The Loritz Circus: Circus Out of Africa (a Review)

The Royal Kenyan Acrobats performing in the Loritz Circus: Circus Out of Africa

Rabbi Ben has always loved the circus.  Rumor even has it that he nearly ran away to join the circus before he became instead the Juggling Rabbi! (We almost believe it!) So when I noticed signs up advertising the Circus Out of Africa being put on by the Loritz Circus, we had to check it out.

We weren’t so impressed with their website. With bookings being taken over a mobile phone number, we really weren’t sure how good it could possibly be! But with tickets starting as low as $20, we figured we could go to the Circus for about the same price as going to see a movie in Sydney… not a bad deal!  We figured we’d give it a shot.

Boy, are we glad we did!  This circus was fantastic! It is a small traveling circus, like the ones that used to be so common but then were replaced by the massive ones like Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey, and later by Cirque du Soleil.  No, the Loritz Circus is clearly traditional, and brought us back, to a certain extent, to a simpler time.

The setup was in a small tent. The seating was a free-for-all unless you bought more expensive ringside tickets (although even those were very affordable), so show up early for the best spots.  Yet, the tent really was so small and intimate that you could sit anywhere and still see everything perfectly.  When I was a kid I remember going to the Ringling Bros and Barnum & Bailey Circus… you needed binoculars to see what was going on! But not so with the Loritz Circus… you can see the sweat dripping from the performers’ brows, even from the back row.

The Royal Kenyan Acrobats performing in the Loritz Circus: Circus Out of Africa

As for the performers, well, they are very talented! The Royal Kenyan Acrobats are the main performers and they do all sorts of tricks that are truly impressive.  They are so strong, I think one hand from one of them is stronger than my whole body, truly!  They climb up straight poles, do flips, somersaults, and vaults into the air, and build human towers.  They really are the starts of the show, and they deserve it!

There are also a few female performers (warning: they will not be dressed tzniusly) who do some acts, too.  One is a contortionist, who can bend her body into crazy shapes (her big toe is more flexible than I am).  Another does acts while swinging on a trapeze – balanced upside down on her head.  And another is a young Australian girl who is famous for her hula hooping tricks.

For the kids, there is also a clown (although his sense of humor is really dry) and some ponies who do tricks.  This is a small circus, so there are no troops of clowns piling into tiny cars or elephants and lions to leap through flaming hoops (although one of the Royal Kenyan Acrobats does limbo under a flaming pole that is much more impressive than anything a trained animal can do).

All in all, we had a really fantastic time out at the circus.  If you get the opportunity to see the Loritz Circus: Out of Africa while it is on tour in Australia, DO IT.  It’s totally worth it, trust me. It’s a great way to spend $20 and a fun time for the whole family.

Enjoy!

Adelaide Fringe: Street Performers’ Festival

Dado, our favorite street performer at the Adelaide Fringe

The Fringe is a world-famous month-long festival held every year in Adelaide, South Australia.  People fly in from all over the world both to watch the festival and to perform in it.  So far, we haven’t really been to any Fringe events, so this weekend we went to check it out.

Rabbi Ben, the Traveling Rabbi, used to be known as the Juggling Rabbi.  So he is always excited to see street performers doing their tricks, especially comedy and, of course, juggling!  So when the Adelaide Fringe featured an entire weekend of street performing – for free! – there was no reason not to check it out.

There were lots of different types of performers. Some were real amateurs, while others had many years of experience.  Most performers are professionals – in other words, they street perform for a living!  In fact, some buskers can make hundreds – if not over a thousand – dollars just in a weekend, not counting weekdays!  But for this they have to be very good.

Gabez, silent slapstick comedians and acrobats from Japan

Some of the acts we saw were not to our tastes.  There are many different types of humor and styles of performance, so they won’t always work for everyone.  Our favorite was Dado, whom Rabbi Ben had seen before a few times.  He had us laughing the entire time!  Some, like Gabez, who did a slapstick silent comedy routine, were not our type of humor, but were definitely very talented.  Others, like the heavy metal magician, had some fancy props, but the tricks done were very basic.  Akiva’s favorite were the juggling acts… he takes after his father!

All in all, it was a great day out!  We watched the performances in Rymill Park, where we were also able to have a picnic and feed the ducks.  The best part was that you paid the performers however much you felt they earned.  If you really enjoyed a performance, you could pay a lot, but if you didn’t like the performance, you didn’t have to pay at all.  Of course, many Fringe performances are reasonably priced, but none more so than this!

