Day off

Ottoman balconies
along the narrow
streets of Old Jaffa

After saying that violence has died down ... today 2 12-yr old boys carried knives and planned to stabbed jews in the Old City. They were arrested. In another Palestinian enclave, an arab armed with an axe attacked israeli soldiers. He was shot dead.

Weatherise it was sunny in the morning but got drizzly and windy and cold in the afternoon. I'm sure many people will fall sick in this dreadful temperamental weather. The forecast for the weekend is not promising.

I've been very exhausted 16 hours a day for the past week doing something very important. Today I took a break to accompany the PDDM sisters from the 3rd Station of the Cross to visit some places they had not yet been. I promised them this visit some time back and so followed though with my word and brought them to visit Old Jaffa, Ramleh and Kiryat Yearim.

The PDDM sisters in Ramleh with
Sr. Barbara (L)

We walked through Old Jaffa, the quaint narrow streets with lots of stairs ... right down to the old Port. The weather was very nice in the morning and made the walk quite pleasant. Then it was Mass and a simple packed lunch at St. Peter's church. Then we went to nearby Ramleh (Arimathea) to visit our church there. Sr. Barbara was very welcoming and Stefan the young organist played a few hymns on the new organ. Unfortunately the White Tower and Pool of the Arches were closed by then but we could see those places from the terrace of our church.

Then we went to the church at Kiryat Yearim where the St. Joseph sisters were kind enough to let us visit after opening hours. Sr. Nancy an old irish nun showed us around.

All in all, the PDDM sisters were happy and the day ended well. Thank God for everything.

** PDDM = Pious Disciples of the Divine Master

Thanks to the following for sponsoring the Chinese Sisters' Convent:

Cheung Oi Yee HK$1,600

Naomi HK$500