Jenn Shack

I have spent the last two days asking myself, "what day is it?" Jet lag will do that to you, I guess. But finally I'm coherent enough to think back to my last day in Israel and fill in the last pieces of the puzzle for those of you who might still be reading.

Monday was the last day I spent in Israel. It was an early morning, but I still got to "sleep in" about half an hour longer than on a normal dig day. I waved goodbye to those who were heading up the mountain to dig, finished my last-minute packing and then got on the bus to Tel Aviv at 6am. The bus dropped us off at the airport and we scurried around to find the luggage storage place so we could leave our bags there for the day. It looked a little sketchy to me, but everything was still there when we got back, so it was okay. After stowing our stuff, we searched for the bus that would take us to Jerusalem. We eventually boarded it, but had one transfer to make. When we got on the transfer, there was no room for us...we had to stand all the way...and this bus was not designed for standing. Think Grey Hound bus with a tiny aisle and no handholds. Thankfully it was only 35 minutes.

Once we got to Jerusalem, we decided to take a taxi to the top of the Mount of Olives to save us hiking up. We had a limited amount of time before some of the churches closed for the afternoon. A deal was struck and our group climbed into three taxis. But, somewhere along the line someone must have felt we did something wrong. One cabbie kept trying to get some of our group to get into a different taxi. It took a while to get away from the curb. The first two cars took off, and we were about to follow when a fist fight broke out between two of the cabbies that had been arguing with our group! As if that wasn't scary enough, our driver stopped, got out, and went to break up the fight! At that moment I wondered if coming to Jerusalem was such a good idea after all. But thankfully we met up with the rest of our group all in one piece. I still have no idea exactly what went wrong, but I wasn't going to go back and find out.

Once we were all together at the top of the Mount of Olives, we flew through the church commemorating the ascension of Jesus, the church commemorating the place where He prayed the Lord's Prayer and Gethsemane. Thankfully the doorman at Gethsemane let us in as we were there just as the doors were about to close.  Once those were done, the time crunch was over and we could slow down a bit.

We walked to the Old City and went to the Western Wall. Then we wound our way through the Souk (marketplace) to find the Church of St Anne and Bethesda. This is apparently the oldest surviving church in Jerusalem. I think of all the places we visited in Jerusalem, this was my favourite. It doesn't really hold any Biblical significance (although if this is the real pool of Bethesda, Jesus healed a man here.) Perhaps I liked it because it was quiet. There were few other visitors while we were there. It was also comparatively plain, which appeals to my western-church sensibilities. But my favourite part about it was the acoustics inside. Even a camera shutter seemed loud! I was almost afraid to breathe lest I disturb the others there. We sang the doxology inside as a group and it was amazing. I would love to sing in that church choir...Think of the sound you could make!

After St. Anne, it was the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. This is the place where Jesus was crucified and buried. I had expected a tiny little building packed to the brim with people, and decorated beyond recognition. I was pleasantly surprised. There were still a lot of bright and shiny decorations, but the church is huge! There were a lot of people there, but it wasn't crowded and we were able to see just about everything except the inside of "the building within the building" which is over the tomb of Jesus. That part of the church is very small and the line was very long. I opted to explore the rest of the church and then see the inside of that as time allowed. I never did make it inside, as our time there was limited, but I did crawl inside another tomb with Michelle and Carl. It was really dark!

Once we were done there, we had a short bit of time for shopping before we had to hike back to the bus station. I thought we would never get there! Who knew we had walked so far? But we did make it in time for the 6pm bus back to Tel Aviv. This time we were in the front of the line and so we got seats on the bus! Hooray! Then, we had to pick up our luggage and re-shuffle things into carry-ons. We weren't allowed to start the security process until close to 10pm, so we puttered around for a bit. Pretty soon we decided to get in the security line early since it seemed really long. It was good that we did. What a process! I think I had to show my passport to six different people. I also had to answer a ton of questions, have both pieces of checked luggage searched and then re-pack it all. We made it to our gate with only about 15 minutes to spare before boarding. I had been planning to blog in all our "extra" time...what extra time?

The flight was long, but I slept through most of it, thankfully. We landed in Toronto at 5:45 am. Then, once again, it was customs and line-ups. I love Canadian customs. It was so easy! Then it was time for me to leave the rest of the team. They all had connections to make and I had to go figure out how to get back to my car at Park N Fly. I managed to get to the right place and I have never breezed through Toronto traffic with such ease. I was to my doorstep in Fisherville by 8:45am. Just in time to go to work! Or not...I saved that for Wednesday. Even then I was still pretty out of it. Today, I finally know what day it is and hopefully tomorrow I won't be ready for bed by 8pm. What an amazing trip!