The Adelaide Fringe street performances are still going on today, so you can run to Rymill Park or Rundel Mall now and still catch quite a few. Have fun!

Parshas Vayakhel-Pekudei: Finding Our Mission in Life

For some reason, finding one’s “mission in life,” or one’s” purpose in life” has come up in conversation a lot over the past few months.  I remember sitting and talking to my friend Mia about it for hours, and Rabbi Ben brought it up to me this week.  It also cropped up in a book I’m currently reading, given to me by a friend.  It must be pretty important if everybody’s talking about it.

When I asked Rabbi Ben about it, he said our purpose in life is to do mitzvos and to follow the Torah.  Well, obviously this is what G-d wants us to be doing. But is it our mission?

Judaism embraces the concept of a “tikkun.”  Tikkun is the work we must do in the world, and can refer both to our own self-improvements and to the accomplishments we’re aiming for.  So maybe our purpose as Jews is to keep the Torah… but our tikkun as individuals is as varied and unique as a fingerprint.

Interestingly, in this week’s parsha, we see some people discovering some hidden talents, some of their missions in life.  As the parsha says, “Every man whose heart inspired him came…” which the Ramban teaches refers to the weavers and carpenters who built the mishkan (tabernacle).  They were very talented at their crafts, which required fine skills. Yet, how did these lowly Hebrew slaves, who previously had done nothing more crafty than making bricks out of straw, know how to do these things?  The Ramban answers that they were divinely inspired: G-d Himself gave them the skills to be able to do things they had never learned.

We also have lots of G-d given talents and abilities, but how many of them do we find?  How often do we balk at trying something new? How often do we limit ourselves instead of pushing ourselves to the next level?

In the book I’m reading, God Winked by Sara Yocheved Rigler, the author shares some good advice from Rabbi Aryeh Nivin on how to identify your life’s mission:

• Ask yourself: “What were the five or ten most pleasurable moments in my life?”
• Ask yourself: If I inherited a billion dollars and had six hours a day of discretionary time, what would I do with the time and money?”

One of your most pleasurable moments may have been when you did something small, like climbing a hill – but if you had all that time and money, you would climb Mt. Everest (I know that’s what Rabbi Ben would do!).  You’ve limited yourself. But if G-d has given you a talent and an aptitude for doing a certain thing, then maybe that’s your mission in life – and if you limit yourself, you will never achieve your potential.

This week, let’s all work on achieving our full potential and working toward our life missions!

Shabbat shalom!

Read more on Parshas Vayakhel-Pekudei: Building a Home for Hashem

Traveling or Backpacking with a Baby or an Infant: Packing: Pacifiers (or Dummies or Binkies or Soothers)

It seems like most babies, infants, and toddlers today are using pacifiers (known in other countries as dummies, binkies, or soothers).  And no wonder they’re popular! Babies love to suck and a pacifier gives them something other than mommy to suck on, so they get all the good-feeling hormones without mommy needing to keep baby constantly attached to the breast.

When he was a newborn, we could sometimes get Akiva to take a dummy (or pacifier)... but most of the time he didn't like it much!

Our Akiva had terrible colic for the first two months of his life, so we were willing to try just about anything to get him to calm down and maybe even go to sleep!  Of course we tried offering him a pacifier, but the majority of the time he would not take it. He never seemed to like it much and eventually we gave up offering it to him. (He was happy with a boob or a bottle, though – as long as something actually came out of it!)

So when we travel we don’t have to worry about packing dummies or pacifiers.  But it seems, in my experience, that most people do.

So, how many pacifiers (dummies/binkies/soothers) to pack?

Friends who travelled with a baby told me they started out with five.  After three weeks of travel they had two or three left (they said they had three but one was “missing”… they still hoped to find it!)  So, I would say that if you are normally vigilant, you should pack one pacifier (dummy/binky/soother) per week of travel, plus a couple extra for a buffer zone.

Of course, this also depends on where you travel and what kind of pacifier you use. It also depends on the age of your child.  A newborn or very young infant with a dummy clipped to them on a dummy chain is unlikely to lose very many pacifiers.  However, having an active child above the age of about seven months means you’re running the risk of having the “toss it out, get mommy to pick it up” game be played with the pacifier.  And babies and toddlers who are strong enough will be able to remove most dummy chains.  My friends told me that one of their pacifiers was lost when their daughter tossed it over the edge of a cliff while they were hiking.

