Mummy terror!

The rains kept coming - sometimes heavy, sometimes drizzle. You can hear the local people in the streets saying "Alhamdullila" - Thank God! Hopefully this rain continues for the next months so the land can soak up this life-giving water and regenerate everything.

And this is so significant now in Christmas time - the Son of God came to give life; "I am the Living Water".

But the streets are very slippery though and I was scared stiff when I had to bring two bags of books up to our Franciscan Bookstore near Jaffa Gate. I managed to get Marco the Mexican to come with me. I have this terrible fear of slipping and falling - after all I did sprain my ankle last August when I fell in Bethlehem. And its still pretty swollen.

Yesterday was Fr Dobromir's feastday - he was the previous superior of this monastery when I was doing my studies between 2004-2005. He's 2 years younger than I but he is a 7 footer! Makes me feel like a dwarf. Anyway he called me up to go to his office (up the hill at St Saviour's Monastery)- he's been promoted to Economo (treasurer) of the Holyland Custody. We chatted for 2 hours and when I got home it was already 6pm - cold, wet and very dark. And I was very hungry. Funny thing was I was surrounded by food packs all round my room but I was simply too tired to eat - the fatigue from the last group is now catching up.

Tonight I begin my turn as hebdom (remember this word? No? Check back on the previous blogs!). Angelo Fusto is my cantor but he's still on holidays in Italy. Marco is my 2nd cantor and is going off to Bethlehem tomorrow for Epiphany (like everyone else is going except 4 of us). So tomorrow's Solemn Mass will be very small, just 4 of us, the 3 nuns (a new one came last week! She's Sr. Irmina - late 60s and matronly. I guess she's never seen a chinese before because everytime she sees me, she starts giggling and bowing) and the small group of Melbourne Chinese studying next door at Ecce Homo. That's less stress on me. Aah but Sr Irmina scared the hell out of me yesterday morning. Being the first in church at 6am, I had to open the church doors as well as our main gate for anyone who was coming for Mass. Then as I was crossing the courtyard (remember there's a mummy somewhere there?) in the dark and rain, I saw this black figure rushing towards me. nearly had a heart attack. Too scared to even shout. It turned out to be Sr Irmina running to church as she was waiting out in the rain. Rosary in one hand and breviary in the other, she bulldozed into the church safe and sound: and me recovering from trauma. She reminds me of the poem "I'm a little kettle short and stout..."

I'm working like crazy on some articles and have no time to unpack other stuff so my room is officially designated "disaster area". Evrything is everywhere. I'll get to it sometime - as they say here "Inshallah" - "If God willing..."