Saturday rest

Restricted passageway for pilgrims
to the Al Aqsa mosque yesterday

Yesterday was total collapse day. All the fatigue of the past few months finally caught up and I couldn't go on anymore. After some mandatory work in the morning (Mass on Calvary at 6am with a filipino group), I came straight home and slept from 10am till late afternoon. Woke up a couple of times but had not the slightest idea what time or day it was. I only knew I had something to do. After struggling between sleep and wake, I realised I had to go pick up donations from the Mian chinese restaurant for the poor. So at 7.30pm I finally got out of bed and struggled to walk up 1km the hill to reach the restaurant. Found out it was 4 boxes of tinned food, fresh milk, oil, rice, sugar and other provisions. I couldn't possibly carry them all alone so I left it till today, when 2 chinese sisters came to help me. They have a trolley so that helped a lot.

Police dog at work

But I did get to rest. It felt so good finally being able to sleep ... I didn't want to get up. If only I can have several days like this.

Yesterday was a relatively quiet Friday ... there was a stabbing attempt in our area but the police managed to capture the guy and things got back to normal. The crowds were unbelievably large. The police closed off all roads around the Old City and East Jerusalem. Pedestrians only ... and only one way down Damascus Gate. Metal barriers blocked off all roads and worshippers were herded into the permitted passageway.

Selling tornado potatoes

The night before I was at a neighbour's store selling tornado potatoes. It was a group of cousins in their 20s who wanted to earn some extra money. They managed to convince to sell the potato crisps to foreigners. I wasn't very successful though but it was a very fun 2 hours ... and we laughed a lot.

Today was back to work as usual: early morning Mass then giving a conference at 9am, then a meeting with the chinese sisters, and then preparing a student for his defence of his thesis. Tonight I must go to the airport at 2.30am and tomorrow it will be a full day's work .... no sleep anymore. Paradise lost.