Bethlehem, checkpoint, 'servis'

Servis, pronounced 'sir - veece' is the minibus or stretch vehicle taxis that wait to take you places. Took a servis to Bethlehem from the bus station in front of a rock face with a skull like detail to it (unlikely to be the 'Place of the Skull' but claimed as such by a few folks in the nineteenth century). The journey was smooth, and the new checkpoint feels more like an IKEA warehouse than some of the more bleak control points I've had to wait at here and elsewhere in the West Bank. It continues to be peculiarly cold, rainy and windy, this is freak April weather. I'm not expecting it wil last.

I'm feeling both nervous and excited thinking of the sixteen people making the trip this evening via Heathrow to arrive here tomorrow, I do hope it all goes smoothly.