Exhausted and Exhilarated

One day into the Pesach Project, and I find myself with a few minutes to spare while the group prepares their first set of seders for two upcoming home visits -- one to a special needs child or young adult and their family and another to an elderly Chesed client. The groups from Palm Beach, Cleveland, Beit Shean and Tsfat arrived yesterday afternoon within 10 minutes of each other. We only lost 1 piece of luggage and started our program 15 minutes late. But we quickly made up for lost time over our ice breakers and welcome session before heading to dinner. The participants were jetlagged and started to sag over the course of dinner, but today they were fresh and alert for community presentations, visits to the Choral Synagogue and Shaarei Shalom, and a endless activities this afternoon at YESOD. We made our own matzah at the Matzah Factory, discussed cultural identification and clothing at an EITAN-sponsored beit midrash, and we are now preparing for our first few seders.

I can't tell you how proud I was when over lunch, one of the American staff members pulled me aside and told me that everything she had been warned about on past Pesach Project trips was proving to be invalid this year -- bad food, programs running up to 2 hours late, horrible weather, etc. etc. Ok, so I didn't have much to do with the food or the weather, but at least I could take credit for building a reasonable itinerary and keeping the group on schedule.

As I finally sit down and catch my breath for the first time in over 24 hours, I realize that I'm exhausted. I am beginning to wonder if jetlag is contagious; I just know how revved up I was for the first day...things are slowing down a bit and everything is falling into place. But I'm not only exhausted, I'm also exhilarated. I feel like this is the reason we came here. To help the community grow and strengthen itself through partnerships, events, and young leaders -- all of which are exemplified by the Pesach Project experience.

Pesach Project 2007 group photo in front of the Choral Synagogue