Talk

Eli the Scribe

A new week has begun. It's a full moon tonight and I want to snap a photo of it over Damascus Gate ... we'll see if I can do it tonight. It looked already fantastic yesterday night from my window.

Yesterday was another busy day. I organized a morning conference with local religious to meet with Eli, a jewish scribe. He demonstrated the tools of his trade and showed how a scroll is written by hand. Very interesting. Everyone liked it. It's a summer thing that I do for the local religious who don't go on home leave. It's a tiring hot summer with daily routine ... no break for them in the kitchen or hospital. So I provide little moments like this to refresh them and get them out of the house for half a day. Next month I think I'll get the group to go out and visit some nearby villages ... provided there's no war. These outlying villages can be hot spots for violence as the past decades have seen. And that's why nobody goes to visit them ... abandoning the memories of Old Testament events that took place there.

I'm being eaten alive by cat fleas. It's the 3rd time this week I've been to the pharmacy and they've given a stronger medicine each time. Why can't we have summer without cat fleas?

Weekend

MC sisters receiving
donations

It's the weekend again. The weather has been much more agreeable; hot with cool breeze during the day. Many trees and especially roses are recuperating from the past severe heat but sprouting new leaves and branches. That's a good sign that there's sufficient moisture during the night to enable sprouting.

Financial woes grow among the poor who have no jobs because tourists are not coming in sufficient numbers to make a difference. There are many requests from parents asking for help to sponsor their children for the new academic year that starts in September. Families are forced to reduce their daily expenditure, so cannot even afford clothes or food, let alone electric and water bills. We've been working hard to gather donations from parishes and distributing them to the poor through the help of the MC sisters.

My memory has been pretty fogged recently. Yesterday I totally lost all consciousness of time. Didn't know what day it was or why I went to a certain office. It was terribly confusing. I noticed that this happens whenever I change medicines or when I'm stressed. I'm just afraid I may get lost in the streets when it happens. Yesterday I thought I contracted covid again: fever, sore throat, running nose, diarrhea. I took lots of lemon juice, vitamin C, panadol and sunshine all morning. In the late afternoon I left much better. Today no signs of covid ... so I guess it was "just" a cold.

I noticed that the autumn equinox falls on Sept 22 and mid-autumn festival on the 19th. That's about a month's time. The year has passed very quickly. Soon it'll be Christmas again.

Almost Autumn

Sunrise over Damascus Gate

As we edge toward Autumn, the sunrises and sunsets become spectacular. My morning walks to work are an opportunity to see the crisp late summer sky burst into bright sunshine over the City walls. Sunrise is getting later now ... at 4.15am (3.15am solar time) and the muezzin's first call to prayer is just about that time.

Morning walks to work also let me see the early birds - crows, mynahs, sparrows, lots of pigeons and a couple of bulbuls finding food in the grass covered in dew. Leftover bread and other food are snatched and fought over by crows. They're very noisy and are quite a pest.

Sunrise on Via Dolorosa

The afternoons are still quite hot and sticky as humidity is high. But the nights are significantly cooler. We're hoping it'll rain and snow this year. We didn't have both last winter and the land is parched and we're almost back to drought mode.

Tensions continue to be high. The expected missile attacks did not happen. Thank God for all the prayers. Still it's no guarantee it won't come in the near future. Clashes occurred throughout the night and day in our streets. And I hear in other towns as well. Arabs and christians being attacked. Property vandalized. 

Exhausted

Praying

I have never felt so tired as I did last Saturday. I had to celebrate 4 Masses in 3 cities, covering 300km. I know there're some chaplains who travel even further, like to Eilat 500km away in the desert just to celebrate one Mass and return the same day. But I'm the 2nd oldest chaplain among them and traveling is very difficult for me. And especially when it's a Saturday which is Sabbath and there're are no public transport.

There were practically no tourists and pilgrims in the usually packed churches of Jaffa and Tel Aviv. Only migrant workers coming for Sunday Mass. There was a touching scene when I waited at St. Peter's Church in Jaffa for the gate to open, when a foreign worker rode to the closed gate and knelt down to pray. Most churches close their doors as there are no visitors. They open only 5 minutes before Mass and close immediately after the end of Mass. There's no money to hire doormen and receptionists, so priests keep the doors closed for safety. Poverty has driven many locals to steal and rob.

