The Weekend

I should have know better than to plan anything to a particular time schedule even if the main activity of the day was jst to be doing my washing. On Friday morning we had no water so that soon stopped that idea, we don't seem to have any water now either. I've sort of got used to things happening on Arab time and regularly joke with the staff about classes starting in maybe five minutes, maybe ten minutes, maybe tomorrow, maybe next week.... I think they find my time keeping a little unnerving and unnatural.

Today I went to Bethlehem (pictures can be seen at http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=25725&l=a644d&id=801579690 ). Though it's ok to try and plan to go somewhere what time you arrive is anybody's guess. I got to Huwarra checkpoint at 8am and it took a full hour to get from one side of the check point to the other (100metres max). This was with the checkpoint being fully open the whole time! Once I was at the other side it was another half an hour wait until the bus had enough people for it to leave for Ramallah. A couple of checkpoints later and I arrive to catch another bus to Jerusalem and some more checkpoints. I really do not know how the people cope with these things everyday. They are so pointless and time consuming. Finally I caught a bus from Jerusalem to Bethlehem.

There was a checkpoint going into the city but it wasn't as fortified as I was expecting it to be. The rest of the City wasn't as I expected either. I knew it wasn't going to be like it was 2000 years ago but I expected much more tourists and westeners. The streets thronged with Palestinians and children pushing trolleys of goods along the cobbled streets, not a particularly good combination. Without too much effort I managed to find my way to Manger Square. This was lucky because with the taxi ride and three buses already today I wasn't really in the mood.

Most people seemed to be drawn towards what I later found out to be the Church of the Nativity so like a sheep I followed. This only rang true outside, inside I was always walking in the opposite direction to everyone else. Like all great architecture the building instantly made you feel like you should do in such a location. It was incredibly peaceful and beautiful inside despite my squeaky trainers doing their best to break the tranquility.

Back outside I wandered across Manger Square to the Peace Centre. There wasn't a great deal to see inside but the different intepretations of the nativity scene in a gallery upstairs were quite interesting to compare. My first thought was what a great lesson I could make out of this... Onto more important things I went to get some food- ordered a Shwarma and sat outside on the steps of the Mosque, just as everyone was coming out, perfectly bad timing!

I couldn't spend too long in Bethlehem as I knew it would take at least a few hours to get back. I was still glad I had made the effort to see the city though. On the way back we went through the same ridiculous amount of checkpoints. The worst was when a soldier made everyone empty all of their bags out of the hold on the bus. Most of them were bags of shopping belonging to an old lady who could not fail to feel humilated as he groped his way through each of her bags.