April 4th

So it's 49 today ... nothing special really except that the body is giving signals to slow down: bones ache, hard of hearing, slower reflexes ....

Tom Yam at Thai House

Last evening some friends and friars from Tel Aviv invited me over for dinner at Thai House. As usual it was fabulous food and fantastic company. Had Tom Yam, Pad Thai, Pad Si-iew, papaya salad ... and besides that, my good friend Tal was waitering that evening. Good to see him again after a long spell. Beverly my US-filipina friend gave me a delicious box of Northwestern smoked Salmon - love it!! Took the shurut (mini-bus) back to Jerusalem with another friend and former schoolmate who flew in from England. We were both exhausted by the trip and full-stomachs of good food.

Nuns and the cake

This morning the sisters of Mother Teresa baked me a cake. It was very nice. Shared half with the guys working in the library, and the other half with the staff in the kitchen. Also bought some pizzas to share around. The sisters and staff in our kitchen had forgotten it was my birthday. Oh well, with all the rush this Holy Week to cook up lots of meals for guests coming to the special Masses, it's no wonder.

Still had to do some work during the day as the backlog is building up. But my elbows are killing me. The pain is excruciating and I can't work with it ... can't even sleep properly. Part of aging I guess.

Holy Tuesday

Today solemn mass was celebrated at our place with lots of people ... to commemorate the Passion of Christ. The narrative from John was sung as the gospel in 3 voices. Meantime endless groups from local parishes and tourists are coming to make the Way of the Cross. Total chaos in the streets. There's hardly any space to walk.

One good news is my best friend Vasile is back! He's here for a month to finish his thesis, while doing studying for another MA in Durham U. (England) and has been accepted by Oxford for his PhD. I'm so glad for him. Too bad his wife Maria couldn't come along. They just got married half a year back.

Echium at last!

Yesterday I had to accompany Buscemi to go buy geraniums for his terrace boxes. And in the shop there were 10 marvelous bushes of Echium Candidans "Pride of Madeira". It was fantastic! First saw them flourishing in San Francisco and just loved the huge spikes of deep blue flowers. Absolutely incredible. And since the shop was selling each for only 140 shekels - a steal - I quickly picked the smallest bush: about a meter high. Planted it in our huge but empty flower pot (a monster 1 meter high) and now it sits in the middle of the sisters' courtyard. Everyone is talking about it!

Huge spikes of flowers

Birds and bees like the nectar so we're expecting lots of life this summer in the courtyard. And as echiums require a dry hot climate, Israeli summers are perfect for this bush! It doesn't need alot of water so we don't need to spend money watering it. Now if only we can fill the courtyard with echiums! Less gardening and watering, and lots of lovely flowers and butterflies and birds!

Dirty raindrops

And talking about weather, this weekend (Easter) we're expecting a heatwave. 30 degrees and above is predicted. The night before there was a hamsin (desert sand storm) together with rain - absolutely dreadful because the dust and sand get caught in the raindrops and dirty everything it touches. Just look at this car! Each raindrop is a little bomb of sand and dust.

Thanks

Sincere gratitude to Catherine Pang, Christine Lee, Mary Liang, Letty Chabot and Fiona Chan for their kind thoughts and gift. And thanks to everyone too for their well-wishes and prayers. Will remember everyone at prayer on Holy Wednesday.

Special thanks to Magdalene Wu for organising and offering the Thanksgiving Mass for me.

Palm Sunday

The Patriarch, Custos and prelates

The Jerusalem air was filled with excitement as every Christian looked forward to the Palm Sunday procession from Bethpage on the eastern side of the Mt. of Olives to Jerusalem's Old City. This year's crowd was much larger than last year's. And christians from various parishes in the Territories were permitted to join in.

In fact the crowd was so large, instead of coming down the stairs at the top of the Mt. of Olives, they were made to do a detour up to 7 Arches Hotel and down the slope just above the jewish cemetery.

Jews provoking christians

A group of ultra-orthodox Jews marched through the procession route, with the approval of the police and soldiers, blowing rams' horns (shofar) in an act of provocation against the christians. No one paid attention to them but I thought it was outrageous and the police should not have allowed them to do it.

The huge crowds nonetheless wove its way down the mountain, groups upon groups of christians: each parish bearing its banner, each group singing its songs of Hosanna. It was very joyeous.

Little girl going the wrong way

This is the one occasion when christians here can publicly express their faith without fear of attacks from muslims and jews. It was a very proud moment for everyone.

The procession ended at St. Anne's Church (Bethesda Pool) where the Latin Patriarch delivered a homily and blessed the crowds with a relic of the True Cross.

I couldn't make the entire journey as my diarrhea was giving me trouble. I waited for the groups to arrive near Gethsemani with Praveen and another Indian priest. Met many many friends who passed by. It was great. And I made several new friends as well.

