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!

Jordan Day 1, June12

Arrived about 7:30 PM last night. The airport here in Amman is very yellow. Yellow signs, yellow glass windows, yellow lighting. Yellow. And crowded. And hot. You have to buy a visa before entering the country. $15. Not bad after the 12.5 hour plane trip. ( I sat next to Ahamad, a 53 year old Jordanian man with four kids and one wife, who hates blacks because one killed his brother in New Orleans. I have his number in case 'i have a problem and need any help')

Got to the hotel and went to bed. Didn't sleep much and 3:45 AM comes very, VERY early when you don't sleep. But the red dawn was nice to watch.

But the first day on on the dig was fantastic. I am in field D of the dig (there are 6 different fields or holes people are digging in), and we have a structure in the field that we are excavating. Speculations are that we are diggin' up a home, or perhaps a granery. We have found alot of pottery pieces, and before i arrived a shard with writing was found(a HUGE discovery in the field of archeology), as well as a small painted statue of a horse or bull (take your pick I guess!)


Our team is great. My friends Amanda, Dustin, Scottie and Shawn are all on my field. It's good times. We have rapping, dancing, singing and lots and LOTS of sarcasm. I fit right in! Shawn demonstrates the art of pointing to a wall here.

We eat breakfast at 4 AM, hit the road, dig till 9:30, eat second breakfast (yep, like hobbits!) and then dig until 12:45 when the desert tries to roast us alive, so we pack up and head home. In the PM we clean pottery for two hours, eat lunch and take naps. Many people are complaining about the falafel and pita and hummus and insist I will be sick of it in a week, but I fail to believe them.
My job on site is mostly sifting dirt and sand. I get to find lots of pottery and beads and bones which is fun. All the lifting of the goofahs (rubber buckets) is a real workout (don't worry Mom, I'm watching out for my arm!), but anyone who wants to arm wrestle when I get home....

Field D looks like this. Before dawn, Day 1. Scottie is in the picture, setting signs for official dig pictures.

On for day 2!

Fly Work Live

This Christmas I had the joy of going to far away Peru for 18 heat filled days. The flights alone should scare anyone and landing at 1 Am local time makes the first days of your visit seem foggy. I went with a wonderful group of 58 others, all of us with the goal of building 2 churches for local congregations.The poverty in and around Lima is stunning. The children with bellies distended by worms and malnutrition, the drinking water they consume smells of urine, the air is clogged with grimy smoke from burning trash and the houses contructed with plastic bags and rusted iron are enough to make the strongest gape in awe. Over 500 thousand people live in the sand dunes around Lima.






Day 1 -After a brief nap we wrangled ourselves into two ancient buses and hauled ourselves to the work sites where we learned to lay block and got a lay of the land. On our site in Pachecutec (say that one 5 times fast!) we had an ocean view and a breeze that kept us somewhat cooled during the sunny, smoggy days.

This is the first block we laid on site. Ray led the way and got rolling fast on putting up the walls. Our foreman, Art, taught us well. None of the walls feel down. Jericho could take a lesson from us!Day 2 - A full day of work on the site got us up to course four of blocks. FAST work! I got to work on grouting with a team of magnificent crazy people, including the two monkies you see below, Annika and KK. Finished early to prepare for Sabbath.Day 3 - A long bus ride to church and we were almost the first ones there! The church we built will replace a pole contruction with plastic bags for a roof, and solid dirt for a floor. I must say though, having a dog sit next to me in church was a new experience. Also new for me..shaking everyone's hand on the way out the door of the church!









Day 4 - Back to the grind. Made it up to course 7 of blocks on one half of the building and I believe up to course four on the other half. Had sprinkles of rain on site today. It helped keep the dust down a bit, except for the dust being flung about by the saw we used to cut block with.



















Day 5 - A full day of work on the site. Lost three of our team members to illness, which left us all pulling harder to fill in the missing gaps. The younger ones started to wear out earlier in the day. Lunches consist of sandwiches and carefully purchased chips that were full of MSG. Yeah for MSG! We celebrated Christmas today with sandwiches (surprise!) on site and handfuls of fake snow thrown on us by my lovely roommate for the trip, Dawn. Dinner was a huge affair with singing and an elegantly prepared dinner with tableclothes and centerpieces. Lotsa hoopla! The kids (18 and under) all got purses or hats to celebrate the ultimate Gift.

Day 6 - Fatigue had by this time started to hit us all. Wednesday and rafting were approaching and we were all ready for the "Time to go!" call. Our foreman, Art, whom I lovingly call Artimus, would have worked all night if we would have let him. Achy muscles and short tempers all become a part of these trips I surmise, but we had worship nightly and everyone the kept lack of sleep and lack of energy greatly under control.



The rest of the days will soon be added. I just wanted to start posting before mayhem breaks out for me not telling people what happened!