Washing

prepare for banalities

Today was a good day (and I suppose those are the best kind of day to write about).

I woke up for 8 am breakfast and to all our delight instead of the usual bread and cheese Gabor our lovely cook had made Tammaya (falafel) and fuul (beans). A slightly productive morning working on my presentation of the temple and Roman fortress at Douch in Kargah turned into a really interesting class on early Christianity in Egypt. Cue my favorite lunch of grilled eggplant, fresh veggies, gibna betta (cheese), and pita. There was no water in the showers so I convinced Megan to go to the hot “spring” with me. We brought Andrew, Matt, Kyra and Iris along for protection … eventually we needed it.

The hot “spring” is really a key-shaped concrete trough with hot spring water pumped up from deep in the ground. The water is perfect bath temperature and runs from a big pipe, through the trough, and out into the irrigation ditches. To get there you walk down the hill from the dig-house, a cross and down the road a bit, and towards a small pump house and stand of palm trees. There wasn’t anyone there when we got there, and we jumped in. Besides the slightly iron-y smell it was really nice -- deep and clear. Our first visitor was a man, his young son, and donkey who were apparently there to fill up plastic jugs of water. The little boy came and sat with Kyra and put his feet in the water. We exhausted out Arabic talking to him. Basically we found out his name was Mahammod, he was from Mut, and he liked the water. We couldn’t remember how to ask him how old he was. Then who should show up but Ashraf (our all around friend and guide) and some of the house staff -- apparently to wash the dishes! Cue some awkward gender dynamics. Megan and I were the only ones in the spring (granted with shirts on in an attempt at modesty) and Ashraf jumped in no problem. It was pretty clear the rest (including man with son and donkey) were just around for the novelty of the girls in the pool. Nothing explicit but obvious nonetheless. Somehow different than outright heckling. Didn’t really bother me as I’d been a prepared, but it was clear that the other girls hadn’t gotten in for fear of just a thing. Regardless I found it to be pretty relaxing, dish-washing or no.

A nice walk back to the house in time for Arabic. Good dinner of kofta (grilled, ground lamb), Egyptian pizza, and roasted potatoes. Half-way through this post the Australians showed up with Uno and funny accents. Somehow it got to be 11:30 which is late when you have to make a 7:30am breakfast … a tout a l’heure!

"And now, as for Horus, he was lying under a shenusha-tree in oasis land"

Settlement and governor's tombs at 'Ain-Aseel

Nicks:
ultra hot, hot-spring water showers that burn
cow-sized mosquitos
sulfer smell after dinner

Knacks:
hot showers (!)
governer's tombs
"fi stella?"
baTaaTis

Pictures of a place beyond words

Click on photos to enlarge

Yellow Rose of Cairo

Time for Egypt!

I flew to New York December 29th and could hardly believe I was actually headed into the Sahara. The trip is so routine by now. Even showing up to Cathedral Gardens at 110th and Manhattan Avenue to meet Ellen and running to Central Market for some peanut butter before hopping in a car to JFK felt pretty run of the mill (minus the heartfelt send-off from Sev and Jules, that was just heartbreaking). We met everyone at the airport and after having to go back and put said peanut butter (and Ellen's alcohol... "for gifts" she says) got on Egyptair flight 39 to Cairo. I sat next to Megan (my roommate and all over buddy from Barnard) and we both tried some drug-assisted sleep to marginal sucsess. At one point she woke up, asked me to open her water, and when it sprayed a little due to the pressure change said, "It was happy to see you!" in a high pitched voice. She laughed for about a minute afterward before fading off again. Ambian works in mysterious ways I guess.

When we landed in Cairo the next morning, we were all bit groggy but the city woke us immediately! What impressed me on the way down was the way bits of the city are interspersed with true desert... dunes and all. It is a loud and busy place that proved itself to be so right from the beginning. The baggage claim was a crowed mass and the bus ride to the Happy City Hotel gave us a decent taste of Cairo traffic (we would soon have to navigate on foot!). We took a desperately needed nap at the hotel and then made our way to a traditional restaurant for dinner, then went back to the hotel roof top for drinks and shisha until midnight. Sana saaida! Happy New Year!

Happy City Hotel nightstand console

On the first day of 2009 we went to "The Mugaba", a government building that we had all been warned was beaurocratic hell on earth, to get our visa extensions but it proved to be almost empty and very naviagable on new years day, el hamdu lellaeh. ("thanks be to god" and "god willing" are phrases we have learned to add to the end of almost every sentence, and to use whenever one doesn't know what to say. They are, of course, also extremely pertinant in a place where things like the police showing up in the middle of your arabic lesson and needing to see everyone's passport for allah knows what reason!) We spent the rest of the day exploring and doing errands before heading out to the oasis. Megan and I very proudly changed money and bought bread and vitamins all by ourselves. The bread shops, which can be found in every block, smell incredible and the bread litterally spills out onto the sidewalks. There are fruit vendors just as often and nuts spilling out from the bodgea like convience stores and juice places. Men with giant boards of pita on their heads ride around on bikes, motercycles, and any other imaginiable kind of moving vehicle. It's impossible to imagine not being hungry at all times in this city!

