church of the nativity

church of the nativity
Originally uploaded by nostalgist

It was a pretty quiet Sunday before Christmas in Bethlehem today. I got to practice my Arabic a little bit. People were really friendly and not at all pushy - we went into a shop and the owner served us coffee then actively discouraged us from buying anything - we were going to visit some friends Jeremy made and we asked if he had anything for a local in the sea of olive wood sculptures and he said, "There's no point. Buy them a bottle of wine in the supermarket instead". Jeremy's friends are lovely - a few have permits to come visit us in Jerusalem during the holiday season, but their eighty year old grandmother was denied a permit. She was extremely sweet, and kept telling us stories of what it was like before the country was divided - she'd had many Israeli friends - but she kept saying, shrugging her shoulders in her plush blue housecoat, embroidered at the neck with little white flowers "But now I am terrorist."