Today Pegman ventures to Kilimanjaro in Tanzania, Africa.  Feel free to stroll around using the Street View or Photo Spheres until you find something that inspires you to write 150 words, then click the frog below and share your work with fellow contributors. Remember that reading and commenting on others’ work is part of the fun.

Thanks to Josh and Karen for hosting the challenge. 

Genre: Factual Fiction

Word Count: 150

Yep. If they’re there I’ll find them. 😉 

MOUNT SINAI

I’ve come to Tanzania from Canada to deliver a Torah scroll to a remote congregation. “Why not?” I said when asked if I’d like to go. “I’ve never been to Africa.”

Jelani’s dark cheeks glisten, “I was a child when Idi Amin’s henchmen destroyed our synagogue. My father wept. On his deathbed he grasped my hand and said, ‘Son promise me you will never forget who you are.” The sunlight outlines the golden star of David he wears around his neck.

The Torah is processed around the small synagogue. As it passes by, Jelani touches the scroll with the fringes hanging from his belt, then brings them to his lips with such reverence I weep.

Shivers surge through me as Yehuda Kahalani leads the kabballat Shabbat in an African chant. My pulse races. I add my voice to familiar prayers and songs. We are different. The words are the same.  

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Click here to learn more of the actual story that fueled my fiction.