Tuesday was supposed to be my lazy day. I had extended my 3-night stay in Ramallah to a 5-day one and wanted to spend my last day with doing nothing besides some writing and drinking coffee.

Fellow traveller Nigel got in the way though. He’s working as a journalist and mentioned that he’d join an anthropology student to interview a farmer who’s land is about to be taken away.

His initial invitation I tiredly refused. However came mid-day, my curiosity got the better of me and I told him I’d join him for the trip. Plus Bethlehem is less than an hour away.

Our local contact ran late and so we went on the tourist trail instead. First stop: church of nativity. It’s built on the site were baby Jesus was born. It’s a tourist drag but the locals don’t get much from it as most tours are organised by companies in Jerusalem.

[caption id=“attachment_3089” align=“aligncenter” width=“450”] Stable yesterday, Church today[/caption]

Not having had a religious upbringing, the whole of Bethlehem didn’t have any spiritual appeal for me. It was more of a “let’s have a look around”.

One thing to have a look at in Bethlehem