I had the best of intentions to blog while we waited at the airport on Monday night. But, even though we were there by 7:00pm for a 12:30am flight, there was no time! By the time we collected our stored luggage, found our way to the terminal, re-shuffled day packs into carry-ons, changed out of our sweaty Jerusalem gear (Yes! I got to visit there after all...but that's for another post) and had some supper, it was time for security. You would think that three hours would be enough time to get through with little trouble and have lots of time to blog on the other side, right? Nope. We made it through with only 20 minutes to spare before boarding. So, here I am, safely back in Fisherville. After much laundry, picture sorting and a bit of relaxing, I finally have time to tell you about Jordan.

I already told you about the crazy border experience. Now for the touring! Our first stop was Jerash. This is one of the cities of the Decapolis. Of all the cities, this is the best preserved because it is located in a valley, not on a mountain top. Thus, rains washed down lots of soil from the surrounding hills and covered the ruins completely. Thus, gates, columns, and theatres were not pillaged for building materials by later societies and the ancient city could be well reconstructed. Like Hippos-Sussita, this city was also destroyed by the 749AD earthquake.

My favourite part about Jerash was the moving columns. At the temple of Artemis (I think...things are beginning to run together) there are columns that are designed to move with the wind to prevent them from falling down. They are absolutely huge. Our guide had a spoon wedged between a seam in the column near its base and pushed the column. The spoon moved! A lot! It was amazing. Others in our group took turns pushing the columns.

Before we'd had time to really absorb Jerash, we were off to Mount Nebo. This is the traditional location from where Moses viewed the Promised Land before he died. Unfortunately, the church at that location is closed for the next year as they lift one mosaic floor and display it on the walls in order to uncover and show the earlier floor underneath it. The best part about this location was being able to see the Dead Sea. I knew I wasn't going to get to visit it, but to see it from afar was the next best thing. We also made a very quick stop at Madaba. There is a church there that had a floor mosaic that is a map of the holy land. It is really interesting and quite detailed. It is too bad that much of it is missing.

After these tours it was time for the long drive to Petra. We stayed overnight there and then spent the next day walking around. In total, our guide estimated that we walked over 17km! My poor feet. But the city of Petra is amazing. Even before you get to the city, the canyon that you have to walk through has some spectacular rock formations and the colours of the sandstone are beautiful. All of the buildings which were carved into the rock were spectacular. The most impressive of them were the Treasury and the Monastery. Another one that I liked was a tomb (can't remember more about it than that...) that was later converted into a church. The acoustics were great. We had one of our group members sing for us to test them out. She was pretty much singing in harmony with herself, the reverb was so long. We also saw a Byzantine era church which has been discovered with beautiful mosaics. The most strenuous part of the trip was the 850-step climb up to the Monastery. What a hike. Again, I observed no guard rails or barriers between people and cliff edges. I saw one little Bedouin boy about 5 years old or less creep so close to one edge that one more step, or one false move and he would have ended up at the bottom of a cavern that seemed endlessly deep. Although the Monastery itself was amazing, for me the climb was worth it because of the view from the lookout points above the Monastery. This, of course meant more climbing, but it was well worth it. The view of the mountains was unlike anything I have ever seen. Even the pictures I took cannot adequately describe what I saw there.  One of the things we were able to see is the traditional site of Aaron's tomb waaaay across on the very top of another mountain.

Of course, we had to then descend to the Monastery, then descend the 850 steps to the city of Petra, then wind our way back to the Treasury,  then hike back out through the canyon to get to the hotel. All along the way there are people offering you rides of all kinds from donkeys to horses, camels and carts. Their sales pitch goes something like this: "You need taxi? Ride to (the top of the mountain, the Treasury, the parking lot - anywhere!) Only 20 Dinars!" 20 Dinars is about $30. I'm certain to ride all the way would have cost at least a hundred dollars as the donkeys take you to the bottom of the mountain, the camels take you to the treasury, the carts take you to the horse drop-off and the horses take you to the park entrance. Being cheap, I walked the whole way.

Like any tourist place, Petra had its cheesy side. Just before you enter the park gates there are several gift shops and places to buy food. My personal favourite is the Indiana Jones store and the Indiana Jones snack bar. Too funny!

The next morning, after breakfast, we were on our way "home" to the Kibbutz with only one touring stop: the city of Aman. I'd have to say Aman was the nicest city that we drove through in Jordan. Many of the others seemed run down and dirty. I'm still trying to figure out if that is because they actually were run down and dirty, or because I'm just not used to that kind of terrain, building material and plant life. Many parts of Jordan were absolutely barren of all greenery. Nothing but sand and rock as far as you can see. Anyway, back to Aman. Much of our tour was driving through, but we did stop to look at a few things. Our first stop was a walking tour of one area. I'd call it more of a running tour, actually. Running because Sami (tour guide) was moving fast and there were people everywhere. If you didn't run to keep up, you would lose him in a sea of people. The other reason you had to run was because Sami had a tendency to stop in seemingly random places, hold out his hand for a slit second and then plunge across five lanes of traffic. If you weren't right behind him, the traffic started moving again and you were stuck on the other side. We only got split up this way once. After that, you kept up with the group at all costs! We must have crossed major streets about five or six times. Only once did we use a crosswalk.

