One More Final Push

Today was one last final push...Until the next one, at least.  As mentioned in the last post, the kids and I are helping Owen where we can with his survey work at Tall Safut.  Today is the last day of his survey permit from the Jordanian Department of Antiquities, and was the day he had planned to take pictures of the wall lines using a piece of equipment called the "boom."  It's really a handy contraption. 

setting up

We wrangled up another helper, another fellow working here at ACOR (thank you James!).  At 6:00 am, we rolled out to the site and started working.  Things went fairly uneventfully, thankfully...minus an injury free fall by Jack off a wall into some pokey bushes, and some decent sunburns by me (after I spend so much time putting sunscreen on kids, I feel done and forget to put it on myself). 

Owen directing the positioning of the camera

Jack and James at the other end

a view from my perspective, as camera catcher in-between takes

the big picture

me and Fia, laying tape and catching the camera

The morning was surprisingly cool, so Jack wore my nursing cover as a cape to keep warm, and looked super cool.

Safita passed out and slept for a couple hours, which was fantastic.

Both kids were exceptional for what must have been a really long, boring, difficult day for them.  Especially on days like today, I praise the Lord for giving us such happy, patient, flexible kids--without their hardiness, we really couldn't do what we do.  

random people who were curious about what we were doing...and wondering if there was any gold

Local people throughout Owen's time surveying this past week and a half keep stopping by asking if there's gold at the site...It doesn't help that his GPS equipment kind of looks like a heavy-duty metal detector, and it also doesn't help that today we were going around putting X-marks on a bunch of stones.   Hopefully we don't come back next year to a tell pocked with looting holes!

checking the pics

Jack was a big helper

and so was Safita--she helped me hold the pole!

We finished the picture-taking a little after 1:00 pm, at which point the kids and I drove James back to ACOR and got a snack before returning to Safut to pick up Owen, who stayed behind to take some GPS points and finish up.  Things took a little longer than expected, and we didn't get home until a little after 3:00 pm.  It was a long haul: breakfast at 5:30 am, lunch at 3:30 pm.  But, this very important survey project is now complete!  Another very rewarding accomplishment to check off...and one step closer to that coveted PhD in hand! 

Finished!  Descending Safut with the rest of equipment in hand.  Can you tell he's tired?

A Day in the Life

This afternoon the kids and I played sidekick to Owen on his survey project at Tall Safut.  He was walking around the site taking GPS points, from which he will reconstruct the top plans and etcetera...Safita helped him with this task, and was a fantastic assistant. 

Jack wandered around making stone pizzas and dirt soup in any spare bottle cap he could find.  I was in charge of the glorious (but important) job of cleaning weeds off the tops of excavated walls for pictures that will be taken in the next few days.  Unfortunately, I didn't accomplish very much due to frequent requests to taste the aforementioned pizza and soup, amidst tending to other needs of the small ones.  They really did splendidly, though; we were quite impressed with them.  Safita, adorably, was practically giddy over daddy. 

The sunset and dusk from atop Safut were amazingly spectacular!  The site overlooks the Bekaa Valley, so we watched the villages of the valley slowly sparkle to life while the sky burned beautiful deep tones of red, orange, to deep pink, to heathery purple.  At one point, we were serenaded by a surround-sound of the call to prayer, broadcast from numerous minarets all around the site and down through the valley.  It was kind of majestic, with sunset, and the wind, and the twinkling lights, and the echo of the valley.  Jack got excited about the "scary green prayer" and had fun counting all the minarets he could spot.  There were at least 10 in close proximity, and countless more throughout the valley.  Sadly, we forgot our good camera and only had the point-and-shoot, so the pictures just don't do it justice. 

The young man who farms the plot of land at the foot of the tell came up after a while to keep us company, and before we left brought us a bounty of his crop--I'm not sure what the name of it is, but it's some sort of cross between cucumber, zucchini, and summer squash.  It's tasty.  We ate it with our falafel dinner, which Jack requested on the way home.  (We're so proud when our 2-year-old son requests falafel or shawerma for dinner!  He also loved the cucumber/zucchini thingies and ate them heartily.)