Everything closed

East Jerusalem on strike

What a start to the week ... everywhere everything is closed. West Jerusalem continues its no-work jewish holy day while arab East Jerusalem went on strike ... probably over the killing of 7 Gazans but I could be wrong. Anyway it's a love-hate situation. We love the quiet streets on both sides of the City ... but we hate no being able to buy food or medicine from both sides of the City. The Christian Quarter continues mostly untouched. Christian shops closer to the Muslim Quarter are forced to close but those on the Christian side are all open. Thank goodness.

Emergency lunch

There was a video I found on Facebook that showed the notorious swastika vandal caught red-handed. For the past 2 weeks swastikas have been sprayed in public monuments and private properties. It drew the ire of the jews who are deeply offended by this nazi symbol. Everyone was out to hunt this culprit. And he was finally caught on security spraying on doors in the Old City of Jaffa .... and in the last clip of the security video, he very clearly sprayed a huge swastika on the Vatican Nunciature (embassy). I quickly sent the video to the Archbishop but he is in Rome for the Synod. He told me he'll send the video to the nuncio (ambassador) who actually lives in Jerusalem on the Mt. of Olives. I also sent the video to the superior of our Jaffa monastery because the nunciature occupies the ground floor of our monastery. He went down to check and found out it was already cleaned up by the police but traces can still be seen on the door. He was told that the culprit has been arrested. Thank goodness. See how quick the police can catch culprits? Now jewish vandals on church property ... they haven't been caught for like 5 years now. How come?

Well I'm back to work routine ... alot of running around to get 2 visa applications, payment for magazine subscription, then off to our bookshop to check if our order of books arrived, settling the cargo landing bills and all the bureaucracy of importing books for our libraries. That took 5 hours in all. And I was very hungry as I hadn't eaten dinner last night and only a cup of coffee and a banana this morning. Luckily the chinese sisters were home and cooked noodles for me. All the shops in east and west Jerusalem are closed today .... just my luck.

One dreadful news which is quite regular in summer time, a child was stung by a scorpion and is in critical condition. In the heat snakes and scorpions hide inside houses and shoes and become a danger to people. Thank goodness winter is coming ... now we'll just have to watch out for snakes and scorpions hibernating in our houses and shoes.   https://www.timesofisrael.com/toddler-in-critical-condition-after-being-stung-by-scorpion-in-negev/