Chicken rice and physiotherapy

Oriental rite priests in our community

I was back to see my physiotherapist because my right shoulder, neck and left ankle have become unbearably painful. It's a perennial problem as I must sleep on my right side due to the perforated diaphragm on the left. But sleeping on the right side has left my right shoulder and neck out of place. So my physiotherapist came and did a session plus taping me up with kinesio tape. It feels a bit better especially the ankle as it's now bound up, keeping it stable.

Well going to see the physio isn't all that bad because I get to spend a day in our Jaffa community. It's always great to be there, by the beach with fresh sea breeze blowing 24/7. I could sleep for several hours. And Mass was fun because all 3 priests celebrating are from the oriental rites: byzantine, ethiopic and syro-malabar. The Mass of course was the Latin rite ... which is very different from their rites so there were lots of awkward moments ... but that's unity in diversity. I rather liked that.

Chicken rice

Today one of the oriental rite priests celebrated his 38 birthday. He's byzantine Ukrainian rite. We got him a birthday cake and I cooked lunch. Hainanese chicken rice! Really yummy. Nothing was left. I also brought homemade chinese dumplings by our Chinese sisters. Everyone enjoyed it. I also gave some to my friend Rudy who runs a stall outside our church. He brought his 8 yr old son along and they liked my food. Well all in all I had to cook for 12 people so it was a large amount of chicken and rice to cook. It took me 2 full hours. The chicken is not as pink as you see in the photo. Well that was my good deed for the day ... feed the community on Patrick's birthday.

On the national front, the war in the north has forced refugees to the Israeli border. Israel cannot take them in without risking ISIS members hiding among them. Close the borders for security. But don't stop the medical aid. It's humanitarian.  https://www.timesofisrael.com/dozens-of-syrians-mass-at-border-apparently-asking-israel-for-help/

Bye bye Sr. Philomena

Sr. Philomena with
my gifts

Sr. Philomena, our sister in charge of our kitchen, is leaving tomorrow for India. After falling and fracturing her leg, she is calling it a day and retiring to India after 1 year's service. She's the 2nd sister to return. Sr. Annie left 4 months ago with problems in the right arm. She was unable to work further. Now Sr. Klara is left and were waiting for other sisters to come and replace Philomela and Annie. Sr. Philomela is always the one concerned with my meals ... and she is very insistent when she wants me to eat. There's no saying "no". She always leaves some food in the fridge for me (unless someone got to it first) so when I return home late from work, I have food to eat. Leftovers are never thrown away but she packs them and I bring them to the poor. This morning I gave her an olive seedling and a cross with the relic of Mt. Calvary. She was very happy ... well she cried. All the best to her.

Back on the national level, football fever seized everyone. For one month, orthodox and secular jews, arabs and israelis, people of different religions and nationalities were all glued around the TV or screens in the restaurants and pubs. An FB comment said it was sad that only football could unite everyone while nothing else could.

And the 4th time a warning in the news about the impending giant earthquake ... and how Israel is not ready for it. Well I can only say Palestine is even less ready. What a disaster. Everyone now is getting jittery over this.   https://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Countrys-residents-worry-about-impending-big-earthquake-562608

This Sunday will be the Jewish commemoration of Tisha B'Av or the 9th day of Av (month) which recalls the destruction of Solomon's Temple in c. 720 BC and Herod's Temple in 70 AD ... both on the same day 650 years apart. It's a day of mourning and observant jews will fast and not bathe or wear shoes. I'll be watching what my jewish security friends will be observing.

Another ordination

We nearly had a full blown war yesterday. Gaza fired some 70 rockets into Israel and Israel pounded Gaza with the fiercest bombardment since 2014. Everyone was apprehensive that a new Gaza war would start but luckily Egypt stepped in and  negotiated a ceasefire. https://www.timesofisrael.com/idf-pounds-gaza-in-widest-day-of-strikes-since-2014-war/

But in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, the mood was very relaxed. Though obviously apprehensive over Gaza in the far south, life goes on as summer dictates ... lots of events, concerts, weddings, exhibitions and festivals. It really is a wonderful place in summer ... in the whole Middle East region, I'd say. Though things are very expensive, still people enjoy life with the little that they have.

