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Tuesday, February 1, 2000
Hot water is back. Good day on the site. Ruth and I had 2nd breakfast with Bahagett and several other workers. We had a very good meal and company, though the jump ball for a candy bar turned out badly. There’s lots of good stuff in the units. The day goes fast. It’s still cold back here at the dig house. Rain is predicted for tomorrow. I can hear turkeys gobbling outside. It’s a nice change from the roosters.
Wednesday, February 2, 2000
TAN Finds
It was a foggy morning. There’s no way the ground hog saw his shadow. We had a busy day on site. Ilya left for home. He wants me to join him in Mazraa’ next January to map the ZAD site. Greg made a baseball out of wound string and duct tape. I had lunch with the shebab [Arabic for ‘young men’] again. The weather is ever so slightly warmer.
Thursday, February 3, 2000
Good day on the site. I think I’m enjoying it on the site so much because, from about 9:00 AM until we leave for the day, I’m actually warm. A few of us went to town (Mishara) for envelopes, and I got pastries for tomorrow’s 2nd breakfast on site with Bahagett. Today I ate with Mohammed II and his crowd. Much more subdued, and you ate only what you brought. No elaborate displays of generosity.
Friday, February 4, 2000
View of Pella
It’s a day off and I slept late (6:00 AM), then enjoyed a hot shower and some Bedouin tea in solitude. Went to Pella and toured the ruins. Bahagett met us there around 1:30 and took Ruth and me to his brother’s house for lunch. (Bahagett works in Ruth’s unit.) His parents and most of his family were there. We had a huge meal and a great time amid typically terrific Mideastern hospitality. The ride home in a taxi minivan was an adventure. We took back roads to avoid a police stop because the taxi was unlicensed, going in circles and almost getting stuck in the bottom of a wadi. Bahagett and I had to stand on the back bumper to add weight to give the back wheels traction.
Saturday, February 5, 2000
Bonita and me in Unit W
It’s was a great day on the site. Ruth (Unit AA) is finding walls, Bonita (Unit W) found a beautiful shell bead in addition to everything else in her unit, and Emily (Unit Y) found a possible grave. Bahagett, Ali and I’id visited the dig house for tea, so we got to return at least a little bit of hospitality for yesterday. As I write this the rain has started falling again. Today it was finally warm enough on the site to leave the long underwear at the dig house. Looks like that may not last long.
Sunday, February 6, 2000
Awaken by rain. The bus couldn’t make it up the muddy incline approaching the site, so we walked in. At the site the rains held off most of the day, but once they did come we almost packed it in. Luckily they abated and we got a full day in. Also, we got to have lunch on site. Darar’s parents brought out a huge spread for lunch: food, drinks, chairs and everything. Yesterday when Darar asked me to eat lunch with him today and I agreed to, I wasn’t expecting this. It was very nice of him and his parents (his father is one of our night watchmen on the site) and another good example of Jordanian hospitality.
Monday and Tuesday, February 7-8, 2000
Had a couple of decent days on the site, both the weather and work progress. All the units are doing well. We did some mapping back at the dig house with survey data collected over the last couple of days. I made a bat out of a mop handle and took batting practice with Greg’s string-and-duct tape ball. Our Jordanian hosts offered more hospitality on the site as Rami passed out lemonade.
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