St. Bartholomew Day

A cartload of ka'ek

It's St. Bartholomew Day and for us it's a big feast day because he's one of the "local boys" born in Cana in Galilee. In other countries this feast is probably no more than a name of some distant apostle mentioned in the Gospels ... but here his memory is never far and his village is just a driving distance away. We had ka'ek for breakfast ... that's the long sesame bagel made by arabs. We usually have it on Thursdays and I like it as it's light. And today being a feast day, it felt a little more special eating it with some laban which is local cottage-cheese. Simple pleasures in life.

After a heavy day of work, I had the pleasure of meeting up with an old friend and classmate from 25 yrs back. He celebrated his birthday 2 days ago and earned his PhD in England. So after all the celebrations with his family, he finally found time to come out with me for a simple dinner. We had a lot to catch up ... and laughed ... and talked about our futures. His 2 kids are big now so he has little to worry about. It's good to see him doing well. At least one of us is moving ahead.

Some heartwarming news - an arab bus-driver found $10,000 on board and  gave it back to the jewish owner. Everyone here is touched ... and social media reaction is: how come he was not rewarded? And it's jewish readers who are asking for it.  http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-5006942,00.html

There was a social experiment in Hamburg, Germany to see how racism affects daily life. A supermarket removed all goods made from foreign countries and kept only the German-produced ones. The supermarket was practically bare ... and shoppers were shocked to find that if they kept out all foreign goods (hence people), they cannot survive.  http://www.boredpanda.com/supermarket-removes-foreign-groceries-racism-problems-hamburg-germany/?utm_source=CB13&utm_medium=link&utm_campaign=SAW