Utter exhaustion

Doggie playtime, people chat time

Another crazy day yesterday. Frankly I was so busy run up and down, doing so many things ... right now i can't remember what I did. It's a total blank. Nothing ... absolutely nothing comes to mind ... what happened yesterday. Except that I think I was at Independence Park around 5pm because I have a pic of doggie playtime. That's when many people bring their dogs out to play in the huge park. Very friendly dogs and they need the run as most live in small apartments.  That's the only thing I can remember about yesterday. Maybe it's a side effect of the new medicine.

Today was just as bad. Prepared for a day's work in the library but John Shi came along to say we have a meeting at Ratisbonne at 9am. I had only 15 mins to go 2 kms uphill ... I rushed like crazy and grabbed a taxi at Damascus Gate. As usual the hoodlums there asked for US$10 for the 1 and half km of road (From my house to Damascus Gate is already some 500 meters by foot). Went there, had TWO meetings instead of one, then literally ran back 2 kms because John needed a guarantee testimony from me for his study trip to Turkey. Took my passport from home, then went back 2kms .... it was unbelievable what I have to do for people. I was almost fainting as I haven't eaten for almost 24 hours, and the new medicine makes me very drowsy and weak. My whole body is shaking from fatigue and my legs hurt very much, after walking/running 8 kms in one hour uphill. I need to rest.

Hana runs Nirit Seeds

But there was a nice surprise for me ... a package containing two bermuda pants. Just what I need as summer is getting intolerably hot and we're not allowed to wear shorts. Hana posted it to me - she runs a veggie seed company ... nice! I like gardening - but not today ... I'm half dead as it is.

Tiring day

Had a long sleep last night except for the asthma that came at 2am. Woke up feeling tired still. The new medicine is making some effect on me. My eyes are burning and red from infection.

The morning was busy with a baptism for Hong En, a chinese who's studying his PhD in Qumran literature. Most of his friends and classmates from the Ecole Biblique were there but I did the ritual mostly in chinese. It was very moving and he cried during the baptism. It took him 18 years to search for the faith and has finally now decided it's time to be part of the Church.

Great colour and tastes

Later in the afternoon I had to bring Fr Shi to do a recording at Ratisbonne. It was a tiring afternoon ... and the weather was very hot and strangely cloudy. It appears to be a hamsiin but by late afternoon it became very cold. Managed to grab 15 mins of sleep before going out to visit Andre my student and colleague. He's leaving the country soon to start a teaching career in the States. He's a good guy, very smart. Finished his PhD this month.

There must have been some tension in the streets because helicopters were flying low throughout the morning. Sirens were wailing around but I wasn't sure if it was ambulance or police.

Well here's a pic of my dinner - plums, peaches and pears. Love early summer cos the fruit are great!!!

I HATE seeing the doctor

I HATE going to the hospital to see the doctor. I HATE IT!!! I started out at 8am in the morning and came home only at 7pm. 11 solid hours travelling, waiting, being examined (only took 15 miniutes). Travelled over 280 kms in all. It was about 40 degrees - I was burnt to a crisp and dying of thirst. And it cost me well over 1,500 shekels (US$340) just for the travel and beverages. I'd rather die than go see the doctor again. You guys don't know how lucky you are to go to see the doc in less than half an hour, transport cost no more than US$3 (100 times less than what I pay!!!) .....

Well the diagnosis is I have an infection ... and I have allergy to the antibiotic medicine ... it makes me get more diarrhea. So now I have to take the antibiotic and then after one week of treatment, I must start a one month medication to counter the antibiotic side effect. Total is 6 weeks of treatment. My summer is blown away ........ I HATE seeing the doctor ... even tough Dr. Anan is a very nice guy. It's the whole travelling and process that makes it so hateful. US$340 to travel and see the doc??? A flight ticket from Israel to Rome cost the same amount!!!!!!!

Cost US$10 for this!!

Am in a rotten mood now. Feeling so tired and weak and sick. And angry that I lost an entire day and lots of money .... just to see the doctor. So here's a bowl of cherries and mulberries to sweeten you up after reading this belly-aching. Had it for lunch yesterday.

Pentecost

Ambulance is stuck

Haphazard parking in
the streets

And Pentecost is today .... what a way to start the day ... yelling and shouting in front of our front gate at 4.30am after the muezzin called muslims to prayer. Went out to see what was happening. An ambulance got stuck right in front of our gate because the muslims parked their cars everywhere along the narrow street, blocking the ambulance from going out. Soldiers and police were blaring out from their PA system for owners to remove their cars but of course no one came. They were all in the mosque. Some soldiers moved the first car out of the way with their bare hands. Only half an hour later did the owners came out - after prayers - and emptied the streets of their cars. Whoever was in the ambulance ... I hope he didn't die.

