Sahlab

Sahlab with rose syrup

My "cold" is back. Runny nose, congested head, bleeding nose, fever all night. I could hardly sleep. It's a little warmer in the nights ... 9 degrees. I just felt very ill.

At 3am I heard a series of muffled noises ... far away. At first I thought it was thunder but it was too regular. It sounded more like explosions. But I was feeling sick and the sounds were far away. I couldn't confirm what it actually was. Still it's disturbing and sad to know that war is everywhere around us. Senseless hatred and suffering. Innocent lives lost. Irreparable damage to body and soul. I am psychologically and emotionally exhausted from it. I help many calls for aid, those affected directly and indirectly by the war. I am not numb to the stories of suffering ... I'm exhausted from hearing the same things that no one in the world who has the power to stop it, will stop it. The news reports of blatant violence that goes unchallenged. The hypocrisy of Biden this morning saying people have a right to peace, when he armed the war to kill almost half a million people. He should be excommunicated. He should be buried outside any christian church. A disgrace to the Catholic Church.

I'm just feeling to sick to think about anything right now. My head is stuffed. I'm thinking only of a hot glass of sahlab to warm my sick body. I had sahlab last week ... a winter treat that originated from the turks during the Ottoman empire. But I added rose syrup ... something that was done 30 years ago but not nowadays. You can't buy rose syrup here anymore. I got mine from Singapore.

Unwell

I felt very sick yesterday ... like I caught a virus. I had the chills, runny nose and a very bad sore throat. I was afraid it was the new virus that has symptoms of the flu. My heart situation is really bad right now and if I have the virus as well, it's game over. I tried to keep warm all day though I was shivering. And then I had a very high fever that subsided in half an hour.

Last night I tried to sleep and keep warm. This morning I feel better. The fever didn't come back and the runny nose stopped. I only have the sore throat. Not the best feeling.

I'll go home and sleep early today after class. 

Our Kawas who lead
processions of the
Custos of the Holy Land

Rain

 It rained all of Friday night and the whole Saturday saw lots of drizzle, the rains resumed in the night. And it was cold. People say there'll be heavy snow this year. I'm a sceptic. With so few rainy days I don't see how the formation of snow and graupel can take place. Still strange things do take place in this country.

Konkani Mass

Fortunately I had work in other cities yesterday, celebrating Masses for different migrant communities in Jaffa, Tel Aviv and Herzliya. It was very tiring traveling back and forth for over 6 km. But I made it safely through the cold and rain shuttling from one city to another.

The Konkani Masses were crowded despite the weather. Pastoral experience with them is very rewarding. The migrant catholics outnumber local catholics by almost 3 to 1. 

Briyani and yoghurt

The Konkani community prepared briyani and spicy cucumber yoghurt. It was fantastic comfort food after a long day's work on a very cold and wet day. I must say these might communities take good care of their chaplains. They themselves have only one day vacation a week yet they spend time cooking for their chaplains and coming to Mass which takes one hour, but traveling may take up to 2 hours because it's the Sabbath and there are no public transport. They have to travel by private taxis and minibuses that charge double on Sabbath.

Over

Musrara market

Christmas season is almost over. It wasn't very festive, given the situation we're in. But this year at least we had a couple of Christmas trees. Still the entire Christian Quarter of the Old City had no public decorations nor events. It's sad. 

But we're ready to face the rest of the liturgical season ... Lent coming soon on March 5th (Ash Wednesday). We're praying that peace returns so we can celebrate Easter joyfully and publicly.

The weather seems to match our mood. It's cold and damp though we've not had rain the past week. The dew is so heavy that even at 5pm in the evening the streets are already wet and slippery. These few nights it's been so cold even my little heater isn't enough. I couldn't sleep as a result. The cold air also affects my throat so I cough a lot. So are many people. The problem is we can't tell the difference if it's due to the cold or if it's the latest epidemic. I'm very cautious when I go through crowds as I'm very weak as it is. If I catch the virus, for sure the end for me.