Fr. Matthew with bishop

Matthew, one of my students, was ordained in India yesterday. He's a smart guy and a very good photographer. I'm sure he learned a few things from me in my Social Communications course. Anyway he's Syro-Malabar rite so his vestments are different from the Latin rite. He'll be sent to Damascus in Syria. It's not the easiest mission but the Salesians there have a school and in this war zone they try to care for the youths ... and the priests there are all old. So he's got a big job to do. And he speaks excellent arabic.

We got another warning from the newspapers ... the 3rd time this week ... of the impending giant earthquake. We really must get ready for it ... we've been warned. And when it comes, there'll be no mercy.  https://www.timesofisrael.com/after-tremors-experts-warn-a-huge-quake-is-the-greatest-threat-facing-israel/

Classes are finally winding down for the summer ... and I've started partial aestivation already. Exhaustion just overcome me and I fall asleep by 6pm. No dinner. No worries. Yesterday afternoon I also managed a 2 hr snooze. All my body wants is to go to sleep. An entire year of work is taking its toll.

Weekend

Altar inside the Empty Tomb

Today started early ... well same time as any other day ... 4am. After making my room in order, I had to rush off to the Holy Sepulchre where I had Mass with the Jaffa expatriate community. Today they invited Fr David our Custody secretary to preside at the Mass; I concelebrated with Fr. Fabio who wanted to celebrate the 1st anniversary of his mother's death. There were some 37 expats who came for the Mass. We had Mass inside the Empty Tomb and it was a very nice dignified celebration. Remembered all of you inside there.

Then immediately after Mass I had a retreat conference to preach. By the time I arrived at the library, the sisters from Bethlehem had already arrived and waiting outside. I gave an hour's talk in Luke's gospel ... a theme that formed the series of talks for these monthly retreats for this year. August and September are summer vacation months so there will be no retreats. I do hope to have a quieter August as even my superior sees that I am breaking down. However there are bills to be paid so I'll look for some other job so as to get by the summer. Thanks to everyone for the stuff you sent up ... the food comes in really handy, the clothes are always needed and the gifts of money, which usually I give to the poor, sometimes help me to pay my medical bills. The last operation 5 weeks ago cost 7000 shekels, not counting the transport and medication.

New Hong Kong Dim Sum restaurant
in Tel Aviv

Early this morning the Israeli airforce bombed some terrorist tunnels and posts inside Gaza. The MC sisters who live inside there say it is very frightening. Later this afternoon I'll call them. Yesterday's riots at the Gaza border has ended with one 15 yr old arab boy dead and several Israeli soldiers hurt.

Another big piece of news locally ... a 9 yr old Israeli arab boy was kidnapped for 3 days. A massive search brought israeli and arab security services to work together but finally it was the mafia who settled the matter. The 2 mafia families of Jarushi and Hariri (very powerful) had their network of tentacles out into Palestine and found the boy. The boy was released without any payment of ransom ... obviously the mafia made some threats that the kidnappers could not risk to ignore. Lesson to learn: the mafia is still very powerful in our region ... and they can be a good friend as well as an archenemy. There is always a redeeming side to everyone.

Lentil soup

Friday penance:
lentil soup

It's Friday again ... lentils with broken fettuccine for lunch. Luckily I missed lunch as I was still at work. There was so much paper work to do ... I'm actually asking myself if it's at all my job to do it. I'm the director ... I should have secretaries to do all these. Maybe in a parallel world I do ... in this one, I'm stuck with all the jobs and relying only on volunteers for short periods of time.

So yes I do have some 5 volunteers here with me this 2 weeks ... lead by a prof. from the University of Milan. But they'll leave tomorrow. Last night they invited me over for home-cooked dinner at their hostel. It was very nice. There was risotto and baked chicken with dried tomatoes and basil. I brought a bottle of white wine and a bottle of champagne. It was a nice time and we chatted a lot. I'm thankful for these volunteers because without them I can't get anything done. It's a big help and the prof. brings small groups of these volunteers, mostly students, 3 or 4 times a year so the library work moves ahead.

Night panorama of the Old City

It's been quite cold these past few evenings ... even misty and wet in the mornings. From the hostel I could get a great view of the Old City that I've never seen before. But the wind was very cold si I did not stay long to enjoy the view.

