day eleven. bethlehem.

today we traveled to bethlehem. the story is one you simply can't make up. 

bethlehem is a short distance from our hotel, but it takes a long time to get there. the realities of the conflict in this region cannot be hidden for anyone that wants to visit bethlehem. israeli citizens are not allowed. there's check points along the way. there's a wall keeping people out; the same wall keeps people in...depends on your perspective. it hasn't always been this way. 

my mother in law, vicky, is from bethlehem. she was born there and then moved to the USA as a young child. our  mission for the day was to go inside the house where vicky was born. we needed to find the key...

it turns out that most of the city is owned by her family. they own shops, hotels, cab services, restaurants. we made a visit to her uncle johnny's shop and then set off for the real mission of the day - go see the home where vicky was born. i don't know for sure if they own the star and bucks. 

on the way to the house, we stopped at the church of the nativity. did you know that jerome wrote the vulgate while sitting in the basement of the church of the nativity? either did i. 

after leaving the church of the nativity. we made for the house where vicky was born. her father was the orthodox priest at the church. so was his father. so was his father's father, and his father's father's father, back more generations that people can count. the house is rumored to be the oldest in all of bethlehem. 

we drove across the street (past the star and bucks) and went to the house. it was locked. the driver informed us that we needed the key. of course we did. our driver also knew that elias had the key. of course he does. off to see elias!!! 

we arrived at a small shop across the street from uncle johnny's shop. they sold mobile phones. vicky went in to see elias and talk to him about the key. she returned with the key...and the key bearer named essa. welcome to the party, essa!

the key worked. 

and in the house, we found an old painting of vicky's great great great great grandfather, elias. 

and we learned that the key bearer, essa, was our cousin. 

to sum it up: 
we hired a palestinian driver for the day, because israeli citizens can no longer go to bethlehem, drove through two check points and a concrete wall taller than any i've ever seen in my life, went to the church of the nativity and were able to go on the "special tour" because there was a member of the kanavati family with our group, drove to the kanavati house, learned about a man named elias, went to see elias at a mobile phone store, left the store with a man named essa; essa had the key, let us in, and we saw vicky's first house and met another cousin with a familiar name: essa kanavati. 

o - i left one thing out. just in case the story isn't crazy enough as it is, once we were in the house, we found an old photo of elaine's cousin chris kanavati, who we met last summer in alexandria, minnesota. it's a picture of him and his bride on their wedding.