On Christmas Eve, we went to Sacrament meeting, which was wonderful and filled with lots of singing of Christmas carols, and then we hurried back to the apartment for a quick lunch so we could get on the vans to go to Bethlehem! Bethlehem was simply amazing as well. The buses took us almost all the way to Manger Square where all the festivities were happening. It really was like a big carnival or something with all the people, dancing, music, and everything. We then went in the the Church of the Basilica of the Nativity. The Armenians were finishing a service so we had to wait around for about 15 or 20 minutes and then we used what Elaine termed our "Bethlehem Fast Pass". Eric's blog has a good description of what happened, but basically we got to go to the front of a three hour line to go down in to the cave where Jesus may have been born.
While we were waiting, a bunch of military men came in and went up these stairs and then a few minutes later they all came back down...
In the cave
Nana, Eric, and Sam reaching in to touch the star
Catholic Church
We then made our way back out to Manger Square after using the smallest and grossest bathrooms ever in a church...
...and there was a parade making its way out of Manger Square and down the street
Jingle Bells! Sorry this is kinda poor quality, but it was windy!
After watching some of the parade, we found a little place to get what we thought would just be a drink and some quiet while we waited to find a taxi to take us back to the security gates to leave West Bank. Little did we know that we were really walking in to one of the funnest restaurants I have been to in awhile!
After a wonderfully exciting lunch (where the servers were handing out Hookah left and right for people to smoke....), we went down to the basement from the second floor of the building we were on to get a taxi. What we didn't know was that to go to the basement we would have to go down 8 flights of stairs... Oh what an experience this place is. We finally got a taxi and all piled in. Our driver managed to avoid all chaos of the traffic by taking us on a bunch of back roads that were SO steep, but got us to the gate in about 10 minutes rather than 30 or 40. When you get there, you first walk through this long, long pathway...
And at the end you go through a mini security and enter in to basically no mans land. We refereed to it as no mans land because it was a gap between security points and it just looked like a war zone.. no one around, no buildings, nothing. Except for this sign...
In case you can't tell, this sign says Jerusalem-Bethlehem Love and Peace...
And now for some sad pictures of security and the Separation Wall...
It was super creepy as we were standing in line to go through the check point out of West Bank because everyone kept staring at me, especially the men. It had happened as we were walking down the streets as well but its just weird when everyone stares at you because of your hair. See, most women here either have black hair or their hair is covered so to see not only just hair flowing out and about but also said hair being bright blonde is quite a shocker and like a novelty per say. Oh what an experience.
We then got in the vans and drove down to Shepherds Field. We sang some Christmas carols and Eric paraphrased some scriptures as the sun was setting and a lone single star came up over Bethlehem.
