Yesterday afternoon I saw the “Group of Nine” off at the Minneapolis/St. Paul airport. I was joined by parents, children, and siblings of the nine Hippos diggers flying out of the Twin Cities. The Nine successfully met up with five others in Atlanta last night—only to have their departure to Tel Aviv delayed by nearly two hours! But they are airborne as I write, with an estimated arrival time of 7:11 pm Israel time (not the scheduled 5:25 pm). I do not envy their travel saga! It will be well after dark by the time they arrive at Kibbutz En Gev, and a very short night before they head off at 8:30 am on Saturday on the trip around the Sea of Galilee. Sunday will be their first workday. A jet-lagged group will gather in the kibbutz parking lot for the 4:45 am bus ride most of the way up to the site. They’ll have to hike up the rest of the mountain in the early morning light and start by pulling weeds. Watch out for those scorpions!
June 2007 Archives
Hmmmm. I'm getting e-mails from veteran volunteers who say the food is fine. Here's evidence. Let everyone make her or his own judgment!
Wayne, NE OK, this is my first ever blog! Being, as Rhoda so kindly puts it, "mature" (aka over 40), I've not had the need or opportunity thusfar in my life to do any blogging. When Dr. Schuler asked if I'd join Rhoda and blog as an "Armchair Archaeologist" my first thought was "How do I tell this very smart man that I don't know how to blog???" Not to worry, Dr. Schuler is used to explaining--patiently--new concepts to people of all ages. So here I am, and here goes!
Having participated in the dig the previous two summers, I'm feeling a little (alright, more than a little) sad at missing this year's dig. But I'll have plenty here at home to keep me busy, and being able to participate as a state-side blogger is still pretty exciting. I remember well the feelings voiced by some of the new participants--being excited, nervous, a little scared, but most of all, being unable to believe that I was about to be included in what up until that point had just been a dream of mine. How fortunate I felt at being included in such an experience! Back in 2005, when I was preparing to go on the dig for my first time, people wondered how I could consider going halfway around the world and do extremely difficult physical labor in an area of the world in which the political situation was dicey at best, with people I'd never even met. Well, I looked at it this way: The people I would be working with would all share at least one intrest with me--archaeology--and I am a product of the Lutheran college system, as were many of the others, and above all, we all had in common our faith in the Lord who would be with us throughout our trip, dicey political situation notwithstanding. THAT was a great comfort to me. To be in the land of Jesus, to walk where He (maybe) walked, and to swim in the same Sea of Galilee on which He walked....well, it still blows me away! All of the members of the 2007 team have many, many exciting, exhausting, and sometimes deeply moving experiences to look forward to!
Now, some advice for the new members: First of all, go straight to your suitcases, take out half of what you've packed, and leave it at home!! Invariably, you'll have too much stuff, and those suitcases get heavy when you're lugging them around the various airports. Just make sure you don't take out any Band-aids, baby powder (to absorb moisture), or granola bars--you'll need to stash a couple of those in your backpack daily to supplement the cuisine up at the dig! Don't worry too much about sunscreen, at least for up at the dig--you'll be so covered with dirt and sweat after the first 10 minutes of work that you'll have plenty of "natural" sunscreen. As far as the bug spray goes, believe it or not, you really don't need it. And it doesn't work on scorpoins, anyway! (Ha!) Secondly, crazy as it sounds, WOOL SOCKS really are the greatest for keeping your feet comfortable. Along those same lines, make sure your boots are broken in! And finally, keep an open mind--but not an empty head--and be ready for the experience of a lifetime! Rest assured that you will learn more without even trying than you have ever learned in your lives. I envy all of you!
Dr. Schuler, Linda, Andrea, Glen, Arny, Dark Load, Kristina, I hope to see all of you next year! Have a beer in the pub for me!
God speed and safe travels to all of you!
Just days to go! After sending off the "Final instructions" e-mail to the diggers---thinking it was my last---I realized I have at least three more loose ends to tie up. Will it ever end? Nancy says she gets more depressed about not going this year with each passing day. I was that way too, until I read Kristina's first blog entry and was reminded of the bugs, other wildlife (sorry, Glenn! I know their presence is of great interest to you), and the sunburn. I will NOT miss those first few days when scorpions show up as people disturb the rocks on the surface, nor will I miss exposing my fair complexion---my father's redhead gene may be recessive for my hair color, but not my skin type---to the blistering sun. Of course, I packed #30 sun screen and applied it liberally, but no sun screen is sweat proof, so it was a losing battle. I looked like a beet the first couple days, and everyone was worried I was coming down with heat stroke.
And there are other things I won't miss. When Mark and I were in Evansville, Indiana earlier this month for a Schuler family visit, we did the 2007 Hippos report during the Bible class hour at his home church. My section of the presentation was titled "all the dirt on the dig." I talked about the daily routine and commented (as the plate of breakfast food came up on the powerpoint presentation) that people do not come back as volunteers year after year because of the cuisine. I will not miss the mediocre kibbutz food nor the ambience of the breakfast hall---an abandoned 1940s Israeli Defense Force building with every surface covered in pigeon manure.
But I do have regrets about not going this year, mostly about the people. Participation in the dig builds a sense of community among the diggers that transcends the generations. I wasn't surprised to see the warmth between Linda and Nancy at the Newark airport last year. Since the two were the only "mature" (aka, over 40) adult women on the 2005 dig, a bond between them was natural. However, I was surprised to learn this spring from Amanda Bundy, a CSP student from Hibbing, Minnesota, that Arny Friend (who's from the St. Louis area and nearly old enough to be Amanda's grandfather) and his wife made a point of looking up Amanda and her family when they were visiting his wife's relatives in the Hibbing area. The Bundy and Friend families went out to dinner together. Apparently, during brief week that Arny and Amanda were both at Hippos, the two had a conversation about family and concluded they might be related---that was enough to cement a relationship that now extends to their families! Then a couple of weeks ago in casual conversation, Andrea Chandler mentioned that, when she's on her way back to St. Paul after visiting her mother in western Nebraska, she always stops in Wayne, Nebraska and has lunch with Nancy. Okay, after visiting her mother, she stops and has lunch with another woman old enough to be her mother! I will miss getting to know a great group of people this year. I'm counting on the on-site bloggers to fill us in not only on the finds on from the NE church but also on the stories that reflect the building of community among the diggers.
By the way, last night Nancy and I talked by phone (discussing what, exactly it is, about which we are supposed to blog). Nancy, who's already planning to return next summer commented: "I hope they have a good season but don't find anything too spectacular until next year." I'm hoping for no lost passports, no trips to hospital emergency rooms, and no emergency evacuations of diggers this year!
