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| Monastery and School in the direction of Gaza, view from Saxum House |
8 October: Hey y'all. This is me after a couple month's wait again. I feel stupid to report this but I am in a warzone right now. They fired rockets at Ashkelon on Saturday morning; we saw two plumes of black smoke from the distance (and it was a clear view from Saxum House) which lingered the morning. We called off the trip to Jericho and Qumran. Wael the driver had arrived to pick us up. He arrived full of confidence, patted himself in the chest and said "Don't worry, Wael is here". After some minutes he also decided that this was not normal, and turned around the coach to drive back to base.
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| Plumes in Ashkelon |
Activities were cancelled and, after ducking into the air raid shelters a few times, we went into a lull. I quickly discovered that war was boring. This is something I knew from reading and hearing the experience of people who actually went through it. War is long days and weeks and years of waiting, staying put, and keeping up morale; this is true especially for noncombatants. In any case, it cannot hurt to put in prayers for people who live closer to Gaza, and now deal with the more traumatic kind of nonsense daily.
Flights are going through some drama in terms of cancellations and delays. Some of the fellow pilgrims have found their way out, reporting success. Inshallah, I will do so too.
9 October: I am recounting events on Monday while already back at home on Friday. I passed the nights at Saxum house at first nervously, with the solid metal blinds down, and having nightmares about Singapore being attacked with missiles, but by the second night I had become accustomed; I slept like a baby while explosions from Gaza rumbled on distantly behind the hill. On Monday morning 6 of us left the house in a minivan driven by Mr. Naseem Assad from Terra Dei, the tour operator. He sped us on the highway to Ben Gurion Airport at Lod. The landscape went from hilly to flat. The only checkpoint we ran into was just outside of the airport, who let us through without looking at our passports.
The departure hall was about 40% filled. Friends who arrived in the afternoon on the same day sent pictures, showing it already much more crowded. An alarm sounded when I was almost due to board the flight to Istanbul. Everyone in the departure gates went to shelter, but only stayed for a few minutes. Afterwards, everyone went back to business and boarding resumed, which was amazing given how many large families with young children and wailing wives were travelling on that day.
At the same time missiles from Gaza hit Abu Ghosh, killed 3 people, destroyed Ramzan Kadyrov's mosque, and frightened the people still at Saxum House. Joey Villareal and Gabriel Manasigan were in town, finding beer; this was to become the "beer run of their lives".
12 October: The last member of our workshop, Russ Edmundson, has successfully left Israel and is now stranded in Bucharest, but at least he is away from the warzone, like the rest of us.
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| Our last group photo in Saxum House |
I am plopped at Waitara for the weekend. The main street here is lined with car dealerships. It did not seem like much of a place at first, and I had only come to this area of Australia to visit my friend Shaun, who lives in Pennant Hills. However, there are a few pleasant surprises:
1. There is a train station within walking distance, and the trains to Sydney Downtown runs VERY frequently.
2. There is a CATHEDRAL (Broken Bay) within WALKING DISTANCE.
3. The Ukrainian diner here is СМАЧНО
Creamer
I am giving up putting creamer in coffee. If I am feeling fancy in Lent, might add some milk instead.
This is a pretty minimal penance, and I am sure I can kick Lent up a notch with a clear conscience.
Port Wine
I buy a bottle of Port every year. I bring it to a group of friends in a traditional annual party. I bring the Port, someone else brings the cheese, someone else provides the venue.
I bought Port in Incheon in 2021. It is 2023, and no one wants the party anymore.
Matt has heard my private backstory behind Port parties (this was in 2022, at a separate party where I brought the myrtle liquor from Croatia). He said I should shed the old baggage. I have decided to heed his advice, therefore for Lent 2023 I am drinking the whole bottle on my own. I have another bottle of Khvanchkala red wine on the rack; if the party happens it would be that one instead of Port, and it will no longer be annual.
Bus Drivers
I am resolving to greet every bus driver I meet. I just think it is a nice thing to do
Restarting the blog and now writing small things to add to the lore (while writing at the level of a 10 year old). Yes
I will start from last Sunday, when they celebrated 10 years of Pope Francis at Cathedral. I brought Jamie along and we were made to sit outside because a fat bunch of diplomatic delegations are assigned the inside seats. The delegations of Ireland, Costa Rica, and the Philippines were there. The second Minister of Law was there. The bishop of Phan Thiết was there. The Papal Nuncio was there; the car with the Vatican flag was parked, even though his embassy was so close, he could have just walked over.
I said to Jamie that the Spanish ambassador will show up mañana — tomorrow — and be like "am I late?"
We sat behind a French family with two small children and were majorly distracted by them. The boy coloured into a colouring book, first a whale, then a jellyfish, then a stingray. He liked to colour the whites of the eyes orange, for some reason. William Tjhi was also in this congregation.
A large team of people who looked like Islamic scholars walked into the annexe and walked out 5 minutes later. The greeters seemed to know them. I asked them about it after mass and it turned out they did not know them at all. I gave up asking and bought souvenirs from them.
I went to Beauty World to kill time before Krav lesson. I got back the coin pouch from the dessert shop auntie with 65 cents and quite a lot of emotional attachment. Chirashi-Ai, the café I liked to sit in, was very crowded even at 2pm. At Krav lesson I was absolutely manhandled because coach didn't want to use the ladies for demo on the first go. So that was all for this very ordinary Sunday.
