Local feast

 

Armenian liturgy at the
Empty Tomb

The heat continues to beat down on us, despite the cool nights. It's definitely the summer feel. Wish I were at the beach, walking down Rothschild Boulevard, eating Thai food .... but I have to wait for a volunteer to come from Italy so i can teach her what to do. Then I'm free to enjoy whatever I can for summer. But until she comes, it'll be work as usual.

I found out that an imbalanced bacterial content in my gut could be the cause of my IBS and asthma and allergies of all kinds. The doc put me on Probiotics. I sure hope it helps. Even the students here are saying I look exhausted and need to rest. And I feel like it too. The whole body aches.

Violence continue to plague the country, with gangland killings. The situation is frightening people in some cities, and don't dare to go out. And with the high inflation that's going out of control, even more people don't want to go out. Everything costs ... and costs alot.

Meantime the newspapers report that 5,600 vacancies as teachers are unfilled in the country. There's a big shortage. I don't know how this shortage can be resolved in the next years. Because of salary disputes, teachers have also gone on strike. The kids may think its fun not to have school but it'll be to their loss.

Today's the feast of St. James, who's supposed to be buried here in the Armenian Cathedral of Jerusalem. It's a big feast for the other Orthodox Churches and Catholics too. That's because he's remembered as the first bishop of Jerusalem. But in the midst of this festivities, a solemn mourning is taking place in the Syrian Orthodox Church. Their bishop, only 52 yrs old, suddenly died in hospital the day before. The funeral was yesterday.  In less than 3 years the Syrians have lost another bishop. RIP