Jordan Day 2 June 13

Today was Cecilia’s birthday and she joined us at field D. She usually is at the hotel sorting and tagging all of the finds, but this day was an exception. Not a cloud in the sky today, which made for a lovely hot day. Lots of dirt to move today. We cut into balks (dividing piles of dirt in each field, about 1 meter wide) and found some spiffy stuff. Found a complete handle to a pot. Found some painted pieces. But the major haul for the day….an egg. Yep. Hard boiled, buried about 6 inches below surface, and was probably sorely missed by the person who brought it years ago for breakfast. Sadly we discarded it, as it "does not have any historical value".

Shawn performed a lovely dance for Cecilia today. Dustin somehow managed to capture the entire thing on video. I believe he has posted it to YouTube under “The dancing archeologist”. We laughed for hours over that one. Shawn fears for his seminary career now, but the world will have laughter!

We also had camels, Cecelia’s favorite animal, come visit the site today. See? Cecilia loves camels.

Received an interesting compliment today. As I was hauling goofahs full of dirt to sift, one of our helpers, a local guy, about 18, from the tribe whose land we are nearest, said “Yenniffer, you good man.” Made my day that one! A) to be told I am good at this is great, since it is all so new B) to be told I am a man in riotous and C) to hear this from a young Jordanian man is highly complimentary and hilarious.

Instead of sticking around for dinner, after pottery washing Amanda, Dustin, Cecilia and I headed into the city center. Found a watch that had Arabic numerals on the face. Now I can’t tell the time in another script. Drat! We ate dinner in town and we meandered the streets like hooligans. Well watched hooligans. I guess foreigners are rare in the part of the city we went to, as we were watched at every turn. Even at dinner. I imagine it must be what animals in a zoo feel like. I think I may boycott zoos from now on…The smell of the city reminds me of Rome in the summer. Diesel, dirt and cooking food. We got ‘home’ in time to sleep and I woke up at 1 AM. I still can’t seem to sleep through the night here…

On to Day 3!