Christmas Bazaar

Parish Christmas Bazaar in the rain

Heavy rains throughout the country except Jerusalem yesterday night. The Sea of Galilee rose by several centimeters and snow fell on the Golan Heights. Floods in the coastal cities. But Jerusalem only had very strong winds and a bit of rain. Towards 10pm it rained quite hard but for less than half an hour. I guess Jerusalem is the driest part of the country last night. Temp. have dropped though and everyone is out in thick coats and hoodies. Umbrellas are utterly useless because the winds just shred them to bits.

Bazaar at St.
Francis Street

Despite the weather, the parish's Christmas Bazaar went ahead. About 20 stalls selling food and christmas stuff. It's very small scale because the locals are very poor. It lined St. Francis Street just outside the church. Very narrow street and everyone was trying to hide beneath the tents from the strong winds. Still it was a good show of support ... and the Bazaar continues till Sunday so hopefully more people will come to support. It's a nice break from the tension and routine of the Old City.

I'm scared stiff of walking in the roads today. Almost slipped twice. Still I had to go to work and I had to be extra careful on my way there and back. Forecast is dry and sunny tomorrow again. Well hopefully the rains will return in the next few weeks. Snow for Christmas would be lovely ... like last year.

My shoulder still hurts a lot and this morning I had a student help me spray analgesic medicine on it. It did relieve the pain for a few hours. But today e read on the news that Israel has invented a cannabis spray for pain-relief without the hallucination effects. It's the first medical use of cannabis on a commercial scale. It looks exactly like a Ventolin spray except that it's green in color, and you inhale it just like a ventolin spray. This does not counteract the asthma and allergy medications so it's safe for people who suffer from asthma and severe allergies.  http://virtualjerusalem.com/entertainment.php?Itemid=24294

And another wonderful news: arab israelis are joining forces to supply wood in order to reconstruct the Haifa synagogue after it was burned down by last week's fire. It's a great show of solidarity which narrows the gap of suspicion and hatred. They didn't have to do that ... but they did. I wonder if the jew will do the same to rebuild a mosque burnt in the fire.  http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4886966,00.html