Jordan Day 6, June 17

It's Sunday. A day of laze. Planning on a trip to the suq (market) and doing laundry in the sink. And trying to get tan. All day yesterday in the sun and no burn or tan or anything. Why, I ask? WHY???

And Father's Day! So to my dad, a tribute.

Babbo, this is how glad I am to have you as my Dad. Photo was taken yesterday in the site of Ghadera. It also happens to be my "I'm so happy to be standing in a ruin in the middle of Jordan, in the summer, getting credit for it" face.

I love you Dad!

Jordan Day 5, June 16

I am so thankful for Sabbath! We got to sleep in until 7 AM, though my roommate and I woke up about 5:30 and talked for about two hours, we ate a late breakfast and hit the road on a tour of sites at 8AM. A huge tour bus came to get us and off we raced. How our driver managed to get us around some of these roads I am still not sure.

The ride was amazing. Often one of our professors would pop on the loudspeaker and say "To our left is the creek where Jacob and his family crossed over and he wrestled with God" or "At our 8 o'clock is the mountain where Saul and Jonathon were killed" or "Directly to our right is the most well preserved crusaders castle". Monkeys!
Our first stop was a site that had been excavated by a group from Norway. Dier Alla is the place where the Ba'laam stone was found. An entire wall was covered in red and black writing on plaster detailing the life of a prophet. Apparently the prophet was sent to curse a group of people known as the children of God and instead wound up blessing them. Three times. Sound familiar? Yep.
Second stop for the day was at a site called Pella. It was here that some of the first Christians settled when forced to leave Jerusalem. They has a breeze on top of this hill, and a spring at the bottom, and a nice view of the Jordan valley. There is also a ruin of an old mosque up on the top of the hill. One of the first known mosques in the area.
Third stop...lunch. And our first real view of the Sea of Galilee. The SEA OF GALILEE!!!! It was amaaaaaazing to know that here, on Sabbath, we were hanging out by the Golan Heights (yep, we drove right by a corner of Syria) and we were walking where Jesus walked. Jesus walked on this Sea. And here I am holding it in my hand. Wahoo!
Next up we went to Ghadera. The story of the demon possessed man in scripture, the one where Jesus sent the demons into the pigs? Yeah, that happened here. A relatively amazing thing to know that this city was around and thriving back in the day, and now we get to walk in its ruins. Here are Sean and Scottie acting like wanna be archaeologists in the middle of Ghadera.













And here is one of the amphitheaters on the site. It was amazingly well maintained, and had great acoustics. Note the modern road in the background. Historical sites aren't sacred I guess. Unless they are located in Israel and called "The Dome of the Rock". Irony, I believe we call it.


Our final stop for the day is one of the most well preserved sites in the Middle East. Jerash is amazing. The site covers about 200 acres of land and has some of the best of everything. Temples, mosaics, streets, arches. And the Jordanian government is taking great pride in restoring parts of it for posterity. Here is my favorite shot from the temple of Artemis (aka Diana).And here is a fortuitous shot of some locals walking through one of the main gates in Jerash.

Jordan Day 4, June 15

Breakfast at 4 AM is more and more appealing. I love hummus at that hour. I still am not, nor will I ever be, a morning person, but at least food is good for enticement. And the desert is beautifully still at that hour.

Arrived to the site on time this AM. It was blooming cold out on the Tel today. And very, very windy. Some of our workers lit a branch on fire and huddled around it. Surprisingly it did give off a lot of heat. Funny how desert dwellers know how to stay warm when it's cold and cool when it's hot.
In other news, we had pirates attack today. They forced us to listen to them singing and even declared the Tel as their domain by planting a flag. Crazy pirates. Their crazy antics did however allow me a chance to tell silly pirate jokes which made us all "ARRR".
Actually our local workers freaked out a bit at the 'ghost' on the flag. Said it would bring bad things to happen on the site. So far, not true.
Field A found another skeleton today. A baby this time. A lot of dead people popping up on the Tel. Recent burials mostly. So we have to exhume them and then rebury them. None of the graves are marked and so they are always a surprise.
Since it is Friday, we let our workers go at 11 to pray, as all Muslims are supposed to on Friday, and we did pottery reading early, which leaves us with plenty of time to do laundry, watch movies, e-mail and run to see cool site around the area. Found out that there is couple here from St. Helena. And a girl from Austin. Nice to catch up on 'home' news.
Also was told today that the hotel in which we stay is famous for being a place of ill-repute. Yep. Apparently prostitution is very alive and well here and seeing women dressed as we do in this hotel is very rare in this country. For some reason platform shoes and strapless dresses are a no-no. It's what the ladies of the night (or really any hour) wear.
Here is the place I spend much of my day. The sifter. Well, I spend much of it between here...

















