February begins

Our landmark bedouin begger

It's the first day of February. Unbelievable how fast time flies. Students here are still having their exams so time for them seems to drag. The weather is still the same - cold but very sunny during midday. The temp. hovered around 10 degrees and with the sun, you could just wear a t-shirt. The only problem is the occasional wind that is very cold. For the past few nights I could not sleep because it was freezing. It was around 2 degrees and we had that kind of temp. before but it never felt so cold like these past 3 nights. Both my small heaters are on but I still have to cover up with 2 blankets to stop from shivering. And I'm not sick.

St. Stephen basilica

This morning on my way to work. I passed by the old bedouin lady who begs by the walkway between Damascus Gate and New Gate. She is old ... like 80 something ... and very very small like Yoda. She's been around for some 15 years and usually when we pass her by we give her a shekel. In summer she would sometimes ask me to buy her a bottle of water .... or coca cola. She's an expensive beggar. We have a regular joke that she collects so much money she could go to the Bahamas during winter while we freeze here. Anyway this morning we chatted about the weather and she liked the cold sunny day.

Yesterday I made a rare visit to my former school - the french Ecole Biblique runned by the Dominicans. I can't remember the details of the school 20 years back ... but it felt good to be back there ... the enormous gardens, the old basilica and belfry. It's the place where the first martyr St. Stephen was buried. There's a statue of the martyr kneeling in the middle of the atrium of the basilica.

We just heard the news that a family in Gaza was killed because of a family feud over inheritance. 8 dead including children and 20 injured. Greed and avarice kills. The suspect brought canisters of cooking gas and lighted them, blowing up the entire house.    https://www.timesofisrael.com/seven-gazans-killed-in-gas-explosion-after-family-row/

And talk of a summer war is getting more urgent. The US army is in fact here on a drill with the Israeli army in the event of a massive missile attack. The soldiers are prepared for such an attack ... but for people like us, we'll probably die.  https://www.timesofisrael.com/us-troops-arrive-for-drill-simulating-massive-missile-attack-on-israel/

What a way to start Spring and February.