I got up later this morning, and found another beautiful sunrise. I just had to pass it on to you.
Today, I was first assistant to the chief shard washer at the dig site. Yes, Don got me to go with him. He bribed me with breakfast in the Old City, and a promise that if I got tired, or too hot, or just didn't like it, he would take me home. Besides, there was an Arab bus we could catch, we wouldn't have to walk. While waiting for the bus in the Arab section, an Arab sheroot (shared taxi) came by and offered to take us. We "discussed" price with him and he said he would take us for only one shekel more, each, than the Arab bus. OK, we got in. What a ride! Speeding up and down narrow winding roads, making quick stops to pick up others, or to have a chat with another cheroot driver who was also in the middle of the street.
Washing shards was a pleasant job. The only tree on the site is an olive tree and we sat on benches under it. We would put a bucket of shards into a blue tub of water and take our little brushes and scrub them, when they were clean we would drop them into the green tub of water. When all the shards from one bucket were washed we would set them out to dry making sure they were all together with their identifying tag. The water was cool and the brushes would throw sprinkles of water into our faces, it felt good.
The workers seemed to be fascinated that a woman was there. Don had to keep getting out his Arab phrase book and explain to them that I am his wife. One young fellow kept getting right in my face and smiling, I just smiled back. Don took a picture of me with some of the guys.
The dig is down to a wall that is believed to be part of the wall that was rebuilt by Nehemiah, as spoken of in Nehemiah 3:15. Originally built during Hezekiah's reign as mentioned in 2 Kings 20. The pottery shards that we were washing would be from those time periods.
More later.......... Shalom............Bernice