17 - 23 February

AW, Saturday, 17 February
Still no joy in excavation. Did 3 surface collections today. Asir said an area near our last surface collection might be graves. So, we started a unit there. Area O. For “zero” I think. Not a damn thing. My workmen have warmed up considerably, and now often won’t let me do the hard physical labor. I guess being willing to do so was enough. Thursday afternoon we had little to do so we sat around talking, playing the “what’s this in Arabic/English” word game. They decided T needs a Sudani wife who will give him 10 children since I’m not doing it. (T and I started referring to this as the “Thundercat Incident” hearkening back to the episode of American Dad when they move to Saudi Arabia.) After they got paid, we went, (I was feeling rather conspiratorial) to hide behind some rocks and chat some more. I doubt anyone was unaware that we were “shirking” work, but it was fun anyway. Babakir speaks more English than he lets on, but tends to be pretty quiet. Gamar speaks virtually no English, but can imitate it with disturbing facility. One of his favorite lines, whipped out at totally random moments and pronounced almost perfectly is: “I brush my teeth every day.” Idris is pretty quiet, he’s not from the same village as the others, but he can usually be persuaded to sing, which breaks up the monotony of digging nicely.
Thursday night went to Mohammed Ali’s (neighbor/landlord) to meet his family. Lots of pictures taken. His daughters took us for a walk and tried to teach us some Arabic. The two eldest are very bright and fairly assertive. Mohammed has paid for them to be educated and both plan to go to university before they get married – something of a novelty around here.
Friday went to look at a nearby island that can be walked to with the river at it’s low point now. Decided to split up to look around and Mg got lost. She ran into R, who had also gotten lost while birding. We spent a few hours looking for them but they eventually found their own way home.
Went to visit the Poles later that day. They were as charming and generous as ever and gave us permission to start work on a cemetery near our house.
Gamar told me, through Asir, that he would name his daughter after me. Poor child. I feel a bit out of my depth digging here. Perhaps it’s because we’re not finding anything but I feel like it’s because I’m missing it, not that it’s just not here. My hands continue to be bothersome, though I’ve taken to wearing my gardening gloves with the fingertips cut off and wrapped bandanas around my wrists to cover the gap between my shirt cuffs and the gloves. Haven’t had a full night of sleep in a week because of the burning and itching. G has suggested, and I agree, that since there are virtually no mosquitos here it may be an acceptable risk to stop taking the doxy for the duration and start up again once we head back to areas with mosquitos (Karima and Khartoum). As being unable to use my hands makes being here, malaria or not, pointless, I think I’ll take the gamble. And I intend to email the nurse who prescribed it when we get back to tell her under no circumstances should she recommend the doxy to people who have to work outside. And despite my gloves, now the ends of my fingers that are still exposed are starting to burn and swell. Just no winning it seems. I can’t wait until the damned doxy is out of my system.
Recorded some of the more recent field photography. For reasons passing understanding G took a picture of a lizard and kept it. So, there’s a field photo with the description “lizard.” I refrained from adding “because G is insane.”

AW, Tuesday, 20 February
Little to report past few days. Ill with a migraine on Sunday – a truly horrific one, not one of my “I can mostly work through it if I have to” that I usually have. Finished my work at HG yesterday. (Still not a damned thing to show for all those holes.) Spent the time after lunch helping G track down and measure grinding stones. And listening to him sing Ring of Fire. Not a bad voice, but insufficiently gravelly to truly sound at all like Johnny. ☺ Watched Ali G last night, which is becoming something of a team tradition. C and L are to arrive this afternoon. Started excavating a grave at AW today. T and I planned it, then he went back to the house with a splitting headache and fever. He says his eyes hurt if he shifts focus too quickly. This does not bode well, so I’ll be keeping a close eye on him.
Dug down today to tumulus cross-section. Difficult to figure out which stones to leave and which to move. Still feeling my way to figure out what I’m doing.
Chatted with M and G about dissertation possibilities. Lots of potential in 4th Cataract stuff. The problem is I wouldn’t really be an “Egyptologist” anymore and I’d have to start being nicer to Anthropologists. I’m not overjoyed by either idea. ☺

AW, Thursday, 22 February
Out today and yesterday. T ill Wednesday with splitting headache and fever. I was fine until I was about to leave to walk to the site and suddenly had terrible stomach cramps. By end of day, had whatever T had. Same thing today, along with dizziness. Am down to 101 lbs and don’t want to loose any more. Cemetery is producing great things – whole pots, beakers, etc. Can’t wait to get back out. Hope to work on the database and registration tomorrow for my recouperation. T has most of my workmen from HG working with him while he finishes up his monster area excavation out there. They had him to lunch in the village today at the house of a guy we’ve dubbed “Mr. TAMAM!!!!!” “Tamam” is a word that essentially means, “good” or “great” and it gets used a lot, especially in greetings. Anyway, Mr. TAMAM!!!! had a tendency to come visit us at HG and go around to each team to greet them, and he yells. A lot. Mostly he yells “TAMAM!” at all us khawagas. I’m not sure if he’s hard of hearing or if he’s doing the classic “if I speak loudly, they’ll understand my language” thing.
Gamar, I gather, refrained from his totally random interjections of “I brush my teeth every day” while working for T. And Babakir did not, at any point, find it necessary to look at Gamar and say (in English, for some reason) “Be silent! You talk too much!” to Gamar. T’s missing out on all my fun. ☺ Idris is now working at AW, since he lives here and made a point to come visit me in my part of the cemetery the last day I was out at work. He finds it immensely entertaining to ask how I am and receive the response “tamam!” No idea why – I don’t think my pronunciation is that bad. ☺
C and L have arrived. Bomba had a bit of a breakdown today, I gather. It seems no one really asked if he wanted to cook as well as drive. Apparently a discussion with G over his pay solved that problem, though. He also told T something about fearing he was going mad last night. This should end well.

AW, Friday, 23 February
Stumbled out of bed this morning and made my way to the dining room. Apparently people were pleased to see me up and around and not clinging to the walls for support while walking because as I was chatting with R, G wandered in and greeted me “Good morning, princess, feeling better?” For a minute, we weren’t sure whether he was talking to me or to R. ☺ Still not clear what the hell was up with that. I’m pretty sure I didn’t pack my tiara. Still feeling poorly, but well enough to work on registrar stuff.