Jordan River

Was down the couple of days with diarrhea again ... and a several severe cramps. Didn't like it at all. I've been monitoring my eating habits: I eat an average of one full meal in every 2 days. That's an improvement from 1 full meal once a week ... no wonder I have ulcers in my stomach. Ugo our seminarian who hasn't seen me in a month said I have gone even thinner than he last saw me. I was wondering about that too, because the shirts that I used to wear that were tight or fitting have become terrible loose this week. In fact I had 5 of them altered otherwise it looked as if I was wearing gunny-sacks. Same with my jeans - gone down a further 2 sizes. Tha'er my friend keeps saying "Eat more" each time I see him. But he's built like Shrek ... so I'm not taking him seriously!

Also down is the temperature! The nights  here have fallen to as low as 11 degrees. Today a very cold wind was blowing and everyone was wearing jackets and pullovers. But an hour's ride away in Tel Aviv, people were still in shorts and T-shirts! What a contrast.

Amazing crowds of tourists have returned. The roads of the Old City were jampacked with them. But you can see Europeans were noticeably absent. The Euro crisis is biting in. Tourists who come are either asians or Latin Americans.

The earthquake in Turkey is the talk about town - now that Gadaffi is dead. Fantastic miracle stories about survivors. But floods in so many countries; yesterday we saw news about the deluge in Ireland and Italy, not to forget Thailand. And only last year we saw widespread drought. What is God telling us?

Another prisoner swap - this time with Egypt and Israel: 28 egyptians for 1 Israeli-American. Talk about town is that this will only encourage terrorists who capture more Israelis.

Today is the annual pilgrimage to the Jordan River. Lots of locals and clergy went down to the Qasr el Yehud, the traditional site of Christ's baptism for the solemn Mass presided by the Custos. Will show you some photos when I find them online.

Black Monday

The situation in Jerusalem worsens after the fatal stabbing yesterday. Today the police have raised the terror alert in Jerusalem. Lots of tensions. http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/israel-police-on-alert-in-jerusalem-fearing-terror-attack-1.391728

And its been revealed that the personal information of the 6 million population of Israel taken in the 2006 census had been stolen and uploaded on the Internet. Horrors!!! http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/authorities-find-source-that-leaked-every-israeli-s-personal-information-online-1.391714

An another medical strike is called today ... http://www.jpost.com/NationalNews/Article.aspx?id=242925

A bleak day - cold, clammy, cloudy, grey. Reflecting the mood of the country. And I had been suffering another bout of diarrhea today ... spent most of the day in bed. Went out in the afternoon to buy medicine.

So to brighten up the spirits, here's a photo of our cacti in blossom. Strange that it should blossom so late in autumn ... perhaps it's a sign of hope for us.

Poor harvest

Small boy up the tree

The changing weather has made us a little sick ... cold yet sunny. You never know what to wear ... it's either too much or too little. But it makes good weather for the olive harvest. I saw a poor arab family harvesting olives from trees in the public park ... that's how poor they are ... they don't have their own olive trees to harvest. The crop wasn't much ... small olives with little oil but I guess for the poor family, it's a bonus.  It was a sad sight - that families have been reduced to harvesting fruit from a public park just to see through the rest of the year. I was happy though that the police did not stop them.

Dad holds the ladder

A meagre harvest of small olives

Adventure

The day began bad - a fatal stabbing of a Jewish guy in the Ramot quarter north of Jerusalem. The criminal is suspected to be an arab. http://www.jpost.com/DiplomacyAndPolitics/Article.aspx?id=242741

