Every year, nativity scenes pop up at this time. My impression is that they are going up a bit later this year and maybe not quite so many.

In general, families, larger family groups and small neighbourhoods will often construct a nativity scene out of local materials. They will usually have a palm leaf roof and if big enough, provide cover from the rain at this time of the year. The bigger ones are almost like bus shelters in size with the smaller ones with barely enough room for one when raining.

Last year, I promised myself I would do a photo shoot of as many as I could find this year. But the numbers of them seem down and more critically, my digital camera “pointed the toes” * about 2 weeks ago.

I hope to rectify the camera problem by early January and hope enough of the nativity scenes are still intact to make it worthwhile. I suspect the later arrival may be due to the possible targetting of nativity scenes by gangs as a way of getting at their targets. I could be wrong.

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* “point the toes” = when dead and lying on one’s back, the toes are pointed upwards.