Still heatwave

We've been receiving news that the price of wheat in Egypt is rising (doubly or more) because Russia has stopped selling wheat to Egypt. That means a 60% drop of supply. The poor people will not afford to buy bread. This has caused unrest and demonstrations in the cities and towns. I'm wondering how the poor children in Musky are doing in this situation.

The heat is still beating down on us. Although its cooler than last week, it is still pretty severe. This morning water was cut from our house. Not a good sign.

My ankle and knee is giving big problems these days. The pain is awful. But resting is out of the question.

Yesterday was the feastday of St Clare of Assisi. The Patriarch celebrated Mass at the Poor Clare monastery near Jerusalem. Grand affair. The nuns there pray everyday as they are a cloistered order.

Mother Nature

These few days we've been watching with awe and horror at the power of Nature. Heatwaves and fires in Russia and the Middle East; floods from China, Pakistan to Europe. Extreme clashes. What the West could not do in dispersing Taliban from the Swat Valley, Nature did it in one day ... wiped out the entire area with floods and landslides. We've been discussing this phenomenon with regards to the Book of Revelation. It's a frightening apocalytic scene unfolding before us .... and still people go on buying and selling like nothing is happening ... just like in the time of Noah when the floods came.

The weather on our side is unrelentlessly hot. 40 degrees and above. Don't know how much more we can take as forest fires are breaking out in the south.

Nature is in fury ... as the wisdom books would say.

Mental exhaustion

Yesterday was Transfiguration Day. As usual the arab christians from Nazareth hiked up Mt. Tabor and stayed overnight, feasting and singing the night through. The heat was unbearable though, and the basilica was terribly stuffy with hundreds of people squeezed inside ... and no windows.

The heat is still unrelenting. 44 degrees yesterday and today. People try to stay in the shade - elderly and children are warned not to go out. But there's still many people walking around as if nothing was wrong.

I was terribly dizzy yesterday. But I had extra work to do in the Holy Sepulchre as there were no enough people to make the procession and I was asked to help. Nearly fainted twice in the suffocating heat. Luckily there were a couple of visiting friends and Sr Maria who accompanied me home. Felt really sick. Maybe also exhaustion ... have been overworking to clear up my work this week. This week has been so very stressful. And I didn't even have one day to rest and recover from last week .... what with all the lessons etc.... and the awful heat that made everyone here sleepless.

Anyway once home, I asked Sr Maria to help me deliver 6 bags of medicine to Mother Theresa's sisters, all donated by you. on my way home, dizzy and sick, i got stuck in arab/israeli fight in the streets. Some 50 arabs started shouting and pushing Israeli soldiers because of something or other. It got pretty violent. I managed to squeeze around the fight to get home, got pushed over along the way though but wasn't hurt.

At the shop near my house, I wanted to buy a cold drink from the owner and saw he had ice almond drink. That's the typical drink locals make for Ramadan. There're different types on sale in the streets - almond, tamarind, karob are the most common. I love the almond. It's syrupy (there goes my diabetes) and iced and you let it melt before you drink it. Soooo good in this heatwave.

This morning started to clear up my work again ... but alot slower. Too weak and tired and dizzy. And tomorrow begins another nightmare. I'm just not up to it. Everyone here thinks I'm in for a breakdown ... haggard, lack of sleep, not eating. I think so too.

No comment

Israeli police say it was a staged ploy. Palestinians say it's spontaneous.

War?

Rising concern as at 4pm we received news that Israel and Lebanon has exchanged fire - 6 dead and many wounded. Though many think it will not escalate, the proximity of Ramadan next week may serve as a flash in the pan to worsen the situation. Today's cross fire comes after yesterday's rocket attack into Eilat and Aqaba.

And the weather is not faring any better. The heatwave from the Saudi desert will continue to blow into Israel for the next week ..... terrible. The news reports that surprisingly the hottest city in Israel is not Eilat (by the Red Sea) as expected but Tiberias (north by the Lake of Galilee)! The joke going around is "If I knew how hot it would be, I'd have gone to Eilat to cool off" - Eilat being the hottest city in the country till this week.

It's so hot even the canaries refuse to brood. All have left their nests and abandoned the eggs. It's simply too hot. Today was 40 degrees again. Poor Mr. Fish refuses to eat. I might have to put an ice cube into his tank to cool him off. The sisters in our convent have gone to buy a standing electric fan to cool off. My room is like an oven - insufferably suffocatingly hot. My small electric fan isn't much of a help. Opening the windows brings in the mosquitoes - I was bitten over 14 times all over last night. And the muezzin wakes you up at 3.30am with his prayers.

A long summer this will be .....

St Mary of the Angels

The heatwave is still on and in Israel one million chickens have died. That's not as bad as this morning when some mysterious rockets hit Eilat and Aqaba, and killed some people. No one seems to know where they came from ... some speculate Sinai but Egypt has denied this.

The streets in the muslim quarter are all lighted up and ready for Ramadan. It will be tough for us living in that quarter because as with every year, the muslims will not allow us to eat or drink in the streets. We're expecting trouble as those ruffians across our street have been warning us to watch out during Ramadan.

Today is the feast of St Mary of the Angels. You get an indulgence if you go to any church dedicated to St Mary of the Angels, and I believe this indulgence is also extended to all franciscan churches. 

Heatwave

The weather has become intolerably hot again - yesterday and today it was 40 degrees and above. But crowds of muslims are still flocking the streets. Ramadan is a week away and people are come in huge crowds to the Al Aqsa Mosque for prayers. New muezzins are coming into town to chant koran verses - especially at 3am and 9.30pm.

Strange but in this hot weather, we're having great fruit - watermelons, honeydew, mangoes and passionfruit. They sell the passionfruit in plastic boxes (about 20 in each) for 10 shekels. They are refreshingly nice but really too small to quench any thirst. I've never tasted one till someone offered it to me.

The Israel Museum has re-opened after a 3 year closure for renovation. It looks fantastic from the pictures in the newspapers. Hope i can spend a day enjoying it next week or something.

Meantime an article in the newspapers caught my eye - a 6 hour eating marathon of exotic kosher cuisine that has long been lost in the Jewish culinary tradition. It includes swordfish, locusts, peacocks, water buffalo, fried cow's udders. http://www.haaretz.com/jewish-world/locusts-swordfish-and-doves-all-the-fixings-for-a-gourmet-kosher-meal-1.304789