If I could describe the work of a field archaeologist, I
would have to let a few people down and say that what I’ve been doing hasn’t been
like Indiana Jones at all. No clues
leading us to ancient relics or antagonistic forces trying to sabotage our
projects or kill us. Instead, I would
use the movie Holes to describe my
experience, except for I’d have to add a little bit more of us systematically
digging. I don’t know why they didn’t
just use drones and aerial photography to help find out where the buried
treasure was instead of having a bunch of delinquent teens dig holes for them
but I get the builds character part of it.
We also don’t go and dig five foot wide and five foot deep holes but
instead take a sectioned off piece of land and then clear the dirt off layer by
layer and then sift through the dirt to see what things we can find. Then we wash them, whether it is Nabataean
pottery or Islamic beads, and then analyze them.
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| The tomb by my new site |
Since it was the halfway point of our stay here in Jordan,
we switched to another site at the start of the week. We are excavating outside one of many tombs
that our professor has before excavated.
We aren’t inside the tomb but instead we are digging up a five by five
meter trench outside of the tomb. We
don’t have any workmen like we did at the other site but we work closer with
our professor so that has been fun.
I got a cool glimpse of the local culture a couple of nights
ago. I was kind of bored and no one was
doing anything after dinner so I just went up to the roof to relax and get some
fresh air. As I was taking in the breeze
and leaning back in the wobbly plastic chair, the call to prayer came over the
loud speaker. I had heard it before from
the apartment but had never really peaked outside the window to see anything
else going on. From my rooftop venue, I
noticed that everyone outside making a ruckus quieted down and went
inside. Ten or so minutes later another
announcement in Arabic blared over the speakers and radios were turned back on
and people came back outside the second it was over. It was cool to see how a village was willing
to stop what they were doing for a few minutes to pray and remember God in
their life. Sometimes I think we can
forget all the great things God has done for us and we could really benefit
from pausing for a moment and thanking God.
That’s just one thing that I really admire about Islam.
We also had the opportunity to have dinner at one of Dr. Johnson’s
friend’s homes with his family this past week.
It almost felt like a dinner appointment on the mission except that
there was no spiritual message shared at the end. I looked at my watch and almost felt guilty
for staying later than an hour and then I remembered that that was okay to
do. Just like on the mission though I
could really feel the spirit in their home.
You could really tell they all loved each other and that they had made
their home a place of refuge from the chaos of the outside world. I think it is amazing that in America, Japan,
or even Jordan you can walk into a home of random strangers and just feel
without being told or knowing the people for more than five minutes that they
are good people trying their best in their life to love each other.
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| Just a bunch of niches we found in a sikh on our hike |
Sometimes I think we forget that other people of different
religions can obtain happiness and peace even though it may be a little
differently than we do. I’ve really been
impressed with how similar our Jordanian brothers and sisters are to us. The only thing us Westerners see on TV about
the Middle East is always negative, talking about violence or recent
problems. I wish we were exposed to the
good and the everyday life here like I have been in my visit here. High school students here are stressed about
doing well on their entrance exams, parents are worried about how to be good
examples to their children, and young people are just as concerned about dating
and getting married. It is amazing how
universal us humans are, how we face similar challenges and problems no matter
where we are on the globe.
I am so grateful for the chance I have now to connect with
those over here in Jordan and learn more about myself as I learn about a
foreign culture. I really hope that I
can travel to many more parts of the world in my life and meet many different
people that will be a positive impact on me.
I hope that we can all strive to be that for others no matter what
country we live in, what language we speak, or what kind of person we are and
would like to become. Hope you all have
a great week and enjoy the spring weather for me!
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| Shobaq: The Crusader Castle! |
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| Me a couple hundred feet below the Crusader castle in the cistern |
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