Holiday

Doves on the wall

 It's Independence Day today. A public holiday. I usually would go to Jaffa and watch the military flypast. Covid had cancelled the last 2 years' parade. But today I have class ... so I cannot go to Jaffa. Disappointed. But the planes will fly paJerusalem at 11.38am .... so I might get to hear it.

Jews are again allowed to enter the Al Aqsa Mosque compound today after a 5 day freeze fo the end of Ramadan celebrations. Just now we could here stun grenades being fired ... which means Jews have entered the compound and Arabs are rioting against it. I hope it won't spill into our streets. It could get very nasty.

The weather has suddenly turned cold again. 13 degrees now. It was almost 30 degrees yesterday afternoon but in the evening it started to drizzle and the wind was very strong. Temperatures dropped and this morning, it was cold enough for people to be out wearing jackets and sweaters.  I won't be surprised if many people fall sick this week. The turtledoves were all lined up on our wall this morning waiting for food. I feed them every morning and when it's cold like today, they huddle and wait to be fed. Otherwise when it's warm they will fly off and look for food outside. Many have built nests around our courtyard. It's good to know their numbers are growing.

An elderly guest priest in our community is dangerously ill with Covid due to the outbreak in my house. Still there are stubborn selfish people here who continue to go about even though they show symptoms and refuse to be tested. I heard another nun in our neighbourhood is also very ill with Covid. The fact is that over 2000 new infections are being recorded everyday but many people think it's over. That's recipe for another major outbreak.