Estamos aquí!

The view from our apartment in Viña del Mar.

How to capture our experiences of the last five days? We have been to services at the Progresivo synagogue in Valparaiso on Shabbat Eve, where we were warmly welcomed, not just with "Shabbat Shalom" greetings, but with kisses and hugs from virtually everyone present, young and old. We have strolled through the bustling downtown commercial district of Viña del Mar, as well as some of its lovely narrow back streets with stairways that lead up and down the hills.

We have been the honored guests of a local fire company at their anniversary celebration (more on that below). We have attended a Monday morning minyan at the Conservativo synagogue in Viña del Mar, where we were also warmly welcomed (though without all the hugs and kisses), and invited to share in the conversation and light breakfast that followed the davening.

We stumbled across a vast, outdoor craft fair in a local park with booths of items from all over South America; we have walked several miles every day; we have purchased items in tiny neighborhood stores and two superstores; we have sampled the local street food (empanadas). In all our peregrinations we have encountered a number of North Americans – the number being zero. We have been forced, despite ourselves, to test the limitations of our Spanish.

Shira has been working hard on her on-line studies, missing out on some of the aventuras described above. Linda has been trying to do some scribing, and Jonathan baked his first batch of challah (jala) Tuesday.

We spent Monday afternoon and Tuesday exploring Valparaíso, which is both grittier and more colorful, with urban congestion, noise, traffic and grime in the lower port area, along with beautiful old Spanish colonial buildings and tree-lined plazas filled with people. As one rises into the hills (either by climbing steep narrow stairways or riding one of the 15 or so old funiculars), one is treated to spectacular views of the bay, and picturesque narrow winding streets and
passageways beckon.

About the fire company -
We got treated to a bit of local color on Sunday (February 10) – invited by Ricardo Flores Figueroa, one of the members of Sinagoga Max Nordau (Progresivo), to view a celebratory demonstration by El Cuerpo de Bomberos de Valparaiso – Bomba Israel #15. Bombero means “fireman” and the occasion was the 37^th anniversary of the founding of this company on Feb 13, 1961, the 15^th firefighting corps established in Valparaíso. All the firefighting units in the entire country are volunteer; and those of Valparaiso were originally organized around various ethnic groups that came here. So there are the Swiss Bomberos and the Italian Bomberos and – lo and behold: Bomba Israel! (We were told this is the only volunteer fire fighting force in the world with such a name.)

As visiting rabbis de norteamerica, we were among the honored dignitaries, invited to view the proceedings from the balcony above the playing field – along with the captain of the bomberos, Don Manuel Guerrero Lopez, captains of various other companies that came to pay their respects, and a few members of the conservative synagogue in Viña del Mar (not our Max Nordau but the “other” shul), including the president of the synagogue, Marcelo Moises de Beer, and another member named Ariel Szewkis, who is a major benefactor of Bomba Israel, having recently provided the funds to build a new addition to their firehouse in memory of his father who passed away in 2006.

The demonstration took the form of a friendly competition between two teams, both made up of firemen from the company, racing to complete various firefighting tasks before a mixed age crowd from the neighborhood. While children cavorted in the background, trying to catch the spray of the hoses, the firefighters climbed up and down ladders, unfurled hoses, and tried to knock down targets with their high-powered waterblasts.

There are no Jews among the firefighters of Bomba Israel, but there is an Israeli flag and Star of David on the side of their firetruck and when they lined up at the end of their ejercicios to count off, each one said, as his name was called: “Ani po!” (Hebrew, for those of you who don’t know, meaning: “I’m here!”)

And so the reality is beginning to sink in - "Anachnu po" - estamos aqui - we are here!

More dispatches to come!