It’s a Small World

And so it was a normal day. Normal is relative, but we left town, got fierce hot and sweaty, ate delicious food at Bethlehem and successfully crossed four checkpoints with no issues. We’re all so grateful to be in a non targeted area.

The minibus picked us up at 8am and we headed down the curving, steep backroad to Bethlehem. I thought our bus driver looked a little grumpy, but as soon as we crossed the first checkpoint with no trouble he cheered right up and smoked a celebratory cigarette.

We were the only tourists in Bethlehem, so had the church to ourselves. This certainly didn’t mean we didn’t have to wait to get into the cave. The priests were having a long service in there involving a lot of incense and endless chants punctuated with coughing.

The bus driver picked an excellent Schwarma shop for lunch, and we ate good.

We got back around 2pm and decided to head out and see Elah Valley, where David and Goliath fought. We had got the notice from Home Command that we were now free to stray from the shelters, so we decided to grab the chance. The roads were empty. It is Shabbat, but still almost totally dead except for Police cars. Nobody seemed concerned with our cavalcade, so we proceeded to enjoy the Valley, and even popped over to see a tomb out in the woods that has a real true stone to roll away. We crawled in the dust and generally thoroughly enjoyed being out and about.

It was early back to the house for us, and we sat in the garden, ate fried chicken and in general messed around. We’re supposed to head up North tomorrow, so I guess we’ll see. We called the place we plan to sleep at, and they said they were open for business as usual.

It’s 10pm and so far its been quiet out. News says more missiles will be here in a few hours, but we’re hoping it’s fake news.

Regardless, it’s going good. We’re in good spirits and making the best of it.