It was another drawing day with nothing really exciting to say, so how about some more info on how we live here. Curious about how we get to work? Forget stretch limos, we have something called a “box”:
Basically, it’s a pick-up truck with the back end covered. It holds about 10 people in the back, then several of our workers hang from the step on the rear. The seats are just planks covered in a very thin pillow, and seated, my head just barely clears the roof. But it’s cheap and effective and is essentially the local taxi service. It gets us, our stuff, and the workers that live with us to the site about 5 minutes away each morning and home in the afternoon, so there’s no complaining from me.
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| Tasha in the box. |
Tasha and I had an interesting experience the first day we stayed late to the tell. We are supposed to have hired the box for us and us alone, even though many of the boxes you just hop on and off of at your leisure, and you’re often in the box with several other people going any number of places. When our box came to pick us up in the afternoon, the local boys saw two pretty young foreign girls (caked in dirt and completely covered with long sleeves, pants, head coverings and sunglasses- sexy, huh?) and they had to come say hello. Several boys hopped on the back until our driver kicked them off. Then, as we were only a few doors from our apartment, we got a flat tire! I thought someone had fired a gun, it was so loud. Naturally, everyone on the block came running out of their houses. Hello Edfu, if you didn’t know we lived near you before, you do now!
- Box rider and tire popper
PS. The box really isn’t that bad. We don’t look dumb like all the tourists who ride a “kadesh” onto the site (Dan and I took a stylish motor coach, which gets far fewer laughs). The kadeshes all line up near the entrance and thankfully, all the horses get some shade for a while.