We stopped at an ancient theatre in Aman, which was very impressive and also at an archaeological museum where there were a few of the Dead Sea Scrolls. That was exciting. Sadly, about half of their scroll collection was on loan to some other museum and they didn't seem to have any biblical scrolls there. But, it was still great to see.

Lunch in Aman was one of the highlights. We called ahead for "Barbeque." Their version of BBQ was six people at a table. In the centre were several kinds of salads and "dips" for pita bread. The waiters put bowls of food on the table, but you aren't allowed to serve yourself. They served for you and kept your plate full. They also brought around things that are best described as "appetizers." Once we were finished with this course, they brought out the BBQ. The platter was loaded high with lamb, chicken, French fries, onions, tomatoes and peppers. Again, no serving yourself. The waiters dished up a heaping plate for each of us. Then, for dessert, we had a plate of crispy delicious watermelon (and keep in mind that I generally don't like watermelon!) and tasty cantaloupe (which I also don't generally like.) All this was served in a restaurant that was tent-like with a couple of fountains, a stream and a bridge. Absolutely beautiful.

After returning to the Kibbutz, we had to pack and get ready to leave for home. Our bus was coming at 6am so that we could also squeeze in a side to trip to Jerusalem! We were so pleased to be able to see it after all, even if it was only for several hours. I'll tell you all about it either tomorrow or the next day.

Last time I wrote it was the last dig day...tomorrow is my last actual day in Israel. How sad! I've really enjoyed my time here and I wish I were able to stay for the next two weeks with the rest of the team. I've loved every minute I've spent here. Yes, even the early mornings!

We had quite the adventure this weekend in Jordan, even without taking into account any of the touring we did. Each time we crossed the border we took about 2 hours and 45 minutes to do it. What a nightmare! Crossing the border between Israel and Jordan is unlike anything I've ever experienced. First we had to "sign out" of Israel and get our passports stamped with an exit stamp. No big deal, right? They let me into the country, they should have no problem letting me out. WRONG! When I handed over my passport to the woman behind the glass, she took it, got a very confused look on her face, consulted with the girl beside her, called over her supervisor and proceeded to ask me my father's name and my grandfather's name. Then her supervisor took my passport, told me to sit "over there" and that the security people had to do some extra checking. What a feeling, watching your only proof of identity and citizenship taken from you in an unstable foreign country half way across the world! So I sat in the chair and waited and waited. Thankfully Dr. Schuler saw what happened and calmly waited with me for about 20 minutes or more while they checked whatever they were checking. Finally they gave my passport back to me all stamped with no further explanation.

That made us delayed getting through the exit process. Then we had to wait for the shuttle to actually take us across the border. Our first bus was supposed to shuttle us across, but the driver must have got tired of waiting and decided to take off on us. So we waited. Of course we wouldn't all fit on the first shuttle, so we waited some more. We crossed the Jordan with no complications. Now we had to go through Jordanian passport control. Another long line. I wasn't looking forward to it after my first experience of the morning. I was even less thrilled when they took my passport, kept it and then said, "Okay, you can go." WHAT? GIVE IT BACK! That's what I wanted to say. But I didn't. Sami, our tour guide looked at me, laughed and told me not to worry, he would collect it and give it back once everyone had gone through. I felt only marginally better. As our group went through baggage screening and finally met up with each other on the other side of the check points, everyone had the same question, "Did they take your passport, too?" Still, the fact that all of our passports had been collected made me feel only a little better. Although Sami soon came along with a handful of passports, I was not totally relaxed until I had mine back in my hand and then stowed away in my money belt. Talk about stress! We had arrived at the border around 8am or so and we did not leave the other side until about 10:45. Exhausting!

Coming home wasn't much better. Our bus had mechanical problems and we were an hour late, getting to the border around 5:00pm. Getting through the Jordanian side was a breeze. But as soon as our bus got through to the bridge over the Jordan and almost into Israel, we were waved aside by Israeli security. We sat there for over an hour, waiting. Finally they came along and interrogated a few individuals. Then they asked us all, "Do you have any weapons? Does all your luggage belong to you? Have you been asked to carry a package across from Jordan?" All the while, Dr. Schuler was on the phone to the bus company waiting for us on the other side, letting him know we would be late. Finally they let us through, only so we could get into another line to go through Israeli passport control and customs. Some had bags x-rayed, some were questioned extensively. I had my luggage searched, and all my books rifled through. Finally we made it to the other side, only to find that our bus had left without us! In addition to this, we had by then missed supper at the Kibbutz. I enjoyed supper of ice cream and chips from the concession at the terminal. By 7:45 we were finally on the road back to the Kibbutz. I've never been so glad to see it!

