All Souls

Sunrise at Rockefeller Park

 There was a national air-raid drill this morning and evening. It wasn't warned in the newspapers so it caused alot of consternation to people. School children opposite my house were screaming and crying as the dreadful sirens wailed throughout the country. I was in my room trying to rest after a tiring early morning ... and when the sirens sounded, I thought if it's war, I'm too tired to run and hide so let the missile come and I'll trust my luck. This drill is timed just when tensions with Syria and Lebanon are rising. Better safe than sorry.

This week it's my turn to go to the Convent of Ivrea to celebrate Mass. It's 1km away in the Zahara neighbourhood bordering the Wadi Jooz (Kidron Valley) village. It takes me a good half hour to walk there and my asthma nearly suffocates me each time. I am very exhausted when I reach there and throughout the Mass I'm wheezing and coughing. Only one consoling point going there ... I stop by Rockefeller Park to rest and breathe slowly ... and get to see the sunrise. But since we're in winter, it's mostly dark and cold. Bad for asthma.

At the cemetery

Yesterday I went to the cemetery to bless and pray at tombs of friends and workers. With my asthma it was a hard walk of over 1km. The cemetery is on a steep hillside so climbing up and down was very difficult for me especially since I was searching for Armenian Catholic Tombs to bless and pray. They have no priest for decades and many tombs are abandoned. Having served the Armenian community, I thought I could do this service for their dead. After all it's All Souls Day. I laid 100 shekels of flowers on over 60 tombs in all.