Snow

First snow this morning

The first snow has finally fallen. It started out at 11.15 am with stormy hail and then flakes of snow accompanied. Very delicate that melted on contact. But it was nice. Later at 3.30pm another snowfall with bigger flakes. It's zero degrees now and will drop to minus 2 tomorrow. And more snow is expected tonight and tomorrow.

In Ramallah the snowfall was alot heavier and blanketed the land. Samaria (the region of central Israel) is much higher than Jerusalem so it's colder there. I'm thinking of the orphans that Mother Theresa's sisters care for ... if they have enough heating there. In the Bethlehem area there was also snow but it wasn't much. Let's see what tonight brings.

Prior to the snow, the storm ravaged the country yesterday. The winds were vicious. I was nearly blown off my feet twice. And umbrellas were useless. In fact I've never seen so many broken umbrellas strewn in the streets like yesterday. Every few metres of road lie a umbrella ripped apart .... I thought of Charlie Brown's kite-eating tree; here we have an umbrella eating wind.

One of the many umbrella
victims to yesterday's wind

Most shops have closed. The roads and streets are hazardous in this weather. School continues though, but many students don't show up. Heaters are on in every place. And just my luck, when things got really cold last night, my heater died on me. This afternoon Majed managed to buy one for me so I don't have to freeze tonight's -2 degrees.

Last night I wore a fantastic down and waterproof hooded jacket that is absolutely suited for this weather. It's a wonderful gift from Margaret Lobo several years ago and the jacket has saved me from several bad winter colds. Along the street was a guy in a flannel hoodie, all soaking wet. I could see he was poor. He touched the sleeve of my jacket and said "It's so warm and nice". So I exchanged it for his flannel hoodie. I think he had never felt this warm and dry before. I was wet and cold though. But I was happy. He needed the jacket more than me.