While we were in Jordan, we did a lot of exciting things, too. We saw Jerash, Mt. Nebo, Madaba, Petra, and Aman. But those are for another day. Right now it is about 11:00pm and I have to be on the bus by 6:00am tomorrow for a side trip and then the airport. Time to go home! But first, time to sleep.

Note: Although I wrote this on Thursday night, I was unable to post it then as there were problems with the site...just pretend like it's still Thursday!

Today was my last day at Hippos-Sussita. It was a good day, but also sad. I cannot believe how fast the time has gone. Our team worked as usual on our square hauling rocks and buckets. We found three buckets of pottery today...so much to wash! But the exciting thing about it is that many of the shards were huge and perhaps they might be put back together to make a whole item. Many of them were found all together in a clump. I also may have found a couple more pieces of the lamp which I found yesterday, but that remains to be seen. Our hole was pretty deep by the time we finished working this morning and work on it is nearly complete. It is exciting to know that we took the square as far as it would go and that we discovered much of what it had to share with us while we were there. It would be harder to leave wondering what else might be found there. As an update on our old square, another team spent a little time in E6 today, trying to locate the other side of the walls. Apparently they did find them, but were forced to stop excavating because the walls were in such bad shape that there was concern they might collapse. It's nice to know that we weren't totally out to lunch while digging over there.  

After breakfast today, the ten of us that are leaving on Monday were treated to a special preview of Hippos-Sussita yet to come. There is another church in what is thought to be the domestic quarter of the city which has yet to be excavated. It was really interesting to see what a site looks like before any excavations have been done and compare it to our site (which has been under excavation for several years.) If the dig contract is extended beyond next year, then this will be the next project for Dr. Schuler and his team. The site will need to be cleared of all weeds, trees and loose rocks (of which there are many!) and then work can begin. Just by looking with a critical eye (or by going with someone who knows what to look for...) you can already see where there are apses and paved floors from the rock formations and lack of trees in certain areas.  Aside from the archaeology of this part of the city, the location of this church gives an amazing view of the southern end of the Sea of Galilee. All of this makes me want to save my pennies so that I can come back and dig again in a few years. It would be especially exciting to me to work on something at its beginning. We will just have to wait and see what God has in store for me and for this dig.

The group quit early today to take some group shots and admire the amazingly clear view of Tiberias across the lake. So often it is obscured by a white humid haze that hangs in the air. Today it was clear. What a treat. A few of us Canadians took time to built a small inukshuk on the mountain to commemorate our departure and to remind our new American friends to think of us when we are gone.

After the dig it was a laundry free-for-all to get all of our things out of the huge piles. I think I found everything. I guess I'll know if something is missing when I go looking for it and realize it's gone!  After laundry and lunch it was cleaning and packing. Tomorrow morning our group leaves for a three day tour of Jordan and then the day after we return from that, the Canadians and two Americans leave for home. I have managed to give away a couple of my dig shirts and I plan to leave my knee pads behind along with any leftover granola bars and fruit leathers. I don't think I'll want to eat another granola bar for a good long while. I think I'm averaging 2-3 per day. I like them, but not that much! This means my suitcases will be substantially lighter when I leave than when I came, and I won't have to be quite so carful packing to ensure that everything will fit. The afternoon flew by and soon it was time to wash pottery for the last time.

After scrubbing a mountain of pottery, we had devotions and a special service of celebration for the 25^th anniversary of Dr. Schuler's ordination. Each dig team was invited to share something about the dig and Dr. Schuler's work with it. Our team opted to re-write the words to "Old MacDonald had a Farm." We changed them to "Old Doc Schuler had a Dig." In it we remembered the teams, the buckets, the trowels, the turreahs, the pick axes, the water breaks and the elusive searches for those crazy walls. We had fun writing it and I think the others had fun listening to us try to get through it after no rehearsal time. Many others shared about their experiences with Dr. Schuler and it was interesting to hear what the others had to say. I've only known him for 13 days, but I have really enjoyed the things he has shared with us and I have learned much from him.

Now it is once again time for bed. Tomorrow I get to sleep in! The bus doesn't leave until 7:30. What bliss. I don't think I'll get up until 6am or so. While in Jordan I won't have a computer, so I won't be able to blog. Hopefully you'll hear from me on Sunday night when we get back. 