The a bread shop from our window at the Happy City Hotel

The rest of our day in Cairo was spent dodging traffic, crossing the Nile (surprisingly like any other river in a big city), and going to the Cairo Musueum. If I had died and gone to heaven, I would have gone to that place. It's an imposing building but inside is a nearly dingy, poorly lit, treasure trove of all things Ancient Egyptian. Amulets, statues and all number of other old thing are stuffed into glass and wood cases strangely remincient of those in Schermerhorn hall at Columbia. We spent some time in the king Tut and adjanct rooms and barely scratched the surface of all there is to see. Hopefully when we're back in Cairo in March we'll get to spend more time there. By dinner time I was so exhausted it was almost all I could do to grab soup in the Hotel restaurant, pack up my bags, and get to bed. We did manage, however, to find a place that sells (and delivers to your door!) whiseky for my 21st birthday... we figured that a little American tradition should be upheld. Haha.

Sphinx outside Cairo Museum (cameras weren't allowed inside)

The next day we rose bright and early, gobbled gibna bitta (a great cheese somewhere between feta and cream cheese) on crossiants, and piled into the little bus that would take us to Daklah Oaisis... 12 hours (though it proved to be 13) into the Sahara. I sat in the back, but thanks to dramamine the tales of upchuck Annie will have to stop somewhere around 2008! From the highway on the way out of Cairo we saw the Giza pyramids. Another died and gone to heaven moment. Many people had told me they were disappointed, but from a crowed bus of archaeology nerds, they seemed pretty much up to snuff.

Pyramids at Giza! Swoon ...

Ashraf, our lovely egyptian guide for the entirety of the tripe, and our liason that manages said problems like the police showing up at the dig house and getting us safely through checkpoints along the road to the oasis, kept us updated on what we were seeing as we headed out into the desert. That is to say, he pointed out the pyramids as we left Cairo, and the fact that we were in Daklah when we arrived! I kid, a bit, but most of the LONG LONG ride was desert -- flat, tan desert. We stopped a few times to use the bathrooms (only one squat!) and streach and take photographs.

The group taking a stretch by some iron mines

Regardless we were more than ready to leave that bus far far in the past when we arrived at the dig house after dark. I was not prepared for how beautiful the house is. It's rustic, to be sure, but arriving at night to the mudbrick courtyards illuminated by hanging lanterns was too picturesque for words. (pictures that do it justice soon!)Delicious hibiscus drink and friendly house-staff greeted us and we ate a much needed dinner, unpacked, and hit the sack with huge grins on our faces.

This morning we woke early and cold. Breakfast was yummy cheese, honey, pita and hard boiled eggs. After we set-up the library and computer lab we had some time to explore around the house. The fields and palm groves surrounding us are exactly what you think an oasis should be. Muddy and green and lovely. Climbing palm trees and catching grasshoppers ensued. We sat for awhile just in awe of the commanding view of the desert scarp and town. But, turn around and there is the distance is the Sahara. A strange substitute for the pacific ocean, but just as expansive feeling. The night grows old now so I'll save more dig-house antics until another time. Suffice it to say I know realize an oasis paradise really exists.

[Photos of dig house, etc delayed due to really SLOW connection]

...

Quickly before I forget... (apologies for listicle)

Forth of July = work, jumping off the Taos Junction bridge into the Rio Grande, chicken dinner, Johnny Walker, two-stepping with a real cowboy at the Sagebrush (Sev roped me into it)

Saturday = day off = plant walk with Wind (learned how to tell the difference between dandelion and hemlock, make rope from milk weed, eat reeds and other leafy things to cure what ails you), laundry, Jeff's melancholy departure, leaving my wallet on top of the car and driving away (ice cream and movie to wallow in)

Sunday = back to Vista Verde trail, MORE TIPI GLYPHS than I ever thought possible, home early to get a tour of the old Morningstar commune (awesome ruins, amazing location)

Monday - today = still at the same site which is proving to be an amazing assemblage of Apache or Ute glyphs of the scratched variety. Hard to see and a pain to draw, but once documented it becomes clear it's excitingly new stuff. It gets boring and exciting in waves. 

The future = work through Friday, powow on Saturday, paper work on Sunday, the next week is all up in the air. Don't want to leave ... 

