Ahhh the first time I get internet and I hungrily devour all connection with my past life. Here, I'll run you through a quick schedule of my days:
5:00 a.m. wake up and crawl out from underneath the mosquito net and sleepily pull on my long pants and boots, and sunscreen up.
5:20 we load into the vans, and drive for 15 minutes as far as we can out of the village and up this mountain. Then we hike in the semi-darkness for 30 minutes up the rest of the mountain- when we reach the top we have a quick breakfast of coffee and spinach pastries- and down the other side, to where the site is.
6:00 a.m. we start digging. my first day i uncovered a nail, some big bones, lots of pottery and roof-tile, an astragalis (knuckle bone used for games), some melted lead and such. My trench leader, Tristan, was impressed with my haul because normally its nothing so exciting. I was thrilled all day long. Every day after that has been less and less stuff I've found, and today my coolest thing was a bit of moulded outerware which had some dolphins and leaves on it: i wanted to pocket it but thought maybe that wasnt so cool.
8: break, reapplication of sunscreen
8: 10 back to the trenches
11 another break
11:10 back to the trenches
1 we clean up, and haul everything back up and down the mountain.
then lunch when we get back to the village.
5:30 we meet with our trench teams and discuss what we found, etc.
8 dinner
10 we are mostly asleep.
thats all i have time for. the people are nice, and the food is excellent. i am well, not too burnt, but its very hot and sunny every day. we are filthy by the time we descend since the dust and dirt we are digging blows and sticks to the sweat and sunscreen.
oh, and the young boys in this interent gaming spot are trying to get justine and mine's attention by shouting every random english word they know in our direction. a little distracting!
This is so cool! From digging up knucklebones to having young boys shout at you in English (got the same thing on the streets of Korea all the time), all of this sounds remarkable and ethereal and a thoroughly enviable experience. Except for maybe the constant slathering-on of sunscreen. That bit might drive me crazy after a while. And the heat. But I'm quite envious of you regardless, hoping you're having the time of your life, and agog to hear more. Rock on, Jane.
ReplyDeletepostman, i love your new skyline on your blog. it`s as hot as the earth gets by the time we leave the mountain every day, when it seems to be pouring out in waves and the sun itself feels to be cooler than the dirt.
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