Well, today is the day when I can say that I have accomplished what I wanted to do while here on the dig: I found something besides pottery, and dirt! I found two things that I think are important. Well, maybe not so much important as exciting for me. First, I was using the pick axe in a corner of our square (and it wasn't going very well!) The axe had been bouncing off rocks and not breaking up much dirt. Very frustrating! I bent down to see what kind of dirt I had dislodged and what rocks I could put into a bucket. There I found a piece of marble which was cleanly shaped and bevelled on the edges! It was about 2cm thick or so and completed it would have been about 15-20cm long and about 10cm wide. The piece I found was a chunk about half as long as that. I thought I might have broken it with the pick, so I kept searching carefully in that spot to see if I could find the rest of it. I found another piece! I kept searching, but I was unable to find the last chunk of it. While I was carefully digging in this area I also found two peculiar pieces of pottery. They weren't very big and I almost left them in the bucket of dirt. (We don't keep anything that isn't at least as big as "a giant's thumb nail" unless it contains a rim, handle or base.) These pieces looked a little strange and so I kept them, even though they were a little on the small side. When we washed them this afternoon, we discovered that one of the "strange" pieces had a raised pattern in it. On closer inspection, we saw that one of the designs was a cross! We showed it to Dr. Schuler who was quite excited. I found the top piece of an oil lamp! When I told him there was a second similar piece, he asked me to bring it to him. It turned out to be the bottom of the same lamp. This piece will be able to be dated and we will be able to know when it would have been used. This was very exciting to me! I plan to go back to the lab tomorrow when I have a minute to get my picture taken with both my oil lamp and my marble "something."

Tomorrow is both an exciting and a sad day. Exciting because it is the last day that I'll have to get up at 3:45am for the foreseeable future. Sad because it is my last day on the dig site. How did it go by so fast? As I have mentioned before, the weekend here begins Thursday night. Tomorrow we do laundry, and dig then pack our bags and head to Jordan for a long weekend. We will return to Israel Sunday night and then it is time to come home. I hope to find the time to blog tomorrow, but I may not have a chance with all the packing I have to do. That means that you will not be able to read another post until Sunday night at the earliest or else Monday evening. I will not have computer access while we are in Jordan. Thinking of all I have to do in the next few days makes me dizzy and tired...I had better get to bed before too long so that I don't miss any second of the rest of my big adventure. Goodnight!

Oh the heat! We have been spoiled thus far on our trip with beautiful weather. Well, beautiful if you like 35 degrees! (That would be Celsius, for any Americans who might be reading this!) I would guess that we have been ranging from 29-35 degrees.  Yesterday and today, however were not quite so nice. Yesterday, coming down from the mountain at noon, my thermometer read close to 40! And today it was 41. Yikes! There was absolutely no cloud cover today, which made the difference. Water breaks were scheduled for every 25 minutes instead of every 30 and we have had to count our water rations the last couple of days as some teams have begun to run out. Luckily, we have had enough from other groups to share.

Work continues on B5 with nothing much new. The basic story of our day today was rocks, dirt, rocks, dirt, rocks, and - you guessed it - dirt. There was the occasional shard of pottery, a bone and some pieces of glass. But, that was about as exciting as things got. I'm doing pretty well with the work, but I'm suffering from "Turreah" back. (A Turreah - tu-REE-ah - is a large hoe-like tool which we use to scoop dirt into buckets.) The handle it short and so you have to bend over to use it. I think I'm permanently bent over, and I probably use it the least of anyone in our team. I can only imagine how the rest of them must feel. I lean over to pick up something from off the floor (in roughly the same position as I would be if I were using the Turreah) and I feel like my muscles won't hold me up! I have to been at the knees to keep from toppling face first into the concrete. Ouch!  I'll have to do a few more stretches and stand up straight a little more often tomorrow.

Today I was pretty tired when I started to trek back down the mountain at 11:45 or so. I was looking forward to a nice air-conditioned bus ride back to the Kibbutz, lunch and a swim in the Sea of Galilee. But today the bus didn't show up until 12:30 - about half an hour late! It was not fun standing in the hot, 41-degree sun, with no shade and no real place to sit down as we waited. But, thankfully the bus did arrive and we didn't have to walk our way back down.

While we were eating lunch, the power went out on the Kibbutz. No big deal, right? It's daytime and we can see with no problem. WRONG! No power means no air conditioning! At 41 degrees, not counting the humidity factor, the air conditioning is a must, even for people like me who usually would rather be warm than cool. We headed for the Sea of Galilee in hopes that the problem would be fixed before we returned. We spent an hour or more bobbing up and down in the lake. I still cannot believe how warm the water is. Dare I say almost too warm! Definitely not like any lake in Canada that I've ever swam in, where you have to convince yourself that it isn't really all that cold, when in reality it's pretty frigid. It's amazing how relaxing just standing around in the water can be.

