Sidenote: The Nabateans loved stairs. If you look at the cliffs, you see stairs carved everywhere, along with little niche shrines. I decided that the designers of BYU were inspired by the Nabateans, because the only place that there are more stairs than Petra is BYU.
But I digress. Wednesday I started out digging, and every time I stood up I got light headed, and almost blacked out once. I hadn’t been feeling well the last couple days, and we think it’s from digging in the tomb and breathing in all that dust, combined probably with dehydration (it’s getting HOT). We had surgical masks and bandanas, but we still breathed a lot of dust. My roommate Brittany and her partner were sick too, and one of the guys, Josh, was really sick last week. But I hate using not feeling well as an excuse not to work, because some people here just sit around picking at the ground with their trowel, and then place their hand on their forehead and feebly declare “Oh, I don’t feel well, I’m not going to work”.
I like working, and besides, I thought I’d feel better… Haha, yeah… Glenna (Dr. Nielsen) would not let me work. She made me go sit in the shade and bag artifacts (I was moving gufas [the baskets we put the dirt in] but then I was all shaky and dropped one and I was banished). Ugh. After break I was trying to help dig or something, and Glenna made me sit down with a hat on, even though I said I felt a ton better. But by the end of the day, she didn’t stop me from moving gufas. (I ended up staying home on Thursday and sleeping until 10. I feel way better now, so don’t worry Dad!)
However, on Wednesday we made a really cool discovery! And by “we” I mean Holly, our grad student who’s in charge of this site. She was almost hyperventilating when she picked it up out of the dirt! It’s a fragment of a molded pot, with three people on it. There’s a man and a woman, and it looks like they’re dancing. Then there’s a little face peeking out from behind the man. We were all super excited; pottery like that is VERY VERY rare. Caleb and Cameron were making remarks about the exposed private parts of the man… Boys…
Sometimes we play games while we’re digging, and the latest one was assigning everyone a Disney character. Four people independently assigned Caleb as Gaston from Beauty and the Beast, hilarious, and so true. Glenna was Mrs. Potts or Mother Willow, and one girl, Thomasina, was Iago from Aladdin. I was Belle, because I read a lot (and I'd like to think that my personality is close to hers too...).
We also watched goats jump off cliffs, even little baby goats. It’s truly an amazing thing to see. They’d just launch themselves into the air and go down fifteen feet and land and then bounce along their merry way. Sometimes we see them up on the cliffs in places that you wouldn’t think was possible for any living thing to get to. We constantly wonder how they get up there, and, even more mysterious, how they get down. The babies are especially prone to getting stuck, and bleat their little hearts out until one of the adults helps them. They’re so cute, and really loud. A herd of them tried going through the lower site on Wednesday, and they had to be herded out. It’s actually happened a few times; we’re constantly chasing away goats and Bedouin children.
Yesterday we went to the Monastery, yet another Nabatean rock cut façade. This one is outside the main Petra complex. We left pretty early, and went down the back road instead of through the Siq, and thus beating all the tourists, so we had the place to ourselves. It’s a pretty good hike, supposedly up 850 stairs, but who’s really counting? You wind up through a canyon, sometimes 
on steps that have been reconstructed, sometimes on the original Nabatean ones. I was surprised by how many trees and bushes there were back in that area. The Monastery is HUGE. It makes the Kasma (the Treasury) look small. The front steps are gone, so you have to jump/climb to get up into it, which I was fine doing. It only came up to about my shoulders, so I just put one foot in a niche and swung my other leg up no problem. Other (shorter) people, had a much more difficult time. I have a hilarious video of Brittany running and trying to jump in, hahaha. There are a few good look out points nearby, where you can see out into the desert, and look down about a thousand feet. It was an absolutely amazing view. It’s one of the more grand and beautiful views I’ve seen in my life. You could see down into the Wadi Arabia below, and out over the rocky, jutting mountians into the desert and to Israel beyond. It was truly breath-taking
Life here in Jordan is very laid back. With so much free time, it feels like not much really happens. But I’ve thought of some little highlights from my week I’d like to share with all of you.