Greek Catholic scouts & faithful

Korean group

Latin Catholic scouts

Shaadi our Kawas (dragoman)

Crowds waving palms

Another group

Patriarch Fouad delivers the homily

Seminarians in procession

Lazarus Day

Woven palms for sale

After the clashes yesterday marking Land Day ... today was relatively calm. Damascus Gate was crowded again with peddlers and shoppers. But police and soldiers are still stationed in strategic places.

Tomorrow Holy Week begins. The Palm Sunday procession will start from the church of Bethfage down the Mt. of Olives, through the Kidron Valley and ends at the Church of St. Anne (Bethesda Pool). It'll be pretty crowded and its the only time Christians can parade publicly without fear of attacks from Jews and muslims on account of their sheer numbers (and police protection).

My palm

Streets in the Christian Quarter are being filled with beautifully woven palm branches. They range from 25 shekels to 15 shekels for the ornate ones, and 1 shekel for single blades woven into a cross. After all these years here without a palm, I decided to buy one. This is my first palm in 20 years.

Today, the day before Palm Sunday is Lazarus Day, a commemoration of Lazarus' revivification and preparation for Jesus' own resurrection. There's a solemn mass at the church in Bethany - the traditional home of Martha, Mary and Lazarus. Well if its anything to go by, we hope this Holy Week will revive the hopes and aspirations of the small and beleaguered community of christians in this land. After all, christianity started here.

Land Day

Group of police in black

Land Day on a Friday is never good ... the potential for violence is doubled. Land Day is when Palestinians of the north and south express their indignation of having their land confiscated by Israel. There was a mass call to converge onto Jerusalem, while Palestinian refugees in the neighbouring countries were called to break through the borders to invade Israel. http://www.jpost.com/MiddleEast/Article.aspx?id=264144  It was extremely tense to say the least. Israel closed the borders of all the P.A. territories and the military were stationed at the borders. Internally police forces tripled especially in the Old City. Arabs below 45 yrs were forbidden from entering the City. Violent clashes took place in several hot spots. http://www.jpost.com/DiplomacyAndPolitics/Article.aspx?id=264147

Quiet El Wad street

I managed to snap a shot of the relatively quiet street in the Old City ... but it may be hard to see the mass of police at the end of the street. Damascus Gate was closed off to young arabs and most of the bedouin women were not allowed to sit and sell there. Most moved into El Wad further inside the City near the 3rd Station. Still the Friday muslim crowd was there, albeit much smaller due to the tight control of the Israeli police.

Despite the tension, the Way of the Cross was celebrated but under police protection. It's the last Way of the Cross before Holy Week which begins in 2 days time. Shops in the Christian Quarter are already selling Easter eggs and other Easter stuff.

Meantime we switched to daylight saving last night. I overslept. Oh well, I guess many others did too. it takes a little getting use to. Some places like Ecce Homo hostel still did not switch their clocks and there was confusion at the reception desk.

Francesco our resident pigeon

And above all this tension and confusion, I saw Francesco, our all brown adopted homing pigeon sitting up on our terrace balcony, looking down in glee at the buffoonery of humans. He's the smart one. High above, sitting at the edge ... he seemed to rule the City. Land Day? He prefers the skies!

Hebrew fortune cookie

Well if I thought the hectic running up and down was over, I was wrong. Work load left and right. But I could have coped if not for the dreadful pain in my elbows, especially the left one. Haven't slept well all these weeks because the epicondylitis is simply awful. And worse as I rushed up and down to get my work done, I smashed the left elbow twice into the door. Excruciating.

That evening when I had dinner with Emmanuel at Beijing's, there was the usual (sic) chinese fortune cookie delivered with the bill. First fortune cookie I've seen written in hebrew. Well after reading them, we decided to exchange fortunes ... but since Emmanuel's augured a good future, we decided he should keep his as he wants to complete his PhD as soon as possible. See if you can translate mine!

The weather has been erratic ... sunny but cold and cloudy interchanging within minutes. No wonder everyone is sniffling and wiping their noses from cold. You never know what to wear when going out ... too much or too little.

And that may be a problem for tomorrow when Palestinians celebrate "Land Day" - to commemorate Israel taking the land away from them. Like last year, plans are drawn to organise a mass fly-in by hundreds of Palestinians to Ben Gurion airport to swarm it. Palestinian refugees in neoghbouring countries are encouraged to come back and reclaim the land. Those in the territories are planning to march into Jerusalem. Israeli security is on high alert ... but I guess the deciding factor is the weather. Fluctuating hot and cold will drive everyone sick and that might be the deterring factor. Man lose, weather win. Wonder what a hebrew fortune cookie would say to that.