September 1, 2002

Today we reversed our roles of last Sunday - Marthame headed off to the Latin Church of Visitation for worship while Elizabeth caught up on overdue sleep. Having jumped right back into work, we're plugging along - slowly but surely - but finding ourselves worn out. It seems that the local fauna are conspiring against us. When the generator cuts off at 3:00 a.m. (in order to save on petrol, since no one has money to pay the bills), the roosters next door take the silence as a cue that daylight is near. When they stop, the dogs start in. And when they stop, the roosters take their place - a mellifluous menagerie. We're looking forward to a day or two off to catch up.

Deacon Firas in worship.

At church, Deacon Firas joined in worship leadership as well, fresh off his ordination yesterday.

Today someone told us that while we were celebrating after the ordination, the Israeli military was busy in Tubas with another extrajudicial assassination. Army helicopters blew up a car carrying a wanted man, killing him and the other two people in the car. The attack also killed a seven year-old girl and a fourteen year-old boy, who were hit by shrapnel as they stood in front of their home. It also injured seven other people, including a seven year-old boy who was in critical condition. According to the human rights' group LAW, that's 148 killed in such extra-judicial assassinations, including 46 bystanders. A 2:1 target:"collateral damage" ratio. Unconscionable. We have many friends in Tubas, both Muslim and Christian - no doubt these two boys were somebody's nephews/cousins/neighbors.