The past few days have been uneventful at best, boring at worst. We had Church at the Jerusalem Center on Saturday; I was anticipating a sappy, EFY-esque testimony meeting since it was the JC students' last Sabbath, but it actually was not that at all (of course I missed a majority of it chasing the babe around). Tim and I attended the Spanish Sabbath School class, even though he is morally opposed to speaking another language even if you know it because it makes you look pretentious (I disagree, to some extent... but if I was fluent in another language I would be speaking it all the time... I'd be one of THOSE returned missionaries).
After Church, we had a few hours before lunch since it was Fast Saturday. We hung out a lot, Amir slept, and actually I can't really remember what else happened. It's all running together now.
Sunday we went to Bethlehem. We crossed into the West Bank without even being checked, though we did have to drive a roundabout way since they would not let us in at the Bethlehem checkpoint. I don't see the point of spending $100-million on a wall that tears apart the community but fail to check a huge bus at checkpoints. First on teh agenda in Bethlehem was a lecture by a human rights activist and a Palestinian member of the Church (who is the Relief Society president in the Jerusalem Branch). It was interesting, especially to hear about Sahar's adventures in trying to attend Church. Now she is employed with the UN, so she can get across, but before she would often sneak across the border and was sometimes shot at and was caught one time and almost arrested. Even though it should be only a 10-minute drive, it can be impossible to travel. There are a few LDS families in the Palestine, but they can't attend Church due to political reasons. It's really unfortunate.
We went to the Church near where Jesus was supposedly born. I was expecting a quaint little manger, but was greeted by another gaudy, dark Orthodox Church. Bleh.
After our little tourist site, we went to Sahar's sister's house, where a fire had broken out a few days before and destroyed everything (and this was apparently a month or so after her husband died). She had a toddler who evidently had stuck something in the gas canister, which later exploded. They aren't sure if that is exactly what happened, just speculation. Fortunately, no one was injured, but the place was a mess. The BYU students spent a few hours cleaning up the mess, and made a huge difference. Amir and I stayed on the bus and napped... I did not want him exposed to the chemicals they were using to clean. We wouldn't have been much help anyways. But Tim came back very dirty, so he must have worked hard for both of us.
The next day (today) was a free day. We went to the Rockefeller Museum which was cool and worth a free visit. We also walked to West Jerusalem to two fancy hotels, the American Colony Hotel and the Olive Tree Hotel. The former was really an American Colony, a commune of sorts built by religious wealthy families in 1900s, maybe? The latter was built around an olive tree where David was said to have played the harp in its shade. Both were fancy shmancy and neat to walk around in. We also explored some ultra-orthodox Jewish neighborhoods in West Jerusalem. I wish we could have stayed longer, met people. I'm so fascinated by ultra-orthodox Jews.
Tomorrow we leave Jerusalem early in the morning and head north...
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