Orthodox Assumption feast

Today is Friday and though there's tension in the air as hundreds of arabs enter the Al Aqsa Mosque with tight police control, no incidents occurred. Thank goodness.

Solemn entrance to the Tomb of the
Virgin Mary in Gethsemane 

The crowds in the Old City have increased because the Greek Orthodox celebrated the feast of the Assumption of Mary yesterday. Thousands of orthodox christians gathered at the Holy Sepulchre, waiting for the procession of the icon of Mary to be carried out and into the Church of the Tomb of the Virgin Mary down in Gethsemane which is 1 km away. Church bells were ringing at 5am till 6am while the procession slowly moved toward the valley, passing by our house. Tomorrow the Armenian Orthodox will celebrate the same feast - they use different calendars - and we expect a smaller crowd in the procession. Anyway for the entire 3 weeks that the icon remain in the Tomb, hundreds of orthodox christians will come and venerate and pray everyday.

Young girl dressed as the
BVM going down to the
Tomb of Mary

Healthwise I've been getting asthma attacks and bad diarrhoea as well. Thought it was some virus as many other people in town are also down with it. And of course I ate some leftover food cold from the fridge several days ago and that caused the diarrhoea ... Now I realised what was also a major cause ... I took a wrong dosage of medicine. I remember I had to buy Telfast, my antihistamine medicine which I must take everyday. Doc had said I need the maximum dosage which is 180mg but the pharmacy had only 120mg. The pharmacist told me to take one and a half tablets. But I forgot and took only one for almost a week ... and hence the asthma attacks. Yesterday I realised my mistake and rushed off to buy the correct dosage which the pharmacy now had in stock. The asthma stopped immediately. But I learned another thing - I had to take it in the night, not in the morning as I have been doing. Well now I feel better and learned a little more about medication, but the diarrhoea and cramps are still bothering me.