and here...

Jordan Day 3, June 14

Our bus drivers got lost on the way to the site, so I got to see the not-so-thriving metropolis of Madaba this AM. Of course, at 4:30 nobody was awake, so it was a quiet trip. Amanda helped start the day with a bit of Tai Chi. I later learned that Amanda doesn't actually know Tai Chi. But she faked it well.





Young Hwa enjoyed the dawn (my Day 3) while wrapped in her kephia, a typical male headdress, and Dustin was taught by Aleph how to wrap his kephia. Dustin is the one in white, just in case you couldn't tell.

Scottie and I cleared about 80 goofahs (those handy rubber baskets) full of dirt today. My arms and back ache. But we found a butt! It’s the butt of an animal, a tail, and a broken off leg, hollow body, no head. Sad looking decapitated piece of pottery, but a nice find. Scottie was happy to make many butt jokes this evening once the piece was identified. Many big rocks were shifted today from ancient (well really old) wall collapses. Dustin has educated our field helpers in the art of grunting. Before hauling the rocks, they all now hit knuckles together, grunt and flex. It’s like watching cavemen.

Field C, the field next to us, found the head of a figurine. Very cool figure of a lady with long hair and a headdress. Apparently a very rare find of a Moabite goddess figurine. Our dig director has only ever seen one before, and that one was in a picture.

Falafel sandwiches for second breakfast, and melon. Lots of melon, which is wonderful to eat just as the heat is starting to build. And I still love falafel and hummus. This is the view from where we eat breakfast. Olive groves and houses.

At pottery washing the gang decided to sing show tunes. Stephanie, Shawn and Scottie enchanted us with everything from Phantom to Fiddler. They have an amazing repertoire. We should hire them out. They take requests, just not the request to shush.

And today another compliment “Yenniffer, you good woman.” And then “Yenniffer, you smart.” WOW! I think I have a following. And a proper gender assignment.

Tomorrow is Friday, which my muscles are glad for. And Sabbath will find us loaded on a bus headed north. I get to see the Sea of Galilee! And Jerash! Dinner is calling and then bed. I do miss my bed. This one is like a brick with some foam on top. And a thin layer of foam at that…

On to Day 4!

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!

Provoking, Passionate, Pensive

He loved her with such passion. He risked his job, his career and ultimately his life to be with her. His mind was filled with thoughts of her and he found himself wanting to be by her side constantly.

She loved him back. She wanted to ride to the end of the world by his side. She wanted to see him reach high and be all that he dreamed of being.

And ultimately they died together. Held in each others arms in a dark tomb, they are sealed under the sand of Egypt to die together.

Had the pleasure of seeing 'Aida' - a musical by Elton John and Tim Rice stolen ruthlessly from the annals of Verdi history. It was awesome! And I am so thrilled to know that my roommie Stacy loves music and drags me into it:) The power of the music and lyrics to draw emotion and make the mind dwell on deeper issues is amazing!





And it made me think of another love story. A deeper issue in life.

It is a thought, the deep issue, of the God who loves me so much that He thinks about me all the time. He wants to be with me constantly. He risked His job, His heavenly career, to be here on earth. He is captivated by me and He ultimately died for me and was buried beneath the sands of Israel. (Great thing though, He didn't stay there!)


Do I love Him that way? Do I think if Him? Do I want to spend time with Him? Is He the one that makes my world go round? Would I die for Him?