Blogs from Madaba, West, Jordan, Middle East - page 4

Each moring we get up at 5am to be on site at 5:30am. We start out by going over the goals for the day. To get into my square we travel down some stone steps and then down across three suporting walls. It is around 6 metres into the ground. We haul rocks and take soil samples for each new level we uncover. Today we came down on an almost intacted vase from the Iron Age. Pretty amazing. However while cleaning around the vase and other pottery sherds I dropped a rock on my pinky finger, and automatically pulled it out. When I took it out it was bleeding pretty bad and as my team lead was wrapping it up she let me know that it might be broken. The pain was acute. So now ... read more

I have been awake for 36 hours and the theme of the day has been waiting. The first plane left Toronto 1 hour late for Paris and I still haden't met anyone from the trip. I ended up lodged between two sleepy people who took up more then their own space. However I got a lesson in wine from my french neighbour. The group ended up meeting in Paris, and waiting out the 7 hour wait together. As we landed in Paris the landscape looked very foriegn with its sand dunes and valleys. The group all lined up at the same line to enter Jordan. Yet none of us knew the address we were staying at but one, who had written it out on a little piece of green paper. So...every person who went up ... read more

14 Nov - Went to visit the Roman ampitheatre (yet another one!) in Bosra, Syria before heading onwards to Jordan. First border crossing where the men and women were processed in separate areas. Generally quite easy to get our group visas and entry stamps. But the major hassle tends to be the processing of the truck's paperwork, which is usually fairly slow and tedious. This crossing was made a little easier with a donation of 6 boxes of ciggies. Bush-camped that night in the Jerash National Park (fabulous). 15 Nov - Visited the Roman ruins in Jerash the next day. Once again, not too many ruin photos. Then it was onto Madaba and Mount Nebo (800m high). According to the Book of Deuteronomy 34, this is where Moses was supposed to have seen the Promised Land ... read more