Playing in the Dirt

What a day! We shifted a TON of dirt. We're now working three squares in the A section, and out team has grown quite a bit. Other then uncovering a lot of rocks, we didn't find anything interesting except for a small section of mosaic by Liz's Wall. Here's a shot of all three squares, although the original, A0 is dug so deep you can't really see it.

Here's a shot of my favourite tools of the trade...gloves are an absolute necessity, and who could resist pink ones? Not me! The brush is for tidying up and defining the outline of walls, or rocks that could possibly be part of a wall. The small pick and the trowels are also used for the delicate work around walls. That's my favourite part of the job, and this is the section of wall I was working on today. We also use a tool that's a cross between a shovel and hoe, called a turrea, but I don't like it enough to take a picture of it - using it makes my back hurt!

And this is me at the end of the dig today. With so many people working in such a small space, the dirt was flying like crazy, and I emerged from the pit dirtier then I've ever been. I thought that was worth documenting, especially given the heckling I've been getting for staying clean!

At lunch today, still all grimy, having only washed my hands and changed boots for flip-flops, I was contemplating how much work it was going to be to get clean. I'd have to go back to the room, gather up towels, clean clothes and toiletries, wait for a shower stall, shower and rinse out all my dirty clothes, get dressed again without dropping the clean clothes on the wet floor, haul all the stuff back to my room, and hang out the wet things.

Jenn and Katie, my roommates, as well as my pit boss, Arnie, were sitting with me, and I said something to the effect of "I wish I could go through the dishwasher". They all looked at me like I'd spent too much time in the sun...

But the dishwasher here is super cool - you scrape off your dishes, and load it all onto a tray on a conveyer belt, and it runs it through the dishwasher. If I could take a ride on it, I'd be clean, and my clothes would be clean too! Sounds like a pretty good idea to me...

I should tell you about what happened last night...I did the stupidest thing I've done in a very, very long time!

I took my camera down to take some shots of pottery washing on the lawn, but got caught up in it, and then talked to some people, and went back to the dorm to wash for dinner. As I was leaving the room, I went to grab some shekels to buy a Coke at dinner (yes Mom, I know it's bad for me... :) and realized that I'd put my money belt (including my passport!) in my camera case, and that my camera was still sitting down by the lake.

Panic doesn't even begin to describe what I felt...I sprinted all the way to the lawn to find everyone from the group had gone, and so had my camera case. Literally in tears I went back to my room to see if it was there and I'd missed seeing it, but it wasn't. I trudged over to the dining hall, not knowing what else to do, and what did I see but Ian standing outside, waving my camera bag. It took a couple of hours for my heartbeat to go back to normal!

Then this morning on the bus up to the hill, I was dozing off, and the next thing I know Ian (who was sitting behind me) had leaned forward and said, practically in my ear "So did you dream about loosing your passport last night?" I nearly jumped out of my seat...thankfully I didn't scream, as I've been known to do when startled! He swears he didn't mean to scare me, and seeing as how he's not one of my youth boys, I suppose he probably means it. :)

Now I'm off to join Jenn on the lawn beside the Sea to read for a bit before pottery cleaning...and I'm leaving my passport safely locked in my room!!!