Still cold

Cold quiet Sabbath

The temp. has risen a little over the past 36 hours. Up to 5 degrees and no rain. But it still feels awful cold. This "unseasonal" cold snap as the weather forecasters call it, is hitting hard on many people. Lots of coughs and colds. Lucky for me I was asked to go to Jaffa to hep in the sacristy. There it was a nice 15 degrees ... but only if you are under the sun. Indoors and under shade, it feels like zero degrees. You wear more clothes indoors than outdoors. It was just as well that Saturday was this cold. Being the Sabbath, everyone was indoors, no work done. But I think electric bills will be soaring for most families this winter. The extreme cold is forcing even the poorest to turn on heaters. I can imagine that in the coming months, lots of people will have to start borrowing money to pay their bills.

Anyway work all Sunday was tiring. I had to prepare all the Masses till the last one in hebrew at 7.15pm. That is more than 12 hours of work in the sacristy. I really had to rush home (70 km away) because I have to wake up at 3am for classes. Mondays are nightmares. I have classes at the university all morning and then same for the afternoon. Tomorrow night we also have a house meeting at 7pm. I shall be awake tomorrow for 21 hours with 3 hours of sleep in 48 hours.

Some of the Coptic children with
Abuna Soriel in our chapel

There was a very nice visit by Coptic christians today in our Jaffa Church. Children from their school in Jerusalem with their teachers and 2 priests made an excursion to Jaffa and included our sanctuary in their itinerary. It was good to receive them and show them around, explaining the history of the place. The priests were very friendly too. And their guide is an old friend of mine ... going back 25 years. He was just a student part-timing at our Casa Nova hostel as receptionist in order to earn a little something. He comes from a very poor family. Now he's got grown up children and is manager of a meet and assist team of a travel agency. I was so happy for him. He's a Coptic christian too.