April 5, 2020 part
13
In the last post I mentioned we
were planning to start delivering the Hineni Pesach boxes. However, on Thursday
night Wim began to suffer from diarrhea, had a lot of phlegm and even vomited. Thankfully,
he didn’t have a fever and no shortness of breath, but naturally it scared and
worried us because nowadays, the first thing that comes to mind is: is it
corona? We felt bad having to cancel our Hineni participation, but there was
nothing we could do about it.
While picking up the newspaper, Wim came back with a surprise!
Our neighbour received a plant from their health fund and decided to give it to us.
While ten people (the maximum
allowed) from the ICEJ staff worked hard that morning to prepare the Pesach
packages, we had a ‘lazy’ morning. Wim had probably eaten something the day
before that had been ‘off’ and that, together with the explosive start of the allergy
season, triggered a strong reaction. As the day went on, he soon was back to
normal, for which we were so grateful!
That Friday, we enjoyed the extra
day of rest, for it had been a busy week. During normal times, I’m at home most
of the week, and now, more than ever, I’m out of the house, and on the phone. Trying
to make sense of our new ‘normal’ also takes a lot of mental energy.
A trip to the supermarket wasn’t a
success, as I noticed a line of waiting people outside. Not wanting to waste my
time, I walked back home again. “You are back quickly!” Wim said. “We have
enough to last till Sunday.)
I was able to make a start with the
special weekly newsletter for our church, which always takes more time than I
expect but it’s such a joy to do. On Shabbat it was ready to be sent out all
over the world and bless and encourage our fellow believers.
Because of a sharav (heat wave), we
had our coffee on the balcony. The hot dry weather is expected to break on
Sunday afternoon and will drop from 29 degrees Celsius to 18 again and night
temperatures below 100 C. They even predict some rain later this
week.
Sunday morning: we were ready for a
new day and week. I woke up tired, because (in my dreams) I had been busy
packing the car with Hineni meals to distribute and stressing about the Pesach
boxes we also had to deliver... How on earth could we get everything ready in
time?
It took a long time before we
received an answer from Benjamin and Kochava, who told us the meals were ready,
but they were still waiting for the distribution list. While we were on our way
to Hineni, Kochava phoned with the news that today there were no deliveries – Lena
from City Hall had spoken... Lena was probably too busy with the Pesach
distribution to also deal with the meals. We all felt bad for the people who
didn’t get anything to eat today because of that, but there was nothing we
could do about it.
So, while Wim stayed in the car (there was no parking place
to be found in the narrow street), I took some pictures of the ICEJ volunteers
that were hard at working filling the last 100 Pesach boxes. I was so relieved
when Benjamin told us that 400 packages already had been picked up by contact
persons to be delivered to needy people around Jerusalem.
 |
| items inside the Pesach package. Flyer with Hebrew/Russian Ps. 91 |
Not having to deliver any meals,
freed us to do some shopping of our own. I wanted to buy some plants for some
of the contact persons we had encountered while delivering the meals. The door
of the Kiryat haYovel flower shop was blocked, so I had to shout to the people
in the back of the shop if they could help me. The plants were ridiculously
expensive, NIS 50 for a kalanchoe, but the cheaper alternative didn’t make for
a nice present, so it had to do. “Do not stand in front of the door, but on the
side,” the owner told me. I was wearing a mask, he didn’t, but I complied.
While waiting for him to wrap the five plants in festive paper, I noticed that
the nearby supermarket refused to let people in who didn’t wear a face mask. Perhaps
this new rule cancels the ’10 customers at a time’ restriction. Would make
sense.
There was no line of shoppers
waiting to be let in our neighborhood supermarket. Some people wore masks, some
also gloves, but some didn’t wear any. We stocked up on milk and other food,
but eggs were not available. Several people asked the owner if he had eggs and
left when they heard there weren’t any. (People have been hoarding them before
Pesach.) Some supermarkets only sell eggs (12 per client) when they buy groceries
for more than NIS 150. I was pleasantly surprised to see face-masks were now
sold as well! Guess where they are from? CHINA!
