Drama

Full moon

Yesterday was unbelievably tiring as I started the day at 3am and finished at 11.30pm ... a total of 20 hours non-stop work. I had to give a conference on a church document ... which I know nothing about, so I had to wake up early to read up on it and write some points. At 5am I had to go off to say Mass for the filipino group that has no priest ... on the convent chapel where they're staying. It's not too far from my house ... about 10 mins walk. But after that I had to rush home and prepare to leave for the retreat house where I had to present the conference. It's 2 kms south of Jerusalem ... right in the heart of the violent village of Ras al Amud. There, a rich jewish foundation bought over several lots of arab homes and built a huge complex of jewish residences. Arabs every Friday protest and demonstrate against this and police come to fire tear gas. Well I had to walk there which took me over an hour.

Mass at the
Holy Sepulcher

Then after my talk I had to rush home by 1.20pm when I had to start cooking dinner for the chinese religious who came at 4pm to celebrate Mass for their departed families, friends and benefactors. I had exactly 2 and a half hours to steam meat with salted eggs/century eggs/mui choy, cook the rice, roast the char siu (which I managed to learn to do despite the lack of many ingredients). cook the chinese sausages. Then rushed down to prepare the church for the Mass. Almost all managed to come except for 2. It's a good size ... chinese speaking priests and nuns living in the Jerusalem area. Almost all are students in various institutes in the City. Among them are a spaniard and a filipino. After the dinner and washing up, I had to rush off for a meeting with some italian professors who had come to evaluate our libraries. They were set to leave today so I had to see them to thank them, get their report, hear their observations and suggestions. It all ended with pizza at an East Jerusalem pizzeria called Zahara - once a very famous hotel and restaurant but now reduced to a pizzeria due to the Intifada.

With barely 3 hours of sleep, I had to be up again at 3am to prepare this morning for Mass at the Holy Sepulcher at 5am. Then back to open one library by 7.30am. Then off to the other library by 10am to prepare for the exhibition and conference that celebrates the 800th anniversary of Franciscan Presence in Holy Land. There's so much carrying and arranging of display tables, contacting the VIP guests and keynote speakers, last minute arrangements, practice runs. It's 6.41pm now, exactly 24 hours since my last meal. Dead tired. Dead hungry. All I want is to eat something hot and go to sleep. But I am still in my office working. My only companion is the full moon shining outside my window.