Recovering

So a week has passed ... and the operation went well. It was supposed to be 2 hours but a complication occurred and it took 3 hrs instead. I survived so I'm grateful. Prior to the surgery, 2 docs came to examine and after some tests, said my blood pressure was very low and was generally too weak. "Must eat more red meat" - that's what they said - "Cannot be a vegetarian!" Well I do eat red meat ... like once in a blue moon. But then again, I hardly eat anything anyway. No wonder the docs said I was too weak. Thanks to everyone who made this possible - spiritually and materially - I can breathe better and had not had an asthma attack all this week.

Season for sufgoniot -
Hanukkah is back!

Most of the time during recovery was spent sleeping. The medicine made me very drowsy. Whenever I was awake, I read Potolsky's "Mimesis" - a good introduction to the theory and history on this subject. Ah Ling from Mandarin's was very kind. She boiled chicken soup with chinese herbs and wanted her worker to bring it over to the hospital for me. But it's not possible for Israelis to enter Palestine, so I told her to leave it. Yesterday when I got home, I passed by Mandarin's and she had 3 packs of food for me to bring home ... all without charge. And insisted tomorrow I had to return and drink the chicken soup that she'll boil tomorrow morning. The Sisters of Mother teresa were also very kind. They cooked plain white rice for me and accompanied me home (carrying my luggage) as I could not see properly.

My arab friends called me everyday to ask if I was ok. When I got home yesterday after the stitches were removed, they came to meet me and though I was tired I stayed with them. Being poor dispossessed people who cannot enter freely into Israel, they can only gather around corners of the eastern (arab) side of the City - so we met along the City wall and sat and drank and chatted for several hours under the trees. They can offer me nothing but their friendship, and I'm glad I have them. And I'm glad I have you too as my friends - it's in times like this taht you realise the value of true friends.