Jordan Journal 6/23/12-6/27/12

[So a note I forgot last time. Sometimes I may not be able to actually use a persons name so I'll replace it with a random symbol at some point. The symbols won't continue over different blogs but will be the same person in one blog. Yeah, I think that's all I forgot. Enjoy!] [Wait, I, of course, forgot something. I didn't journal every day so some times will have gaps, like the first blog. I wrote the 21st and the 23rd but not the 22nd. sorry] [I'm not on my memory game today! Here is a list of the dig members for reference.

     JBU group- Emma, Luke, Rachel, Jennifer, and Hannah. Dr. Vila is the head director and a prof at JBU. Peter was a student at JBU but now a senior staff member. Samuel is Dr. Vila's son and Court is his best friend. Neither have graduated high school yet.

Nebraskans- Liz, Krista, and Alyssa. Dr. Susan and Dr. Cheryl are senior staff members. Alyssa is Dr. Susan's grand daughter. Liz has graduated from college and Krista is in her last semester.

Others- Olivia and her grandmother Paulette are from New Orleans. Olivia is about to graduate from college. Aaron is from Cornerstone university and learned about this program from Dr Ostrander. Richard is from Australia as is married. Dr Bob is a senior staff member and director of the archaeology side of the dig.] 

6/23/12- Saturday morning

        Yesterday.... that was an interesting day. Woke up with the same pattern and left for the dig site at 8. We actually got to work in our squares, preparing them for the real work Monday. I am working in a side room of a late Roman and Byzantine church with Emma Pollard. Yesterday we had to remove weeds and rocks. After two years [the dig season is once every two years] there were a lot of weeds and rock! Monday we'll be tearing the balk (read wall) down between our square and the two next to us. Lots of bugs and spiders in that square, but also a snake and we'll probably see him before long. [sadly we never did see that snake again]. Came back to the school for lunch, did laundry, then got online! we have wifi! Around three, Liz me to go to Irbid with Court, Rachel, and her. The four of us had fun walking around Hartha the night before so I decided to go along. We walked to the bus station thing and we were instantly swarmed by about ten local kids. They really didn't try to talk to us much but mostly laughed at us. We had our own great conversation though so it was fine. After about 45 minutes, one of the boys told us that buses don't run on Thursday -_-.So we decided to walk around Hartha for another hour then headed back to the school. We created an elaborate story about how we accidentally took the bus to Syria, were held because we didn't have our passports, then I had to belly dance to earn us money to pay bail. Only two or three people believed us. Read some more while we made dinner (the cook leaves Friday afternoon and comes back Sunday night) and then Liz, Alyssa and I washed the dishes. We took a break to watch the sunset on the roof then a game of chess with Luke. More reading then bed. During dish duty, the three of us talked a lot about life and such. I found out Liz used to be a Christian but is now not. I'm really not feeling the love for this fallen world we live in. Finally I think * likes me. She said hi to me this morning and 2 other girls smiled at each other. I called them out on it and the tried to deny/ cover it up. I'm going to have to be careful around her. =/. [Apparently I succeeded because nothing ever came of it!] Today I'm off on another adventure. Should be good!

6/23/12- Saturday night

       Today went off much differently than planned. After finishing my entry this morning [see above =)], I entered into a state of introspectiveness. [Since I was looking back on yesterday and all, I just closed in. Maybe some stress too]. The first half of today I just struggled with figuring out my thoughts.]I was really quite and such. We went to Gadara (the site where Jesus cast the demons into the pigs). Walked around a lot and I got to see the sea of Galilee =). We then went to Irbid where Sam, Liz, Court, Rachel, and I walked around, explored shops, then took the bus back to the school. I'm sure a lot more happened but I didn't write it in my journal, in fact my journal was all thoughts to help me process and would be considered gossip so sorry but no gossip for you lol.]

6/25/12- Monday Afternoon

      So Sunday was adventurous. Got up at breakfast, etc. Around 8:30, most of us left the school for Irbid. Kids were taking exams so we needed to leave the school or be quite. I kinda unexpectedly went: I was asked if I was coming as everyone was walking away so I just followed. I stuck with Liz, Court, and Alyssa after the bus and we went shopping in the area. We then took a taxi to the post office then walked around this huge shopping market. After some Schwarma sandwiches and more shopping, we went to the archaeology museum at the University. Sadly, it was boring. We got another cab to take us to Hartha and he was quite the opposite from the museum. He had the greatest voice inflections and humor. He kept pronouncing my name wrong (shine) and copying my hand motions. He was a riot and both Liz and I got his number in case we needed him again. The rest of the evening was uneventful, just relaxing. oh! and we had a vespers service that night on Joshua 3 =). Today, we woke up at four [shudder] and started for the dig site at five. Our first real day of work. It was pretty good, not exciting or anything. I'm just super tired now though. 

