Sunday August 29th

hey all, adrienne here. wanted to let you all know about one of the most meaningful days of the trip for me.

so after a fun and exciting night out with our latvian peers, we returned early the next morning to the jewish day school. i had been commissioned to paint a mural for the front lobby. along with the help of sasha and stacey, we painted the sketch that andrew had so nicely drawn. we had music playing so we were singing and dancing while we were painting. lira, one of the latvian peers, even played here music so we could see what kind of music they are into. around midday, we walked to a place called kebabs. in the states, i would have expected a kabob-skewer with meat and veggies- but here, kebabs are like pitas filled with shwarma or falafel and veggies. they were so delicious!! on our walk back, it started pouring rain and we had to run the rest of the way back to the school. after painting for about an hour or two more, we were soon bussed off to rumbla forest. sarah, sasha, and alyssa had prepared a wonderful ceremony to commemorate the 30,000 jews who were killed there. as we all stood in a circle hearing the details of what had happened there, a train passed by, the same train that had brought the 30,000 jews to there graves during world war two. it was pretty eerie to think that we were on the grave site of so many people. we sang a couple songs and had time for self reflection. then the rabbi of the latvian community said a prayer for those who had perished there. i found it quite ironic that even though so many had dies in this forest, i have never seen such a place thriving with life. latvia is truly a beautiful place. we were then bused to the community center where we had dinner. soon after that we were walked back to the hotel and had a low key night of just hanging out with the group. i can't believe we only have one more day on this amazing trip!