Had quite an adventure this afternoon. Went to visit a couple of friends living outside Jerusalem. They came to pick me up and drove about half an hour before reaching their beautiful home way out in a neighbourhood in the Judean desert. Absolutely charming house, good taste. When it was time to go home, they dropped me off at the bus stop just outside the neighbourhood. I've not taken a bus since the first Intifada 18 years ago ... so I was nervous. There was a soldier waiting at the bus-stop so I asked which bus goes to jerusalem. He told me to follow him as he was going the same way. After a half hour wait in the freezing cold of the desert, the sun had set, the 292 bus came. He told me to get on with him. Imagine my shock when I entered and found out it was an ultra-orthodox Jewish bus. Men sit in the front, women at the back. After wandering through Beit Tsafafa, Malha, Gilo I thought I was pretty lost. The soldier got off somewhere in the Jerusalem neighbourhood and told me to get off at the final bus station. But other orthodox men - very friendly - told me to get off earlier and change buses no.72. They spoke yiddish and hebrew and poor me had to struggle with my german and few hebrew to communicate. Got off at the bus stop as they suggested and found out I was in the ultra-orthodox neighbourhood of Mea Shearim ... but I couldn't recognise which part was it. In the freezing cold and dark, I decided to flag down the first taxi. The taxi driver asked for 30 shekels in hebrew and started chatting up in hebrew. Once again I had to struggle with my little hebrew until he turned on the arab radio. Then I found out he was arabic and we started chatting in arabic. Then I felt better.

Well it was quite an afternoon. Saw alot of Judea that I never saw, local life, getting lost in the ultra-orthodox quarter and finally coming home tired but happy.

A handful of French

The weather has been getting cooler by the day. Last night it dropped to 16 degrees. Had to put on winter stuff to keep warm.

Yesterday spent a bit of the afternoon at my friend Souhaib's phone shop. He always makes me sit in his shop for a drink while he busily serves hundreds of clients. Souhaib lost 13 kg in 1 month ... same symptoms like me: nausea, vomitting and diarrhea. His diagnosis at Hadassa Hospital is "viral infection". Also went to the tailors to repair some shirts after that.

Tourists come back to Israel, but you can see the effects of the economic crisis in Europe. Other than the handful of French, all other groups are asian - Indians, Indonesians, Japanese, Koreans, Chinese, Singaporeans. Asia still has the money.

Just back from a private birthday party - Khalil our cook is 40 today. It was a family affair and I was the only non-family member to be invited. Since Khalil and his wife are chefs, you can imagine the fine food we had. The entrecote was superb. And his wife made the best tiramisu I ever tasted .. honestly!

Last night the former Custos Fr G. Battistelli died. R.I.P.

A note in inform all you good people that this academic year (2011-2012), your donations for sponsorship of priests/religious/laity go the 3 students studying for the MA in Biblical Studies here in Jerusalem: 1 from Mainland China, 1 from Mexico and 1 from Italy. Through your goodness they will be able to study another year and when they earn their MAs, they will be an asset to Bible teaching in their own countries. Through your donations, you have become part of spreading God's Word to the world. Donations meant for other sponsorships of local students will soon be posted in http://holylandassist.blogspot.com

Simchat Torah

The feast of the giving of the Torah began last night. Jewish yeshivas were filled with joy (simchat) through songs and dances while the Torah was carried and passed from person to person. In ultra-orthodox quarters, the streets were segregated by gender. http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/israel-high-court-upholds-ban-on-sukkot-gender-segregation-in-jerusalem-1.390265  The High Court will ban this segregation next year, though I doubt it will be effective. In ancient times, the drawing of water by the High Priest from the Pool of Siloam took place, the water being offered at the altar of the Temple and prayers said for rain. Usually it would then rain as a sign of God's blessing ... but today the sun is shining brightly.

And here is a video of the Priestly Blessing at the Wailing Wall on Sukkot. Too bad I missed it this year. The Hazzan (cantor) sings a verse and the priests repeat after him. At the end of each verse the people respond with Amen. The priests cover themselves with their tallit (prayer shawls) while extending their hands to do the blessing.

Last day of Sukkot

A rather subdued day after the wild celebrations of the release of Schalit and the Palestinian prisoners. Military presence is till tight around the City and roads that lead to it. Today being the last day of Sukkot, many Jews go to the Wailing Wall to pray and wave the 4 species in prayer (Citrus fruit, willow branch, Palm branch and myrtle branch). The tents or booths they erected will be pulled down tomorrow. But tomorrow marks another feast - Simchat Torah - the joy of the Torah. Tonight they will bring out the Torah scrolls and dance, and they will include gentiles to join in as well. On this last day of Sukkot, 2000 years ago when there was the Temple, the High Priest would offer a sacrifice of water drawn form the Siloam Pool. Prayers are then said for rain in winter.

The weather is getting very cool now. Wearing a jacket or pullover in the evenings is a must. Winter has set in. We await the rains.