Tensions rose again in the north when a syrian drone flew into Israel. The airforce acted quickly and shot it done. Things are getting very tense up there because the Syrian army is moving to the border town of Quneitra where the rebels and ISIS are entrenched. The army wants to chase them out but because it's less than one km from Israel's border, it's very possible missiles and shootings will mistakenly enter Israeli territory. Also refugees will flood the border to escape from the war. It's terrible. Nearby Israeli towns have been organising care packages for these refugees ... medicine, food, clothing.

Further in the south, Gazans have continued today to protest en masse at the border and incendiary kites flown into Israel, burning up fields in this dry heat. Here in Jerusalem, we don't want any violence and Friday passed with no incidents.

Vacation

Sunset in Jaffa

Another earthquake in the north yesterday. The Home Front agency published warnings and instructions in case a major earthquake does strike. A sister from Tiberias happened to come to Jerusalem and she described how frightened they were when their convent shook during th 4.7 earthquake during the weekend. Better safe than sorry so I'd better repack my earthquake emergency bag ... refill it with new medicines and bottles of water, test the torchlight etc...

I finally got my "vacation" ... it's 36 hours in Jaffa. I looked forward to it as it is the first break I am having. My superior had insisted that I go to rest as he could see was I becoming sick from all the work. And the heat was not helping.

My home in Jaffa ... a landmark

But don't think I was allowed to rest. Within the first 3 hours I received 5 messages asking me to solve this problem or that. The worse is the nun who starts with "I hope you're resting and enjoying your vacation ... now I have 2 problems you need to solve...". I hate such hypocrisy and selfishness.

Feeling the sea breeze blowing is so good even though it's 32 degrees. The cook asked me to do lunch today so I'm cooking Phad Kra Pao. Simple dish but I'm not sure our international community will like it. We have Indian, Ukrainian, Ethiopian, Filipino, Polish, Italian, Congolese and Mexican friars here. Very mixed taste.

An evening walk down the beach was very relaxing ... the view of the monastery from far away is very beautiful. It's a landmark in this city. Well I have only 8 hours left so I'm going back to sleep. That's what I need.

Vacation at last?

Our sisters at St. Saviour's parish

This morning was another big rush for work. I was up by 3am to prepare for class ... cleaning the room and answering emails and doing other paper work. Then it was off to work at one library and a rush to get some documents form the Italian Consulate, before going to our visa dept. to arrange for visas to be applied for our new researchers. Then I had an unexpected visit from a couple who wanted to do volunteer work whom I had to talk to. Then our 2 indian sisters came because they didn't know how to get to the Patriarchate so I had to accompany them there. They wanted to visit the retired auxiliary bishop. We made a short stop at our parish of St. Saviour which they have not seen yet. After that visit I had to talk through with them in my office for future plans of their community in Jerusalem. Then it was a meeting with a visiting professor regarding the library projects for the next 6 months. Then an unscheduled meeting with the head of another human resource dept. regarding workers. I reached home for lunch quite late ... in fact everyone had already finished eating and they waited for me as I gobbled my rice and beef in 3 minutes.

Sr. Philomena tries
to pluck some grapes

The weather has still remained oppressively hot during the day ... and running about the City this morning made me very sick. I was giddy and had chest pains and blurred eyesight. Spent some time in the afternoon resting and drinking a lot of water. Then it was work at the university library; co-ordinating work among the librarians. My superior had already twice this week told me I need to go for a vacation. Everyone else thinks so too. So tomorrow I'll go for a day to our Jaffa house to rest. That means a lot of sleep. I lack plenty of sleep. It's going to be a 24 hr vacation ... just in case you think it's a week or a month. I don't have that luxury. I'll probably be bringing Buddy and Chilli along ... it'll be a nice break for them too.

Bad news for gazans as Israel is going to close the checkpoint where goods are brought into Gaza. This is punishment for gazans flying fire kites into Israel, setting fields on fire. The funny thing is Israel is militarily way more powerful than Gaza but it cannot stop kites from flying into its territory. So now gazans are punished with no food or medicine or clothes entering the enclave.