Still cold

Abundance of fruit

The drizzle has stopped but it's still cold ... about 3 degrees average. Forecast points to a gradual warming of the weather and by this weekend it should be up to 16 degrees. I guess it's about time summer came. The heavy rains up north have filled the almost empty Sea of Galilee to almost full capacity. Everyone is exhilarated ... it's been over a decade since we've seen this level of water there. However climatologists warn that this is only temporary and the following years will see longer hotter days which will deplete the Sea of Galilee of water as had the last drought.

And despite the cold, fruit have been flourishing. I find in the streets lots of grapes which is actually off season now. This is the time for persimmons and they are delicious after the rainy spell .... full of juice. One strange thing is I've not seen flowering almond trees yet ... they should have blossomed a few weeks back.

Police presence in and around the Old City is still high. They stop and check many youths ... including jewish ones. There's so much provocation from both sides, we just have too be careful. Everyday, a group of 10 orthodox jewish youths come to our church and spit at us. That's besides the 5 jewish girls who do the same everyday twice a day. But the police do nothing about it. I guess it takes someone to be injured to dead before the police takes us gentiles seriously.

Meantime the northern arab city of Jish where St. Paul's parents came from, has been attacked for the 3rd time by jewish extremists. 170 cars and mosques have been vandalized so far.   https://www.timesofisrael.com/170-cars-mosque-vandalized-in-northern-arab-town-in-apparent-hate-crime/?fbclid=IwAR2Jt5nm88DWL5n_6KaYeR7tyUszo0OvfP4faQieYOdqVQUPHyHTpJignS0

And the anti-asian racism is not abating. Only this morning on my way to work, a group of youths were yelling obscenities at me and coronavirus.