Tagbilaran Diocese Website

by Fr. Pol Plaza, C.P.

September 20, 2009 (Series 23)

October 8, 2008, Wednesday.
I had my Mass at the Charity sisters in Italian and they answered in French. There was a Swiss man who attended and after the mass, he gave me a Swiss Knife as a souvenir. After breakfast, Fr. Sebastian brought me to the city for my class. We continued with the alphabet practicing reading some combinations. Again, we were like elementary pupils learning the basics of a language. But at least we were taught not only how to speak but also how to write read Arabic. I found it very challenging. If in theology, I had no problem with my professors, this time I found studies quite difficult. I need to study more at home to be able to catch with the others in the classes. Some had advanced studies so they were faster than me and the first timers. We decided to reset our time of studies to twice a week (Tuesday to Wednesday) but three hours a day, (9-12). After class, I passed by the Antonia Fortress and the Chapel of the Flagellation and listened to a tourist guide explaining to a group of pilgrims on the significance of the place. According to him it was here that the first and second Stations occurred, Pilate condemned Jesus to death and the soldiers tortured him and eventually gave him the cross to carry. Then I left and walked down through the Lion’s Gate and as I arrived at the road, Fr. Roberto came with the car. We did some shopping at the shops below us and arrived home for the Mid Day Prayers. After Prayers, we had lunch at the Bridgettine Sisters celebrating the Silver Jubilee of Sr. Guadalupe. We were together with Fr. Luigi, a priest from Italy and the family he was guiding for a tour in Jerusalem. It was a good meal with pasta, meat, cake, ice cream, wine, coffee, and give away rosary beads. Maybe I had so much sugar that I felt a little dizzy as we arrived home, holding to the car as I stood. It was only for a few seconds and I walked my way to the door of the house and to my room. I rested for a while, but could not sleep, maybe because of the coffee. After thirty minutes lying in bed, I worked on the computer. Before Vespers, I watered the plants in the garden for an hour. We had a lively sharing during supper, ending at 9 pm in time for our Compline. Before retiring for the night I worked on our invitation cards for the feast of St. Paul of the Cross.

October 9, 2008, Thursday.
I had my Mass at the Bridgettine Sisters in English with Italian readings. Fr. Roberto went to the Charity Sisters and Sebastian to the Abu Dis. In the TV at breakfast, I heard about the on-going financial crisis in the world with countries in Europe trying to save their banking systems. In Asia, stocks were tumbling down with Indonesia as the biggest loser of down 10%. I said to myself our last place of sure income (Indonesia), was affected and this was indeed a very bad news for the Passionists in the Philippines. After a while, I washed my clothes. As I went up Fr. Roberto reminded me that our cook, Ahmad was out to visit his sick mother and that we had no cook. So I prepared lunch, frying the lamb chaps that was defrosted on the table, boiled some potato, heated some left-over and canned beans, and prepared salad. Since it was close to eleven o’clock I did not attend our Mid Day prayers to finish the lunch I prepared.
After lunch, I checked on the laundry and dried the clothes in the hanger. Then I worked on my journal and mails with the musical background of Simon and Garfunkel, adding nostalgia to the moment. I was very happy to read the letter of Fr. Denis Travers, our First Consultor praising me for the journal I sent to Luigi and for the works done in the community. He thanked for my generosity in accepting the job in the name of the General and the Council. After prayers, we had to look around for supper. We heated what was in the refrigerator, which was not much, we opened a can of baked beans, sliced some tomatoes and with bread we had supper. We decided to look for a temporary cook to replace Ahmad while he was attending to her sick mother. He said he would be away for at least ten days. That would be very long for us to do the cooking ourselves. With only Fr. Roberto and I left, that would disturb our prayers. Fr. Sebastian contacted his friend, a Christian and she agreed to cook with a certain wage. She would work for three hours a day and we would pay her 30 shekels per hour plus the bus fare of 30 shekels, a total of 120 shekels a day for three hours of work. In the Philippines that would be around 1, 800 pesos.

This entry was posted on Saturday, October 24th, 2009 at 1:38 am and is filed under Stories.