Remember, if you use a standard pacifier you can probably replace it easily in many parts of the world. However, in developing countries, they are not so prevalent and so can be more difficult to locate. Similarly, in rural areas or off-the-map places, like hiking and trekking destinations or local villages, you could be stuck without a pacifier if your last one gets lost.

Furthermore, some people use a specific shape or type of dummy or pacifier.  If you or your baby are particular about this, don’t count on finding your specific type when you travel. It might be available; it might not!

So, how does one keep from losing dummies and pacifiers while traveling?

The most obvious answer is not to bring them in the first place! If you’re planning on weaning your child off the pacifier, you might consider doing so before the trip.  On the other hand, with moving from place to place and unfamiliar sleeping situations, you might decide to wait.

Dummy or pacifier chains are a great idea – if your baby won’t remove them!  Most babies are able to pull these things off once they hit a certain age.  My nine-month-old can remove a bib and he can remove a dummy clip, too.  So they might not work.  You can consider allowing your little one to choose a “special” dummy chain (there are many fancy ones available online) if he or she is old enough.  Or you can try to find one that won’t come off so easily, but I have not found one yet.  If you find an ingenious design or one that doesn’t come off, please do let me know!

Other than those ideas, I don’t know of any way to keep a pacifier from getting lost. Everyone I know who has kids who use them constantly complain of lost dummies, so I take it that losing pacifiers is a common occurrence at the best of times.  That’s why my best advice is just to bring lots of extras with you when you travel!

Good luck and safe travels!

Traveling or Backpacking with a Baby or an Infant: Packing: Why You Don’t Need to Pack Toys

In yesterday’s post I explained how to decide why toy (or toys) to pack.  But what happens if they get lost? Do you even need to bring toys with you in the first place?

The truth is that you don’t really need to bring toys for your baby with you when you travel.

Babies will play with almost anything and find it fun. These guys playing music shared a maraca with Akiva. Akiva, however, was just as happy playing with the empty guitar case on the floor!

The whole world is new and exciting for babies, so almost anything can be a fascinating and fun toy.  Older babies, toddlers, and children are already developing healthy imaginations, so they can turn anything they find into something else.  I remember picking leaves off of holly bushes as a young child and imagining they were flying foxes.  I could pick a couple of choice leaves and play with them for hours, anywhere.

When you pack your own stuff, stop and take a moment to evaluate what could be good and safe toys for your baby.  Our baby, for instance, loves playing with the case for my husband’s toothbrush.  It’s long and hollow, with rounded ends, and he enjoys banging it on anything.  There’s no need to bring a plush ball or stuffed animal if you have a pair of socks you can ball up or stuff full. (If you don’t mind, you can even paint faces on the front of your socks and use them as impromptu sock puppets!)  I’m sure that as you go through the things you’re packing anyway, you’ll find quite a few objects that can serve as safe and entertaining toys.

Remember, if you’re traveling and you feel like your child needs a toy to play with, for whatever reason, toys are available universally.  People all over the world have babies and buy them toys, although they might be different to what you find at home! In Thailand and Burma I found plenty of play mats for sale – exactly the same ones I could get back home in Australia or America.  In India I found that most little shops sold mini toy auto-rickshaws for kids, rather than cars, but your kids will enjoy them just the same.

Often, Akiva was more excited to play with a balloon given to him by a vendor in a market than with any actual "toy."

Not only that, but almost anything you encounter in your travels can become a toy for your baby.  I found that disposable plastic cups were a favourite of our baby.  He liked to crinkle them up and listen to the sounds, or to chew on them, or to pretend to drink from them.  He spent far more hours playing with plastic disposable cups during our travels than he did playing with Sophie, the toy giraffe we had brought for him. (Of course, Sophie did serve a purpose – when our Akiva was feeling overwhelmed by all the activity going on around him, he could always pick her up and focus on her… but this purpose could be served by just about anything.)

Also, many times people will give your baby toys as you travel.  Once, walking through a market with a fussy baby, a vendor I was buying some fruit from spontaneously blew up a small balloon for him. He was so happy with the bright red balloon that he stopped crying. Other times, we’d stay in a guesthouse that would find toys for us to use while we were there.

So there is really no need to bring toys with you as you travel or backpack around.  For babies and small children, anything can become a toy!

Happy travels!