Respite

Damascus Gate today

The last 24 hours saw 1578 new infections. The govt and law enforcers are still confused as to what they're supposed to do. Yesterday the PM ordered pools to reopen but not gyms but his own party voted against him ... so now gyms are also reopened ... in the midst of the highest spike we've had. While in some cities the police are over zealous ... ending up in physical violence on citizens who don't wear masks. Other places like here where I live, the police couldn't care less. Dozens of arabs walk by without masks ... even some police don't wear masks themselves. The inconsistency in which the law is enforced is creating confusion and controversy among the common folk. So we expect more demonstrations pro and against the handling of the crisis and all the collateral issues.

City walls built over mountain rock

This morning climaxed the weeklong tension of some workers and their salary dispute. I was thrown into the fray to be middle man ... and it was very tough trying to negotiate between the 2 sides: employers and employees. Finally this morning we had a face to face meeting between the 2 parties, with an open discussion regarding the difficult corona situation and payment of salaries and responsibilities and working full hours instead of cutting corners. Both sides agreed there would be no lowering of salaries but workers must work the full amount of hours according to the contracts. Next step is to sign the new contracts and implement the conditions. At least tonight I can sleep in peace ... no headaches or worries now that the negotiations are over. A nice respite. I had to cancel several classes because of this affair ... now I can resume classes.

For the past week I was also visiting an old MC sister who had had an operation and was sent to the Jerusalem community to recuperate. I taught the younger sisters how to do basic reflexology  and now after 5 days the old sister is able to walk ... and without a walker too! I'm glad she's recovering.

I've run out of bread. But I managed to find lemon/lime marmalade last week. I miss that very much. The now defunked Robertson company of jams used to make marvellous lemon/lime marmalade which I really like. Well that's my little consolation after mediating the legal situation.