hosting Jews for a kosher meal is both ‘Mivtza Ahavas Yisroel’ and ‘Mivtza Kashrus.’”
PLANS FOR THE FUTURE
“We are just at the beginning,” said Chaya. “We are getting to know the Israelis here. There are lots of people that we don’t even know exist and who don’t know that we exist. Just a few minutes ago, an Israeli from a coastal city called me and asked for a supply of kosher food for an organized trip of religious Israelis. Every day we discover more and more Jews who are scattered around the country. We now sell kosher meat and we also do catering which is still in its infancy, but is successful, boruch Hashem. It’s the kind of thing which works by word of mouth. Soon a store that sells kosher food, imported from Israel, will open, with soup nuts, snack food, Bamba… People are looking forward to that!
“We have a mikva that we want to upgrade both halachically as well as aesthetically. We know that the cleaner and nicer it is, the more it is used. I also have a dream of opening a preschool. It will probably be called something innocuous so it won’t sound so official, but we will be able to instill Judaism. This might happen at the start of the next school year or the year after that, if G-d forbid Moshiach has not come yet. Our Mendy needs friends and there is a large population of kids here.”
A MESSAGE FOR READERS
“I’d like to say something to the shluchos,” says Chaya. “Every shlucha out there reading this article should find a way to talk about her shlichus. I don’t think I would have been able to do what I do if I hadn’t heard about a classmate, who was in school with me from day one. Today she is in India. Stories like these are empowering. And when the stories are coming from young women who until yesterday were like me and you, and who are now such heroines, then it clicks; shluchos are you and me and all of us. Because we have the ability to do it. If I can do it, then everyone can. This is our way to prepare the world for the Geula, may it happen immediately.”
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Shmuel and Chaya Notik