Day 3: First day on the job...

Daniel, Myself, Yosef Hai Ashtamkar, Wife, Daughter
Sun. We're informed that we have a meeting with Tamar and she's going to take us to visit an older gentleman in the hospital. Then there's a change of plans. There is a community located about 45 min. away from Bombay by ferry called Alibag, and the Rebbetzin thought it would be a good idea, since it was a sunny day, that we go there instead. So we cancel with Tamar and jump in a taxi that will take us to the port to catch a ferry. After inquiring after this ferry we are sadly
informed that there are no ferries today or for the next 2 months because of the monsoon season. We're broken hearted. To try and uplift our spirits, the guy helping us offers to drive us there in his car, but that's a 4 hour drive so we wished him a nice day and carried on (Lipa anyone?). Well, we were there anyway so we walked into the Taj Hotel and had a look around before returning to Chabad. Just for the record, it's pretty nice.
We get back to Chabad and the Rabbi informs us that there's a jewelery show on the 7th so perhaps we should do the travelling now and be back in Bombay for the show.
There are about 10 places that we can visit, so we decide to start with the south. Cochin, Ernakulam, Pondicherry, Auroville etc. With the 'omniscient' help of the Internet we
booked a flight for the next day to Cochin. While we were busy looking for flights and booking hotels Daniel walks in. Daniel is a nice, young, 20 year old bochur from Bombay.
He's here to show us around a little and introduce us to the local community. Once again we get into a cab which, B"H, there is no shortage of, and he takes us first to the
Magen David Synagogue which was, as mentioned previously, built by the Sassoon family. The shul is located on a large property with many buildings on it formerly belonging to
the Sassoons. Many famous individuals have visited this shul amongst them Binyamin Netanyahu, Shimon Peres, Ehud Olmert, Chief Rabbi Y. Metzger, and other noteworthy individuals which I cannot remember at the moment. This shul is very similar to Knesset Eliyahu which I mentioned in the last post. Behind the shul is the Sassoon Elementary School,
which today has no Jewish students, a kosher guest house with paraphernalia about Israel all over the place, and in the front of the property the Jewish School where all the
local children attend. From here we went to visit our first family.
Mr. and Mrs. Taylor are 'very religious'. They live in a small apartment on the 2nd floor not too far from the shul. The walls are lined with pictures of the Rashb'i and
Eliyahu Hanavi and other Jewish oriented items. Their daughter is visiting from Israel with her 3 children so the house is a bit full and noisy. After offering us drinks
(which is customary in all Indian homes) and putting out some treats from Israel, the children go out with their mother to spend time with some friends that are also visiting
from Israel. ...and the house quiets down. Mr. Taylor works for a travel company and is very active in the Jewish community. He goes to the daily minyanim as often as he can and
is very careful about kosher meat. Once they had a shochet who was not Shomer Shabbos and they refused to eat from his shechita. So left with no choice he went and learned how
to shecht on his own, but now they buy meat from Chabad. We conversed for a few minutes and when I asked him what we could get for them he said that "we could use some goats meat.
We really like that but we cant get it here." I told him that I'd make a note of it and see what I could do, and that was the end of our first visit.
Afterwards we went to visit Rishon (Rish-on), he lives in the building next door and is a classmate of Daniel. His father was the patriarch of the community. He taught everyone for their Bar Mitzvahs and was sincerely loved by all. We spoke a bit about the youth in the neighborhood and told a few stories of Yud Beis Tammuz.
Next.
We spent the next few hours visiting different families(I would say homes but most of them live in one room apartments) and making the usual rounds. Mendy, Rishon, and Myself
B.H. most of the people have what they need. Mr. Ashtamkar has a Megilla that belonged to his Grandfather. Unfortunately others do not. As we visited some of the other families they began to unfold the different troubles that they are going through.
So as not to give you touch much heartache i will spare the details. May they all have much success in all their endeavors. Them and their families. Amen.
Bs"d thats all for now.