6/27/12- Wednesday afternoon

Things got really busy yesterday. In between work, pottery reading, and dinner, there really is room for a nap and a bit of reading. The solitude has started to set in. It's getting a little harder to get along with people here. We're all tired and stressed. I'm going to one of the workers house tonight [we have local workers help us on the dig]. That should be interesting. oh and it's Richard's birthday.

Jordan Journal 6/20/12- 6/21/12

Now that the craziness that was my life after Jordan has ended, it is time to write up my journal! However, a couple of notices: 1) This has been edited. I used this for more than telling stories but to describe my emotions and such. Some of these I can keep but others.. well private stuff that is better left not being made public. 2) I'm going to post several days in a blog and the entire trip in several blogs. 3) For clarifications and additions, I'll use [ ]. These will try to explain things in relation to today and such. 4) Finally, if you are one of my closer friends (the only ones who are actually going to read this) then you are allowed to view these edited sections in my actual journal. just ask: if you can decifer my handwriting that is. So here we go!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

6-20-12 Wednesday
        [To catch up, check my 3 posts on Jordan from June] "Yesterday we left Madaba for the village of Hartha, where we'll be staying for the rest of the trip. This morning I wasn't able to sleep much, I woke up at 3 =/ Layed in bed till 6:30 then went up for breakfast. Feeling pretty lonely at this point =/ Rachel hadn't come in yet so I had hope this would soon be fixed. We left the hotel at 9:30 and drove north to Irbid, the second largest city in Jordan. There were some pretty amazing sites on the way there but I got car sick an hour in and fell asleep. In Irbid, we were able to shop and have lunch. I was also able to get a phone. (As I look back, this following statement seems false but this is what I thought then). There really isn't much to distinguish the different cities. They all use the same materials for buildings and the streets, also there are lots of roundabouts. I fell asleep again on our way to Hartha though I could hardly tell since it's only 20 minutes north. We arrived at 2:30. Hartha is a small village about 3 miles south of the Syrian border and about an hour west of Israel. Smaller than Siloam Springs as well.We arrived at the "Hartha Hilton", a 4 story secondary girls school. The first story was just a lobby like place (which we turned into a dinning room) then three stories of one hallway with classrooms. There was also a Kitchen and an office on the main floor. We spent the afternoon making this school into a house, unloading barrels, moving mattresses, setting up the registry and the dining room, etc. Guys stayed on the third floor and the girls on the second. We had foam mattresses that we set up on desks for our beds, and we also set up lines in the courtyard of the school for hanging our laundry, which we do by hand. The bathroom is in a second building in the courtyard with stalls. Half of the stalls we converted into showers and the other half we left, for toilets of course. They are squatty potties so yeah. Water is precious in Jordan so we have to take short showers and use laundry water to flush the toilets. After everything was set up, most of us didn't think we could live like this and I'm sure that it will start to bug people eventually. So first night in Hartha and I go to bed at 9. So today [the 20th] I woke up at 6 and got ready for the day. 5 or so of us were ready for breakfast at 6:30 which consisted of tea, jelly, and peeta bread. I feel pretty great right now! I think I'll be ok living here. On top of that, Rachel got in last night so I finally know somebody on the trip! At 8 we left for the dig site and got a tour. The scope of the thing is just amazing!! I can't wait to start next week. I did some laundry in the afternoon and played some chess then walked around Hartha. I think I'll like it here. I still feel like I get on people's nerves but we'll just wait and see...

6-21-12 Thursday
        Today was good. Woke up at 6 again and left for the dig site at 8 (same again tomorrow). We actually got to dig today, though in practice squares. Had some fun, but learned I needed to become more observant. We came back at noon, ate lunch then read some in the entry way, which has this fantastic breeze! I'm reading "That Hideous Strength" by C.S. Lewis. So I had a realization today. I prayed last night that God would show me why I am here. All my reasons were pretty selfish So today while I was reading and listening to my Ipod, God kinda guided my thoughts. I think God is leading me into a part of my Christian walk that has really been absent in the rest of my life: evangelism. I think I've explained the gospel to someone once and he was only 5 but all the people I have run into in my life are either Christians or God uses someone else. I've never really had the opportunity to evangelize. [So at the end of this trip, I realize it's no so much me learning to evangelize but more so me learning to be a witness which is much more important. It ended up being God ironing out personal flaws and making me more like him, well at least a little bit]. God also kinda showed me that I need to get to know the people on this trip and not be a hermit, so let's see how good I am at that... In the afternoon we had a "draw your room" game where we had to draw our room to scale like the top plans we'll have to draw soon. Luke, Aaron, and I won (we drew Luke's and my room) so we got ice cream. I spent the evening on the roof, a beautiful spot, then off to bed!