After breakfast 7 of us, and Sr Bernadette, headed off to catch the bus to the control point to get access to Bethlehem. We got through the checkpoints and then headed for the taxis to take us into the town, to Manger Square. Immediately there were several people offering prices and Sr Bernadette spoke to several until finally she got one man who arranged with his friend to transport for 10 shekels each.
As we headed up the road he told us that he had been working since 5am and we were his first customers (almost 5 hours sitting and waiting). He arranged to be back to take Sr Bernadette back to the checkpoint in 45 minutes and then would be back to collect us at 2pm which we were happy about.
We headed up one of the side streets to visit a shop owned by the grandson of one of the women who work at Ecce Homo and most of us purchased something there. as walked along we saw men unloading more Olive wood to be worked.
The we headed off to Mass in the Catholic section of the Church of the Nativity. As I think I mentioned previously there are three groups which claim authority over the space and so we were in St Catherine's chapel for the Mass in Arabic. The singing was beautiful and although I couldn't understand a word it was possible to follow what was happening.
After mass we headed off to get some lunch at the Bethlehem Peace Co-operative. The meal was ok rather than great but we were all well fed if nothing else.
After that we split into smaller groups and headed off to look at different parts of the town. Joe and I headed up a lane towards the old city and found a money changer whose eyes lit up when he saw us and promised us a good deal - well it was for him at least. When I asked our taxi driver later what the exchange rate between Jordanian Dinah and the Israeli Shekel he said it was almost 1 to 5 and when I said I'd got 1 to 4 he was really angry and called one of the local Palestinian policeman over and he went up with us and asked the money changer how come he had charged us 20% commission. The man had all the answers but eventually handed back half the amount so when it came time to pay our driver at the checkpoint on the way out I gave 50 shekels for a 10 shekel fare in thanks for his going to bat for us.
Whilst in Bethlehem I also looked at some Nativity scene pieces which I hope to talk to people back in Queenstown about assisting the Parish to purchase. They are beautifully carved in olive wood and would look great in the space under the altar and would also help the Palestinian family whose income is totally dependent on tourism.
We got back through the checkpoint easily but the Palestinian family in front of us spent some time whilst their papers were checked and rechecked and each of the three members of the family went through the same process.
The bus trip back was slow because of road works and there was some pushing and shoving (figuratively speaking) between buses and cars as we travelled along. Then the walk back to Ecce Homo was through busy streets as Jewish families walked through the old city on their way home after being at the Western Wall as part of the Sukkoth celebrations.
After the confronting day in Hebron yesterday it was an easier day but to listen to our taxi driver saying that he could never travel to Jerusalem, only 7 kilometers, reminded us that many of the Palestinians are in fact people within a prison even though they live freely within their own space.
This evening we have a Palestinian speaking to us about The complex reality of Palestine Israel and tomorrow night we have a session on The complex reality of Israel Palestine - it should be interesting to see how everyone responds.
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