Bethlehem

I've now spent a little over a week in the West Bank, in spite of an OFFICIAL WARNING from Canadian Foreign Affairs that violence has broken out here in the past, and might do so again. The danger is grave enough that the Blue Cross refuses to cover me while I'm in the Palestinian Territories.

It would be nice, in cases like this, to have a few statistics to put things in perspective. How many tourists have actually died in the West Bank? How many of those deaths were a result of Israeli/Palestinian violence, as opposed to, say, car accidents? Or weird diseases? Or any of the other stuff the Blue Cross routinely covers? Am I really in more danger in Palestine than I was in South Africa? Because I suspect they're being ridiculous.

Palestinians are lovely, by the way. Very friendly, courteous and hospitable. A bit of a shock after Israel. And Bethlehem is beautiful.

I'm not sure what to say about the children's home. The kids are adorable, and annoying. Their disabilities make me sad, but they are generally quite happy. It's an interesting experience. I feel like rubbing shoulders with mentally disabled kids is teaching me something - perhaps about faith or attitude or intelligence or humanity - but I don't know exactly what. I'm sure I'll have it figured out by the end of the week.

I've been doing a fair bit of sightseeing, including:

The eight-meter concrete wall, which Banksy called "the ultimate activity holiday destination for graffiti writers", and which the Israeli government calls a "separation fence". (Eight meters, incidentally, is twice the height of the infamous Berlin Fence.)

The Church of the Nativity, built over the traditional site of Jesus' birth. I couldn't help feeling, as I waited in line to see a stone feeding-trough swathed in gold, that all of this completely misses the point. It is pretty though.

The Ibrahimi Mosque in Hebron, built over the purported tombs of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and their wives. Very fancy.

And the Old City of Jerusalem, which is just a few kilometers from Bethlehem. I'll do a more thorough tour of Jerusalem after I'm done here, but I've seen some of the major sites, including the Wailing Wall. Out of all the holy places I've visited, I think this is the one I found most affecting. It was a bit of a shock, though, to see a bunch of uniformed soldiers just hanging out by the wall. But that's Israel.

I think my leg is slowly improving. I can actually walk around pretty well - it's just the hills that give me trouble. I've been using a cane, and that seems to help. I'm cautiously optimistic about hiking in Galilee. I'd still like to work on another farm too, but that may be pushing it.