The lake is really low this year because of a drought, which is causing water shortages. Much of the country gets its water supply from the lake, and you can tell just by looking at the shore line that it is much lower than usual. The cement walk leading out to the beach stops waaaay before the water and what sand there is on the beach ends long before you would want to set up a towel. So, the beach is mostly just a pile of large rocks. This mean you need good shoes to swim in or your feet will get pretty beat up. I didn't really bring good water shoes and so all I have are my red thong shower sandals with strawberries on them. They don't stay on that well and more than once I've slipped on a rock and gone down with a splash. It's pretty funny to watch, I'm sure. So, I spend most of my time in the deeper water, bobbing along with the waves, gripping hard with my toes to keep my shoes on. It may not sound like much fun, but after digging all morning, I don't have energy to do much else.

Once we were wrinkled up like prunes, we headed back to the "dorm." We are in the blue "women's house" which actually has four men in it too since there is not room for them in the men's house. We scrubbed up with quick showers (water is scarce and all "soaping" must be done with the water turned off to conserve as much as possible.) Then, we headed out for milkshakes. Let me tell you, Kibbutz Ein Gev serves of a great gourmet milkshake for 18 shekels (about $6). The guy making them took great pride in his product and took a great amount of time adding more ice cream, then more milk to get the right blend and consistency. It was quite tasty. Just the thing we needed after a really hot morning on the dig site. The thing is, since it was so hot, the milkshakes were melting almost faster than we could drink them. I've had this experience more than once with frozen treats since I've been here. You never really get to enjoy them since you're wolfing them down quickly before they melt all down your arm.

It is now 8:25 pm and I'm starting to think about sleep. (Many of you are just waking from afternoon naps!) I still have to wash some water bottles and check my pack to make certain that I have everything for tomorrow. I'm not awake enough in the morning to think straight enough to know if I have everything. For example, on Sunday morning, I forgot my sunscreen! Fortunately, I had a bottle in the bottom of my bag which I had not removed for the weekend. Otherwise, I would have had to do some begging off others. There is no way I could go a whole morning without some!  By now it is 8:40 and I really must go. Goodnight!

Monday. Another day on the dig site. Another early morning. It was a good day. For some reason, the last two days haven't been as tiring as some of the previous ones. Either I'm not working as hard, or I'm starting to become numb to it!

The first order of business today was to move a huge pile of massive rocks that one square had uncovered and pile in the street. All able hands were supposed to show up with all the wheel barrows that we had in the site. I wasn't sure that I really qualified as "able hands" since I'm probably our team's most useless lifter. But, I didn't want to be accused of being a slacker, and I thought there might be something that I could do and so I went to help. Well, the most logical job for someone who isn't a great lifter is to drive the wheelbarrow. So, I tried. The first load was so heavy that I could hardly lift it to push. I set it down to get a better grip and someone else took it away from me. Guess they figured I couldn't do it. The second time, there were fewer rocks in the load, so I thought I could manage...But I tipped the wheelbarrow over before I'd hardly started and the rock had to be re-lifted in...Oops! I thought my wheelbarrow driving days were over and so I helped balance a few loads instead. But, somehow I managed to end up behind the wheel again. This time, Jess helped me balance the load and I managed to get it all the way to the dump site. That gave me a little boost in confidence. The next load I was able to muscle all by myself. Hooray! I even did one more with only a little help over the most massive bump in the road. Maybe I'm not such a useless lifter, after all!

Our team took on a little different shape, today. We said goodbye to Andy and Katie. They went off to help with the "A-Team," a group excavating a couple of squares in the "A" row. But, we inherited a veteran wall-finder to help us locate the face of our most tricky wall. Hooray for Jim! We continued to move bucket after bucket of dirt, carefully scraping here and not-so-carefully pick-axing there. I was assigned to dig in a tiny alley way between the "elusive wall" which Quin named "Harry" and another wall which thus far is nameless. I managed to locate what I think is Harry's face...a little beat up at this point. I guess an earthquake and a thousand years or more will do that to you!

The whole "Name that wall" thing began yesterday, when Quin worked all day to discover the inside face of one of our walls. He affectionately named it "Sally." So, since Sally forms a corner with another wall, he thought that other wall should be named "Harry" so the corner could be "Where Harry Met Sally." In Quin's defense, we have been working in the sun a long time! Now our other wall needed a name. Since he was out of good ideas, the other wall became "Wally." The problem is, we found another wall parallel to Wally, with only about 10-20cm between them. Highly weird. Why would someone build walls so close together? We needed another name. The team next to us suggested that we name the new wall "Wallita."

