Feast day of Blessed Teresa of Calcutta

Chapel of the MC convent in Nablus

The first weekend of September is upon us. The year has certainly passed very quickly. Yesterday saw no violence in the City ... thank goodness. But the horrifying waves of refugees into european shores is the talk of the streets. Like the 13 yr old syrian boy said in a tv interview: the solution is not whether which european country is willing to accept these refugees, the solution is stopping the war in Syria. The syrians don't want to live as refugees in europe, they want to live in peace in their own country. Thanks to Bush and the previous US govt who started the war and chaos in the Middle East, Europe is now reaping the fruits. Stop the war, and everything else will fall in place.

Today is the feast day of Blessed Teresa of Calcutta. The community of sisters in Nablus (Samaria) had no priest to celebrate the Mass for them so they asked me to go. It's well over 80 km from Jerusalem and runs through hot dry hilly lands ... with lots of Israeli security checkpoints along the way (even though it's actually Palestine and Israeli soldiers should not be in there). The sisters take for some 20 handicap or abandoned elderly women. They do a great job despite the little resources that they have.

My feast day lunch in Nabus

I celebrated the Mass for them and after that they cooked a lovely homely Indian lunch for me: steamed rice, curry veggies, chicken, lemon chutney and some peaches. Lovely to have hot food in my tummy at last. My diarrhoea finally stopped last night and I was feeling better. But having to travel 2 hrs on desert road to arrive in Nablus ... I thought it best not to eat anything the night before so as not to risk anything. The journey home was dreadful ... a bad traffic jam inside the city and then another traffic jam at the foot of Mt. Gerizim where the Samaritans live. The heat was terrible and I had a very bad headache as a result. Still have it. So I'll need to sleep it off. I think I had a little heatstroke as well ... nausea, overheated system, nosebleed. The car that brought me was old and had no aircon nor shade. I guess I'm in no hurry to go back to Nablus any time soon.