Sleepless in Jerusalem

Road repairs at
St. Saviour's

Another Sunday ... Mass at the Armenian Catholic church (3rd Station) and then work in the morning. Afternoon was preaching a recollection and then more work in the library. Did someone say "It's summer holidays"?

Well the weather has cooled a lot so major public and private works have restarted. Lots of roads are being dug up ... not sure why. The Municipality seems to be putting in new cables ... perhaps for security. But now New Gate is totally impassable: Freres Street is being dug for an archeological remain which might have been part of a crusader fortress. To the left of New Gate is the entrance to St Saviour Monastery ... the road was dug up to be upgraded to asphalt I think. The old paving stones have mostly collapsed and were a hazard to pedestrians and vehicles alike. Then we received news that  Via Dolorosa street will also be closed for repairs .. at least closed for the nights. It'll take one month for this upgrading. Right now they've started working ... pneumatic jacks noisily removing the paving stones. That means one month of no sleep. What a way to end summer ... no holidays for me and now no sleep as well.

There's a piece of local news saying a couple of off-duty soldiers were beaten up by jews because they were mistaken for arabs. Horrors. It's dangerous to be an arab or even mistaken for one in some neighbourhoods of Israel.  http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-5005198,00.html

Well tomorrow is another busy day. Will have to wake up early for another holiday-working day.