LBDFA

This place does not like cars. Kaet's "beast" has been put permanently out of commission (more because we're scared of it than any actual problem) and Tuesday morning Chaco, a neighbor's dog, chased a squirrel under the hood of Mari's Honda Hybrid and preceded to chew off the license plate and emblem as well as scratch and claw the bumper and hood. Mari only joined us Sunday night and a busted car is not what you want on your mind when you have an 8 hour day out in the field ahead of you. I went into town with her instead of out to the field to figure it out. Stopped at Michael's while she made the necessary phone calls and got the most amazing chocolate cream cheese croissant. Eventually she talked to Chaco's owners and they easily agreed to pay the damages. It's still going to take some time and brain power to get it to the shop and fixed and all. Bummer.

Heading back a few days ... 

Saturday was a half day of work and Jeff's 20th Birthday. Sam, Albert, Christian and Tessa came out to visit. It was so great to see them! We went to the Gorge Bridge and the Earthship visitors center. We've decided we want to build and live in an Earthship palace. Albert's in charge of finding the land. They had to get back to Santa Fe so they couldn't stay for the birthday feast and hot spring jaunt. We made a surprisingly yummy gluten and dairy free cake and went to the hot springs they used in Easy Rider. They're more like luke-warm springs, but it was pretty idylilic. We walked down in the dark and some locals had built a fire. The sky was perfectly clear and the fire flys were out in record numbers (which for this area isn't tons, but enough). I was the only one who kept jumping in and out of the river to keep the springs feeling toasty. Lakeside has trained me to think this is the only way. I think it is.

Sunday was our "day off" and we slept in (until 8:30). Jim, a friend of Bob's who lives on the other side of the highway in Arroyo Hondo took us out on his land. There was an amazing concentration of lithics and pottery and an old pit house that apparently someone had preliminarily excavated a while ago. Jim is a member of the only non-native Katsina society in the world and is trained in putting on sweat lodges. He invited us to one on Saturday. We might go. It would certainly be a trip. He is a wonderful guy and has a very friendly way about him. He took us up to some rock art and gave his interpretation and while anglo appropriation and all that he was completely genuine. He has a silent thoughtfulness about him that's a nice change from some of the pontificating the goes on around here. After our field trip with Jim we came back and made a huge brunch feast. 

In the afternoon Anand, Kaet and I headed out to Santa Fe. Anand had to catch an early flight monday morning and I wanted to visit the clan at Tessa's so it worked out perfectly. Icing on the cake came with the revelation that Megafaun was also playing a little show that very night. We had a beautiful drive through a monsoon. Amazing downpour and thunder and lightning. Cranked the music and made a real road trip out of what became a little over 2 hour drive. Some snaffos (or "faffs") finding Tessa's, getting food, finding the show, but we made it in the end. The show was at this guy's house who hosts bands for free. Santa Fe is a little lacking in a deep music scene it seems. In any event it was the perfect intimate venue for their music and I was beyond thrilled to see the boys and their bearded little faces. Post-show we all went back to Tessa's to hang out and were greeted with fireworks from the roof! Tessa's dad has a beautiful place on a hill and we watched the lights of Santa Fe from the patio. So funny to have gathered such a group so far from all our native states. Because of our numbers crashing at Tessa's was out. So, the two chorts (Anand and Kaet) and I relied on the hospitality of Phil, Brad, and Joe and laid ourselves out on the floor of their hotel room. We had to get up at five to get Anand to the airport shuttle (only slightly brutal) which gave us plenty of time to grab grub and head out to meet up with everyone in the field. "Showers" in the Rio Grande are the only way to make it through the day.

Monsoon season has begun here and the clouds roll over the perfectly clear sky every afternoon at about three. The light is, if it's possible, even more incredibly in the early evening after the storm passes. It leaves little bits of clouds here and there that make the sunsets absolutely heart breaking. I had started to take the views here for granted, but driving back to New Buffalo every day we hit the highest point on the highway in just the right spot to see the whole Rio Grande rift valley and the gorge at the perfect time of day. One of these days I'll stop and take a picture. It may be that I'm particularly focused on the looks of things as I took my first real shower in four days, but I think that this may be one of those places that is never just so-so, but always breath-taking. Lindsey's impeccable taste in music helps keep us awake on the ride in in the mornings, but the drowsy carful in the afternoon perks up only on this curve.

Tomorrow is the fourth of July and we'll be working a full day I imagine. A few of the towns around here put on parades and parties and since we'll be taking Saturday off I think we'll try and celebrate somehow. Talk of putting on a BBQ here for the guys may manifest in more than talk, we'll see. 

Nicks

Crotch splits in the middle of the day in the middle of nowhere (dun du duh)

Knacks

$11 replacement jeans from WalMart