Musrara market

We've been hearing occasional explosions in the night ... 2 or 3am .... It's far away but it's a constant reminder of our precarious situation. People go out for necessities, but not for leisure. I noticed the Musrara open market is a lot quieter than usual. The stuff there costs more, and there are fewer buyers. Being winter, the sky gets dark by 4.30pm. It adds to the gloom.

One thing though ... the lack of local shoppers is made up by the rise of migrant workers. A lot more indians, filipnos and chinese buying basic foodstuff. The local economic trend is over. A new demographic has taken over.

2nd week

Empty streets on normal day

There are a lot less traffic and people in the streets than before the war. It's very noticeable. And it's not just on the weekends. Except for rush hour like 3.30pm and 7am, the roads are generally down by 15-20 %. It reflects the sad and fearful environment we're enveloped in. We're hoping the new year will bring a change .... hope is the only thing we have left. 

And hope happens to be the theme of this Holy Year. It resonates here in our region. Catholics are seriously celebrating the Holy Year with events, prayers and study sessions. We can make a difference. We can make a change. We may be a minority within a minority - Latin catholics are significantly less than Greek catholics - but hope inspires us to lead the way in bring in peace back to our world.

Qatayef & suganiot

Several friends flew over  to spend Christmas and the New Year here. Yes tourists and pilgrims can come freely. They had a nice time celebrating Christmas in Bethlehem. I met up with them for a couple of days, giving them talks. The rest of the week they were traveling around the country visiting churches. They leave today. Yesterday I bought some qatayef (arab pancakes with cheese or walnuts) and sufganiot (jewish donuts) for them to try. It was a nice ending to their visit ... a taste of the local cuisine both arab and jewish. That's a start for peace ... start with food ... on this 2nd week of 2025.

New week

Heavy rain

The few nights of the new year were dramatic. Missile alert sirens at 4am followed by explosions. I was already awake doing work when I heard the sirens. It was in south Jerusalem but debris can land as far as here in central Jerusalem. And debris is not small bits of metal but tonnes of rocket fuselage that can destroy houses. We have no bunkers to hide .... all old buildings don't have bunkers. So I waited it out under my table. It's the only thing I can take cover in. Everyone else was asleep and didn't know the better.

For the new few nights, I slept intermittently ... waiting for more sirens. There were a few more in the coastal west of the country. No injuries so far except for shock.

Heavy rain

The rains had stopped after 2 days. At times it was heavy but mostly it remained as a drizzle. It was good as the land is saturated with water after a long drought. But still it's not quite enough for Spring plants to sprout. The hills continue to be brown and no signs of anemones or wild mustard. We're hoping more rains will come ... even snow ... but the forecast for next week is sun. 

And we thought that after the rains it would be warmer. On the contrary it's a lot colder now than when it rained. 

And that's how the new year came in .... 

New Year

Reset to zero

The New Year came in quietly here ... neither jews nor muslims follow the Gregorian calendar. They follow the lunar calendar and their new years begin in autumn. Still at midnight, some fireworks were set off in Sultan's Pool 1.5km away. It's something the Municipality has been doing for some 30 years now since Mayor Teddy Kolleck introduced it. Last year there was no fireworks because of the war. And fireworks are expensive so the pyrotechnic show lasted less than one minute. Still it brought a little festivity to us in the midst of war and a very subdued Christmas.

I concelebrated Mass last night, with some of the migrant chaplains at the Rosary Sisters chapel where the filipino community gathers. There were 3 other chaplains plus the patriarchal vicar for migrants. The choir was vivacious as usual, with lots of christmas carols.  Mass ended at 10.30pm.

Mass at the
Rosary chapel

I had a hard time walking to the chapel in the rain. It has rained for 2 days now and very cold. My heart cannot take the strain of walking uphill anymore. I had to stop many times to rest. I'm feeling so old and tired, yet I see people older than I am more fit and healthy.

I came home just 14 minutes to midnight. It takes me one hour to walk 2km home. Managed to captured the time on my phone. It was like resetting your computer back to the start. Begin again. I just hope 2025 will not be as disastrous as 2024 was. It's the Holy Year of Hope ... and 2025 should give us reason and result of it.