Apperantly, the spetic tanks can’t handle toilet paper, so we were told that we have to throw away our used… stuff… in the trashcan… I cannot tell you how much that grosses me out, especially since we see the donkeys getting into the trash and eating it and scattering it all over the street. Animal poo is one thing, but when I’m skirting around little pieces of paper that have human feces on them… Ew. Ew ew ew.
The other day, one of my little Bedouin friends named Raha walked with me up the street to the store, holding my hand. She was jabbering away to me, looking up at me and waving her free arm around, scattering chips from the open bag she held. I understood maybe a quarter of what she was saying, but she was so cute I didn’t want to interrupt her with “Mafahimish” (I don’t understand). I just nodded and said “Aiwa… Kuwayyis… Tayib…” (Yes… Good… Of course). She hung out by the store as we got our things, and then walked back home with us. When we parted at the driveway, she called my name and blew me a kiss =D Darling.
We’ve started having Nutella at breakfast. Everyone is so happy. It makes the pita much more bearable to eat. Life Lesson: If it tastes bad, smear something sugary and chocolatey on it, and then it’ll be delicious.
I’ve read a lot of books while I’m here. My favorite so far is The Alchemist by Paolo Coelha. It’s short, but very profound and makes you think. It’s now on my Top 10 Favorite Books list and I would recommend it to everyone. I’ve read about ten books in the last three weeks, and two of my other favorites are Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert, and The Goose Girl by Shannon Hale. I wish I brought more books, because I’m slowly running out of books I can borrow from people. I might have to start re-reading some. Or do as my dad suggested, and start writing one =]
Well, I’d say this post is long enough. Thanks for reading! Leave comments and keep me updated!
on steps that have been reconstructed, sometimes on the original Nabatean ones. I was surprised by how many trees and bushes there were back in that area. The Monastery is HUGE. It makes the Kasma (the Treasury) look small. The front steps are gone, so you have to jump/climb to get up into it, which I was fine doing. It only came up to about my shoulders, so I just put one foot in a niche and swung my other leg up no problem. Other (shorter) people, had a much more difficult time. I have a hilarious video of Brittany running and trying to jump in, hahaha. There are a few good look out points nearby, where you can see out into the desert, and look down about a thousand feet. It was an absolutely amazing view. It’s one of the more grand and beautiful views I’ve seen in my life. You could see down into the Wadi Arabia below, and out over the rocky, jutting mountians into the desert and to Israel beyond. It was truly breath-takingLife here in Jordan is very laid back. With so much free time, it feels like not much really happens. But I’ve thought of some little highlights from my week I’d like to share with all of you.
Apperantly, the spetic tanks can’t handle toilet paper, so we were told that we have to throw away our used… stuff… in the trashcan… I cannot tell you how much that grosses me out, especially since we see the donkeys getting into the trash and eating it and scattering it all over the street. Animal poo is one thing, but when I’m skirting around little pieces of paper that have human feces on them… Ew. Ew ew ew.
The other day, one of my little Bedouin friends named Raha walked with me up the street to the store, holding my hand. She was jabbering away to me, looking up at me and waving her free arm around, scattering chips from the open bag she held. I understood maybe a quarter of what she was saying, but she was so cute I didn’t want to interrupt her with “Mafahimish” (I don’t understand). I just nodded and said “Aiwa… Kuwayyis… Tayib…” (Yes… Good… Of course). She hung out by the store as we got our things, and then walked back home with us. When we parted at the driveway, she called my name and blew me a kiss =D Darling.
We’ve started having Nutella at breakfast. Everyone is so happy. It makes the pita much more bearable to eat. Life Lesson: If it tastes bad, smear something sugary and chocolatey on it, and then it’ll be delicious.
I’ve read a lot of books while I’m here. My favorite so far is The Alchemist by Paolo Coelha. It’s short, but very profound and makes you think. It’s now on my Top 10 Favorite Books list and I would recommend it to everyone. I’ve read about ten books in the last three weeks, and two of my other favorites are Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert, and The Goose Girl by Shannon Hale. I wish I brought more books, because I’m slowly running out of books I can borrow from people. I might have to start re-reading some. Or do as my dad suggested, and start writing one =]
Well, I’d say this post is long enough. Thanks for reading! Leave comments and keep me updated!
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