Hamsin

5th Sunday of Lent already. Celebrated Mass at 6.30pm but this morning there was a rather "big" crowd - 9 of us when usually its 4 or 5. The common Mass on Sundays is at 8am but its a little too late for some of us. Fr Massimo Pazzini gave a very thoughtful and brief sermon (2 minutes!) - he spoke of today's Gospel of the raising of Lazarus. "He wept" referring to Jesus, is the shortest verse in the entire New Testament. It was the tears of Mary that touched Jesus and caused him to weep - and Pazzini quoted the Fathers of the Church who likened the tears of jesus as rain and the dead Lazarus as the arid ground. Watered by Jesus' tears, Lazarus arose. So too we should cause Jesus to weep - not for our sins but for our repentence, so that watered by his tears, we too may arise like new plants on wet soil.

So that was a nice start to the day. After breakfast I went to feed the birds. The canary that laid 2 eggs threw them out. I sort of knew she would do that. Tried to start on reading a grammatical book but had a terrible headache. Matthew came to my room so we decided to take a walk out in the New City for some fresh air. Walked a huge round, saw several interesting places that we never noticed (little side streets and courtyards with quaint 100 yr old stone houses converted to restaurents and shops). Bought some apple buns and mushroom pastries from an Israeli shop. Matthew wasn't sure if he wanted them, but anyway i shared some with him when I got home.

Tried to sleep of this horrible headache (apparently I'm not the only one who has it). It must be this strange hamsin that's blowing. It's a sirocco type of desert wind that should occur only after Passover but for the past week we've been covered with it. You can't see the sky - it's all a dreary yellow brown, the desert sands block all sunlight. It gets hot and dry. And you have this starnge feeling of headiness - or lightheadedness. I think it's because of dehydration. Anyway I get the feeling a few people will be sick by tomorrow. Me? I'm taking precautions and taking medicine now. And I'm off to sleep now. Got a lesson tomorrow at 4am on VC. You guys should try and come!