Our team debated all day about the exact purpose of Wallita...some suggested a walk-in closet for a very skinny person. Some suggested they planned extra defense in that spot because they knew that an attack would come in that exact place. I suggested that it was a Byzantine torture chamber...there are after all, no doors into that place that have yet been discovered. What better way to torture someone than to sandwich them between two walls with no way out? Dr. Schuler suggested a more practical reason. It could be that the room needed to be just a bit smaller so that it could be easily roofed. Thus another wall was built inside the room to make it a little bit smaller. We may never know the exact purpose behind this strange construction. Maybe tomorrow's digging will shed some more light on Sally, Harry, Wally and Wallita.

Nine days! Wow! I've been here a long time. I'm just a little over half way through my trip. In some ways it feels like I just got here and in others it seems like I've been doing this dig thing for a long while. Despite the dust and heat and early hours, I truly am loving it! I hope someday I'll be able to come back.

Today saw our team move from E6 to B5. E6 is a bit perplexing and so off we went to another patch of ground. Do you remember me mentioning last Wednesday that I had helped prepare another square for excavation? Well, today our team started excavating that square (B5). It was a little tough getting motivated with nothing but a piece of flat ground starting at us, but after a little work, things paid off. We knew there were at least two walls in that square because of what is found in the squares next to it. Due to the size of our square and the general findings in the site as a whole, we suspected that there would also be a third wall in the square, but we had no idea where it might be. We dug away from the places where we knew there were walls to avoid damaging them. By shortly after breakfast at 7:45, we had located a suspected third wall and were ready to start digging a little closer to the other two walls. All our patience paid off! Just before quitting time, Quin identified the inside face of the first wall and Katie uncovered the line of the "suspected wall" which confirms that it is indeed a wall. We also think we know where the other side of that wall is. All that discovery, and only one day. In our last square, we worked all week and didn't get that far! So far we still haven't found anything more significant than rocks, pottery and the occasional piece of glass, but it's still fun. I must confess, though, I'm a little jealous is E8...they have found a staircase, a cistern, a road and several columns in their square and it is the same size as our old E6...Ah well, "thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's square." Maybe I'll need to confess that when we have worship tonight. ;)

One would think that touring would be a nice break from digging. One would also think that touring would be light and fun and easy. One would be wrong! These last two days of touring have exhausted me. Yesterday our mighty hike to Gamla and the walk around Tel Dan were tiring enough. Today we got on the bus again (a much roomier one!) and were off to Beth Shean,  Sepphoris and Nazareth. I think I'm more tired today than I was yesterday! So much walking! (I'm not complaining, just making an observation.) I really enjoyed seeing the sites and I will have no problems going to be early in preparation for another day on the dig tomorrow.

Beth Shean is a city of the Decapolis, like Hippos-Sussita. This was our first stop of the day. There have been excavations going on there for 50-60 years and much restoration work has taken place. There are absolutely amazing columns down the main streets (thus making them colonnaded) and the reconstruction of the bathhouse and theatre are beautiful. Those who were really adventuresome climbed the tell (giant hill formed by layers of settlements build on top of the ruins of the settlement before) to get a great view from above. After the hike to Gamla yesterday, I wasn't sure I was ready for round two. I hope someone will give me a picture of the view. The sites on the ground were very nice, too. I definitely would recommend that you visit this site if ever you are in Israel.

The second stop today was Ancient Sepphoris. This was one of the biggest cities in Galilee during the time of Jesus and was even the capital of the region at one point. Sepphoris has the most beautiful mosaics! There were several especially nice ones. One was located in the formal dining room of a Roman home which has been discovered there. In order to restore the mosaic floor, it was actually removed and a new base created for it. Then it was put back in the place where it was found. Another great mosaic to see is in the "Nile house" there. It depicts the story of the Nile through its pictures. The mosaics in this part of Sepphoris were not removed and then restored, but rather restored in place. Thus, there are bumps and holes in the Nile house mosaics but the ones in the Roman home are completely flat. Both are beautiful. At Sepphoris we also saw the Synagogue, the theatre, the Jewish quarter and a Crusader fortress of sorts. There were so many different things to see and take in, that I'm certain I cannot remember them all. As I said yesterday, I could have spent a whole day in each of these places, just exploring and looking at all there is to see.

Our third and last stop today was the Church of the Annunciation in Nazareth. Although Nazareth was a tiny village during the time of Jesus, it is now the biggest city in Galilee. Strange how things change over a couple thousand years! Of course, modern Nazareth was nothing like I pictured ancient Nazareth to be. I'm not generally a city fan, and Nazareth was no exception. It was nice to visit, and I can now say that I've been there, but I wasn't that impressed. It was crowded (duh, it's a city...) and so completely foreign (duh, I'm in a foreign country!) Go figure, eh?

