Jordan River

Was down the couple of days with diarrhea again ... and a several severe cramps. Didn't like it at all. I've been monitoring my eating habits: I eat an average of one full meal in every 2 days. That's an improvement from 1 full meal once a week ... no wonder I have ulcers in my stomach. Ugo our seminarian who hasn't seen me in a month said I have gone even thinner than he last saw me. I was wondering about that too, because the shirts that I used to wear that were tight or fitting have become terrible loose this week. In fact I had 5 of them altered otherwise it looked as if I was wearing gunny-sacks. Same with my jeans - gone down a further 2 sizes. Tha'er my friend keeps saying "Eat more" each time I see him. But he's built like Shrek ... so I'm not taking him seriously!

Also down is the temperature! The nights  here have fallen to as low as 11 degrees. Today a very cold wind was blowing and everyone was wearing jackets and pullovers. But an hour's ride away in Tel Aviv, people were still in shorts and T-shirts! What a contrast.

Amazing crowds of tourists have returned. The roads of the Old City were jampacked with them. But you can see Europeans were noticeably absent. The Euro crisis is biting in. Tourists who come are either asians or Latin Americans.

The earthquake in Turkey is the talk about town - now that Gadaffi is dead. Fantastic miracle stories about survivors. But floods in so many countries; yesterday we saw news about the deluge in Ireland and Italy, not to forget Thailand. And only last year we saw widespread drought. What is God telling us?

Another prisoner swap - this time with Egypt and Israel: 28 egyptians for 1 Israeli-American. Talk about town is that this will only encourage terrorists who capture more Israelis.

Today is the annual pilgrimage to the Jordan River. Lots of locals and clergy went down to the Qasr el Yehud, the traditional site of Christ's baptism for the solemn Mass presided by the Custos. Will show you some photos when I find them online.