The Jewish New Year has begun ... and so has the Muslim New Year. Few people know this, and the muslims don't make a big deal about their New Year. But for both New Years to fall on the same day is very rare. Military presence was quite heavy and our street was closed to traffic except pedestrians. Large crowds of jews were going to the Wailing Wall for prayers. The muslims instead seem to celebrate their New Year in the evening with lots of chanting and songs in the mosques.
http://www.themenorahislands.com/the-jewish-and-muslim-new-year-celebration-coincide-this-year-what-can-we-learn-from-this/#.WcQC-K2B2qA
Military presence was heavy today also because a terrorist cell group was caught just about 1km south of our Quarter ... in the village of Silwan (biblical Siloam). They were planning violence against jews and were sponsored by big time terrorists overseas. Frightening.
https://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-5018787,00.html
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| Mansaf for lunch |
It's also the feast of St. Matthew and we celebrated the feast for one of our profs called Matthew (Matteo in italian). The cook did a huge plate of mansaf - lamb cooked in a cheese broth, served on flat bread. The cook added rice in the middle. It was sumptuous. I enjoyed it ... it's one of my favourite arab dishes. And before the mansaf, there was focaccia ... simple pizza-type base with olive oil, salt and garlic. Incredible. It was really a feast today.
Now everyone is sick. There must be virus going around. One of my students is now sick for 3 days. 2 workers in one library called in sick today and another from the other library also called in sick. There's fever, symptoms of a cold (running nose, watery eyes, cough) and sometimes stomach cramps. I only had a very high fever for 36 hours. And I don't have the luxury of calling in sick. I still have to work. Well the mansaf was a good consolation ... and the lamb meat strengthened me. If only we can eat mansaf every time we're sick.
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