St. Peter's Church

Well I started at 6am and came home at 11pm ... 17 hours on the road and celebrating Masses and hearing confessions. Then I had to walk half a km home carrying all my stuff. The feet hurt so much and I was bleeding in the toes. And I hadn't eaten at all. It was too much. I hope I won't have to do this again. And when I reached my front gate, I found out I left my keys with the Chinese sisters ... so I had to walk 1km uphill to their convent, wake them up and get the keys. and walk back home another 1km. It was very trying and I almost gave up ... just sat on the curb of Damascus Gate and couldn't move an inch.

Unfortunately most priests have left for summer vacation or to escape the tense climate in our region. Those of us left behind try to serve in their places as much as we can. I am thankful I did not lose my memory and got lost somewhere in the streets at midnight.

Cats

My pet peeve of summer is getting bitten by cat ticks. The hot weather encourages ticks to spread and in the City there're lots of cat-women who go around feeding strays in the streets. That encourages ticks in certain parts of the street where food is laid out for cats. I have to walk pass several everyday to and from work and I get terribly bitten. Red spots that itch terribly around the feet and lower legs. I went to the pharmacy yesterday to buy medicine for it.

Our kittens

Well we also have our own cats in the house. But they're clean as much as we can try to keep them. Our female cat has 3 kittens. They're very playful and run to me every morning and evening when I feed them. They live behind our sacristy and keep the rats away. The rats here are larger than the kittens. Soon I'll have to remove the kittens as we can't keep so many in the house.

Work is continuing on our terrace above the rooms. Each day I come home from work, expecting more cracks and dust allover my bed and table. I have to hide my computer under my pillows and blankets so that if the roof collapses, it won't break my computer.

So much stress. This summer is no fun.

Disaster

Empty streets

It's the feast of the Transfiguration today. Mt Tabor will be crowded with local pilgrims. It's a local tradition to pitch a tent up on the mount and stay there for a couple of days till the feast ends with Mass. It's a vacation for most christians who cannot afford to leave the country, or do not have passports to leave. Those who spent a couple of days up on the mount will have barbecues in the forest, and lots of songs and prayers. Solemn Mass will be celebrated on the high altar inside the basilica. The Mass ends with a procession to the chapel of the Descent about 100 meters away from the basilica, where the Custos will give the final blessing. That chapel recalls the disciples going down the mount with Jesus, discussing what the transfiguration meant.

empty street

Meantime the rest of the country is tense and waiting for a barrage of missiles from neighbouring countries. Streets are less busy and crowded than usual. Police are everywhere in force. Everyone is on alert mode. Though we would very much want things to be back to normal, reality is more complex. We can only wait and see.

And would you believe it? The workers repairing the terrace above our rooms actually drilled a hole into one of the rooms below because he was distracted chatting!!! That's the price to pay for not having someone supervise the work. Everyone has gone on holidays and left workers from a distant village to handle this major project. Now it'll cost more to repair the hole ... and another week of work to add. Disaster.

Rexy

Rexy

Last Saturday was a great day as I had Rexy again to babysit. The 1 year old Pomeranian is very playful but after a few rounds of catch-and-chase around the tables, he'd get tired and go to sleep.

He's a fussy eater ... only kibble and chicken meat without bones. He doesn't know how to chew bones. And he's very clean ... only pees when I bring him out. I brushed his thick coat as it's pretty matted. His owner has no time to do that. Once his coat is free and fluffy he rounds around the carpet and rubs himself down. And he doesn't bark or whine or make any sound at all. I think I'm going to need him every Saturday now!! He's such a great companion for the weekend.

Meantime the weather continues to be sweltering hot. It's August so I guess it's normal for now. However there are workers on our terrace removing the old bitumen and replacing it with a new layer so that in winter, water does not leak into our rooms. Except that the workers made things worse by drilling the terrace floor right through and made a hole into one of our bedrooms below. Now that's negligence. That's the price to pay when there's no one to supervise the workers. My room is covered with dust and the poor birds are spooked by the drilling. They've lost alot of feathers as a result and hide in the toilet all day.