The modern church is built over the ruins of the ancient remains that have been found there. Since the ancient village was so tiny, not much has been found. The church was nice and I would have liked to look around a little more and take a few more pictures. But there was a worship service going on while we were there in a little roped-off section. I felt like an intruder and I felt that the flash of my camera was also an intruder. I know that I wouldn't appreciate tourists barging in to my church during worship, and so I turned off my flash and tried to stay in the background. Not that it really helped, since there was a mob of others in the church who weren't even respectful enough to keep quiet! An interesting thing about this church is that there are depictions of Mary and Gabriel donated to the church from all over the world. Many of them are done in mosaics. The one from Canada is all carved out of wood. I can't say that it was my favourite. But, it wasn't my least favourite, either...

So now I'm back at the Kibbutz and thinking about tomorrow. Another week on the dig site. The prospect of another early morning tomorrow doesn't excite me in the least, but I am anxious to see if we can manage to find those walls and I wonder what we will find at the bottom of our square. I anticipate that our team will soon been reassigned to another section of the dig as there is certainly not enough work left in E6 to keep us all busy for another week. Let phase two of the adventure begin!

Ahhh. The weekend. What a great invention! Today was a day off from digging and I got to sleep in. I was pretty much wide awake at 5:30am and allowed myself the leisure of staying in bed until 6:30am. Since most work days at home my alarm doesn't even go off until 7:00 or even 7:30, this is a bit weird for me. But, maybe not so weird if you consider the hours I have been keeping the last week.

A day off from digging did not mean a day of sitting around. I got on the very cramped mini bus filled with 19 other passengers and we headed off to Gamla. This was a Jewish city which joined the Great Revolt in 66AD (Jews wanting independence from Rome) and was eventually conquered by the Romans in 67AD. The occupants did not give up without a fight and it took Rome two attempts to successfully gain control of the city. According to Josephus, the attack by the Romans cost the lives of 9000 Jews who were living there, some from the surrounding areas who had sought refuge in Gamla. Some of these people were killed in battle and others flung themselves over the cliffs rather than be caught by the Romans. It is said that two women survived to tell the story of the city.

The Ancient city is perched on the side of a very steep mountain and it took us about 30 minutes to climb down the valley and up the other side to get to it. It is a 1 km hike which may not seem like much, but it is very steep and rocky. I found myself thinking that if this trail was in North America, there would be a lot more warning signs and some very sturdy hand rails...this trail was an accident waiting to happen, not because it was in bad repair, but because of how steep it was. At one point, we were walking along a ridge to the next part of the excavated city with nothing but a steep cliff and air on our right! One false step and you could easily have ended up at the bottom. Of course, there may have been warning signs, but they were all in Hebrew and so I couldn't read them. In any case it was amazing to see. The comment was made that the Romans must have wanted Gamla badly as they went to a lot of work to get to them. I cannot imagine bringing a whole army down to besiege that city. Then I thought of all the work it must have been to build a city in such a location in the first place. I certainly hope that they were able to use local materials.

Besides the story of its ruin, another claim to fame at Gamla is its synagogue. It is believed to be the oldest confirmed synagogue in Israel ever discovered. It dates to the first century AD. We were also able to see the remains of a round lookout tower, a few homes, the Mikveh (ritual bath) and the city walls.

Our second stop for the day was Tel Dan. This is located at the headwaters of the Jordan River and was quite a site. It is the ancient city of Dan, conquered by the Israelite tribe of Dan, which was formerly known as Laish. (See Judges 18:27-29) There were ruins of the city and of the "high place" as well as an Israelite gate dating to the first temple period. There is also a Canaanite gate at the site with a complete arch intact dating to the eighteenth century BC, but somehow I missed the trail going to it. We were crunched for time at the site and so I must have been concentrating too much on making sure we got back to the bus in time! We also crawled through an old bunker to a lookout point where we could see Lebanon and Syria at the same time.  The trail ended at a wading pool where visitors could wade into the headwaters of the Jordan River. The water was icy cold! While posing for the picture that I have, it was all I could do to stand still and smile...all I wanted to do was jump out! That water rivals the coldest Canadian lakes in the summertime, I think.

It was a full day of touring and adventure. There were a few things along the trails in both places that I would like to go back to look at one day, when I have unlimited time. I think I could easily have spent a whole day at each place just exploring the many different hiking trails that both had to offer. But, I still came away feeling like I have seen a great deal and I am thankful for having done so. As I contemplate this, I also wonder: Would the Canadian government have classified this trip as "essential?" Probably not. Why am I asking that question? Their travel warnings page includes this note about travel within Israel: "Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada advises against non-essential travel to the regions near the border between Israel and Lebanon. On June 17, 2007, rockets fired from Lebanon landed in northern Israel near the town of Kiryat Shmona." Does going close enough that you can see the country of Lebanon qualify as "near the border?" Probably. Ooops! The good news is no one got hurt and there were no rockets fired! It was an experience I wouldn't have wanted to miss, travel warning or not. J