Grocery Shopping in East Jerusalem

We are between courses at Saint George's, and that means the dining room is closed.  Judy and I have been preparing meals in our little kitchen, and that means grocery shopping.  The nearest market belongs to Marwan, and we have been there enough that we can greet each other my name now.  "Salaam Marwan, kiefhalik?"  He kindly replies in English.  His marked is about 16' wide by 24' deep, and (fortunately) about 12 ' tall.  He doesn't sell vegetables, or fresh meat or bead, but he has just about everything else--the dry cereal is up high and he retrieves your election with a long pole with a nail in its end.  When we wanted something he didn't have in stock, he set it aside for us the next time he had it--when the change didn't work out exactly right, we owed him an extra 10 shekels the next time we were in.  What a wonderful experience.

Tuesday 2/11/2014 Saint George's College visited the Princess Basma Center--a rehabilitation center and school for all of the children of Jerusalem with disabilities.  Bishop Dawani joined us as we heard from the hospital's director about the ministry of the Diocese of Jerusalem through Princess Basma.  The room with the bunk beds is one used to house mother and child for 3 months while the child receives therapy and the mother learns to continue it at home.  They do so much with so little.  Their school teaches grades K through Middle School, some 600 students, in an environment that integrates children with disabilities into the mainstream classroom.  The center's hydrotherapy facility is closed due to the lack of $4500 per month to heat the water--sad.  It was a very moving day!