Work began a little more in earnest today, especially with
our project! Since we won’t start digging work until Saturday (side note: we
take Friday as our day off since that’s the Muslim holy day, but work every
other day), we had all the guys we brought from Luxor (our specialists who
dig-hop for a living) available to move blocks. We had a lot to move and
thought it’d take several days, but we moved well over 300 today and are almost
finished! The guys were awesome and even understood most of my Arabic (though
apparently, I don’t write Arabic numbers so well). Tomorrow we’ll finish moving
the smaller blocks, then Jon and I will start epigraphy while some local Edfu
workers build us our mastaba benches. The bricks and sand and concrete still
need to be purchased and delivered, but we’re hoping to have all the mastabas
finished in the next 2 weeks. While I haven’t done all the calculations yet, I
think those of you that donated will be surprised at just how far your donation
is going to go. Let’s just say that I’m going to have to re-think how I take
pictures for you guys, because there’s no way I can count out hundreds of
bricks for each of you!
This is what the block yard looked like this morning from
the top of the tell (for reference, the temple is to the top of this photo, and
where I drew last year is in the upper right-hand corner).
This is standing there where I drew last year this morning:
And this afternoon:
Look at the difference! That’s 312 blocks moved. Some were
trash, some were architectural elements, and some were pieces to the same
block, so I don’t have quite that many to record and draw, but it won’t be
easy. The big ones will probably be left there for the most part since they are
too big to move. You can just make out where we’ve moved the blocks to: to the
right of the path and steps.
For those of you that were worried, both Kiri and Afrit
showed up for breakfast this morning, and Lindsey and I couldn’t be happier!
Kiri seems to remember us and was fine with cuddles almost immediately. Afrit
was still his skittish self, but was grateful for the food. And as Lindsey and
I were heading to the bathroom, we heard the unmistakable cry of a kitten. We
turned to find an extremely thin, scarred, scared 4ish-week-old orange tabby
trying to follow us on wobbly legs. Of course, we immediately brought it back
to our spot, fed and watered it, and let it fall asleep in the shade. It purrs
like mad when you pick it up. Oh dear. It’s so great that our friend Tina from
Chicago House was willing to give up a bag of cat food for us- we have lots of
mouths to feed! Lindsey, Nadine, and I also moved the puppies today. They are
very adorable and don’t even have their eyes open yet. We moved them to where
no one will be working and chased the momma dog until she found them. Unlike
the cats, all the tell dogs are wild, so we had to be careful not to make the
momma mad, but she never even snarled- I think something in her knew we were
just trying to help. On top of that, the bathroom window dove at the house has
a little egg in her nest, and our photographer from Hungary (who also works at
Chicago House) is pregnant, so won’t be joining us this season. What is with
all the babies?! At least I’m not missing my own furry babies so much...
Mohammed and Taib are still our chefs, so meals in the house
have been pretty good. I’m still not excited about second breakfast, but I’ve
been bringing fruit and ketchup from the house so that I can drown 1 pita in
ketchup and have a piece of fruit, which holds me over until lunch at 2. I’m
also a big fan of the water flavoring that I brought. I’ve gone through a whole
liter a day on-site because of it, whereas I only did about ¼ of a liter last
year. Seeing as I’m out in the sun all the time now, it’s probably better than
I want to drink more. I’m hoping that my immune system is still as amazing as
last year and can handle the change in food, and so far, it has. Knock on wood.