King George Street is empty

Today at 4pm there'll be solemn vespers in the Last Supper Room. It'll be pretty crowded. Lots of pilgrims are crowding the streets of the Old City, singing and dancing. This is a total contrast with the rest of the country: it being the Jewish Pentecost (Shavuot) today, so the New City is dead. No work is allowed today. The streets are empty. Shops are all closed. Two different ways of celebrating the same feast; two different mentalities, theologies, traditions.

Let's see how the day ends .....

Sabbath to Shavuot

Ripening wheat by a roadside
in Jerusalem

This evening begins the jewish feast of Shavuot or Pentecost. It also happens to be the Christian Pentecost. This year Catholics and Jews celebrate Pentecost on the same day - nice. Shavuot is an agricultural feast, the harvest feast. Later in Judaism , it came to be associated with the giving of the Torah on Mt. Sinai. Israelis tomorrow will be gathering in the parks to picnic and barbecue - the traditional celebration of the harvest. Kids will be making crowns and garlands of flowers and wheat. The Book of Ruth is read - the Moabite who gleaned the wheat fields of Bethlehem.

There's still alot of violence in the country today. Jewish settlers set fire to an arab wheat field - a wicked deed - and when arabs came out to put out the fire, one was shot by a settler.    http://www.jpost.com/DiplomacyAndPolitics/Article.aspx?id=271536   and   http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/israeli-settler-shoots-palestinian-in-west-bank-1.432743  I wonder if God would be pleased by religious jews who set fire to the wheat fields of other people while they themselves celebrate the wheat harvest of Shavuot. Sad. I don't see any reason to rejoice on this "feast". What's missing in this type of Shavuot is the Holy Spirit - the spirit of tolerance, love, forgiveness and peace.

Of truth and jest

Another Friday passed with relative peace. As usual, along the Damascus Gate road down to the Wailing Wall, soldiers are stationed every 15 metres. Orthodox Jews going to and from the Wall whizz pass with their eyes on the ground, arab kids provocatively yelling or kicking a football menacingly, soldiers with their fingers on the trigger of their guns .... another normal Friday.

Tensions have quelled and a little peace is back in south Tel Aviv after the riots.  http://www.jpost.com/NationalNews/Article.aspx?id=271464  but one Sudanese wounded and one arab killed  http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/african-migrant-stabbed-in-tel-aviv-arab-israeli-shot-in-jaffa-1.432688  in two separate incidents. And ...  we all noticed that suddenly Jerusalem is filling up with Sudanese and Ethiopians ... they're probably running away from the violence in Tel Aviv and seeking refuge in Jerusalem now. Not good news for us nor them ... Jerusalem is hardcore Jewish heartland (and same for the arabs); the Jews will not take it easily with their holiest city overwhelmed by african refugees and illegal immigrants; and the arabs will be equally intolerant. Probably the refugees and IIs haven't read the news that the two rabbis who wrote the book justifying the killing of non-Jews as a biblical teaching, and the other two rabbis who endorsed it, are being tacitly supported by the Attorney General who investigated their case and deciding not to prosecute them. Makes walking down the street as a non-Jew pretty dangerous now - there's a legal murder waiting in every corner. Bad choice, guys ... better keep moving.

Truth in jest

There's a "funny" graffiti on a temporary construction board in the New City - "Santaclaustrophobia". I guess it sums up the Jerusalem mentality - a narrow fanatical religious mindset intolerant of anyone else's religion. It sums up the spirit of the tensions mentioned above in this blog. Alot of truth is said in jest.

Pipa in Israel

The situation where africans have overrun southern Tel Aviv - homeless, jobless, hungry and stateless - has reached a fever-pitched reaction from its Israeli citizens. A call to repatriate them to Africa became violent (some call it payback). Well let's just say I myself feel frighten walking there (it's near the Central Bus Station) with drunks and drug-addicts sleeping in every corner, reeking with sweat and urine.  http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/demonstrators-attack-african-migrants-in-south-tel-aviv-1.432262 but when a demonstration ends in physical attacks on africans, it is equally worrying. And the slogans are also disturbing .....

4 pipas and 1 plum

Change of topic. Pipa (loquat), locally called askandinya are prolific here. Almost every house which has a garden will have a tree which at this moment will be full of juicy fruit. Little known is that the pipa originates from China and was brought here through the Silk Road centuries ago. Right now the markets are filled with pipa and are rather expensive (10 shekels per kg). A professor bought a kg and gave me some. Nice eating it on a hot dry day.  That was my dinner - 4 pipas and 1 plum. Apparently eating pipas can help you get drowsy and sleepy; as well as good for throat illness. Perfect for my health! And Israel is the 2nd largest producer of pipas in the world!!!!

Well if only the african migrants (legal and illegal) could inculturate themselves and integrate into local society like the chinese pipa did in Israel ... there would be less racial tensions today.