Sabbat Shalom

Damascus Gate parking space for cars
motorbikes and horses

It's the weekend here in Israel - Palestine. Friday is the Muslim day of prayer hence the muslims weekend, and Friday evening begins the Jewish Sabbath. The streets in the Muslim Quarter are packed with muslims coming from various parts of the country to pray at the Al Aqsa Mosque. Every Friday I have to go against the current when I come back from school. The crowds would just have finished noon prayers and leaving the Old City while I try to enter. It is an almost impossible task. And it freaks me out ... agoraphobia ... you get it when you have to have thousands of people jam packed like sardines in the tiny streets of the Old City. It's suffocating.

You get an idea of the crowds when you see the number of cars and motorbikes parked outside Damascus Gate at Palm Plaza. This morning there were evening 2 horses!! They were police horses though. Police presence has multiplied though there has been no attacks for almost 2 months now. What is worrying though is our northern border. Yesterday we received news that ISIS has made a surprise attack at the Syrian-Israeli border and captured a town/village. This is very worrisome for us here.

Judas tree in full bloom

Well this is the last weekend before Lent begins. Ash Wednesday is next week, but so is the jewish feast of Purim. How can you reconcile penance with fun? Well penance could be fun ... but then it won't be penance would it?

Well right now it's more penance than fun for me. I have been extremely weak and giddy for 3 days now. Yesterday was so bad the sisters of M. Teresa had to bring me home. They wanted to bring me to hospital but the hassle is not worth it. I told them I'd rather go home. Perhaps it's the exhaustion. I'm running around 6 kms a day in 3 places of work, with only 3 hours of sleep and one meal a day. Then of course the cold is making my knees, ankle and shoulder hurt very badly.  I wonder what other penance I can add for Lent. Fasting is nothing as I'm practically fasting everyday. Maybe penance for me would be to rest, no work, eat more, sleep more.