24 February - 1 March

AW, Saturday, 24 February
So apparently G made a major faux pas with his Syrian Arabic on Thursday. He told his workmen to clear around the “ass” of a pot. M thought it was hysterical, especially when one of G’s workmen wandered over and asked if he (G) was an idiot or something. ☺ Worked at HG today. Morning spent helping T with the unit from hell. After lunch continued the Great Grindstone Survey with G. This would go a little more smoothly if we could remember where all of them are. As I didn’t really find most of them, I’m not particularly helpful when G asks “Where’s number X?”
“How the hell should I know? I was digging another damn empty hole when you found it.” ☺
Nor is the situation helped by T singing “She’s a Grindstone Cowboy” everytime we come into earshot.
It’s gotten almost unbearably hot the past 2 days. I was immensely grateful for the irrigation channel running along the edge of the site today. Nile water is nice and cold and very good for dipping kerchiefs in. Only problem was the thing dried out within 5 minutes of me putting it back on my head. Went swimming in the Nile this afternoon. Well, T and G swam, I waded in up to my waist.
G and T had fun teasing me about forgetting to a “t” in “Unregistered” on the sign I put on the cabinet so people will know where to put their stuff so I can register it. Decided to continue the fun by singing snatches of Gold Digger at me, complete with what can only be called a grunt “ungh” until I nearly fell out of my chair while I was trying to edit attribute tables. Yet another song I won’t be able to listen to without laughing for reasons totally unrelated to the lyrics…
Noticed while doing the photo log data entry that G decided that suitable payback for me mocking his spelling a few days ago was to start deliberately misspelling things to keep me on my toes. Decades from now, someone is going to go through that notebook and have no idea why there’s a photo log in pen with snarky comments written in pencil next to some of the entries.

AW, Thursday, 1 March
Strange sense of déjà vu. I’ve just woken to the sound of G calling out the names of workmen, repeated by someone else from the village, and the sound of people coming in for payday. Reminds me of the dig in Egypt. Sick today and yesterday. Fever, headache, and intestinal troubles. I think I may have gone back to work after the last bout a little too early.
Made an awful mess (I think) of digging my first tomb. Will do better on the next one, now that I’m a little more certain of what I’m doing.
The window on the Land Cruiser was broken yesterday afternoon. No one is sure who did it or why but as a result of this and other matters, Bomba will be returning to Khartoum to be replaced by another driver and we’ll be hiring a cook.
Feeling terribly weak, sick, and useless. Probably just from whatever is making sick.
Photographers from a major US magazine that I won’t name here showed up a few days ago. After their visit G had to declare a moratorium on discussions of intestinal problems, bathrooms, etc., after one of the team treated them to a rather detailed description…

AW, Sunday, 4 March
Rather adventurous few days. Felt much better Friday and got a reasonable amount of work done. Finished work on my first tomb yesterday – only pelvis and legs down to the ankles left, the rest of the body is gone, no doubt due to looters in antiquity. (I may have screwed up a bit, but not that badly.) Working with 2 kids of about 14, Abdullah and Ramalli. Pretty good kids but a little impatient to move rocks, dig, etc. at times when it’s better to go slowly. Started a new tomb with T doing one as well right next door. Looks to be undisturbed. The majority of the graves seem to be Kerma period, but not particularly rich. Babies are included with their own grave goods which is interesting in terms of notions of personhood for the people using the cemetery.
Our workmen are much amused by T singing. They do this sort of air-guitar accompaniment when he does. We did a duet of Austin Prison yesterday. I think that will be my only stage appearance here at AW. Yassir, one of T’s workmen, is funny. Nearly everything we do or find is met with Yassir saying “oooo-woooow.” I’ve become the official cigarette lighter it seems, as almost no one else seems able to flick my Bic (well, Mg’s Bic). It’s a nice little ritual. Every 30 minutes or so someone comes by, calls my name and asks for a light. I hand them the Bic. Depending on whether they’ve done it before and on the wind speed there’s a few moments of staring in consternation at this bit of plastic that apparently makes fire sometimes, then a few desultory attempts at getting the thing to light. Then I get handed the cigarette and the lighter.
Enjoying working with T close by. The Arabic/English word game is far more entertaining that way. Especially now that we have both crews doing a chicken dance. T keeps trying to get his guys to throw rocks at me. I think he has a crush on me or something. ☺
J arrived and is settling in nicely. He’ll be very helpful with the HG stuff.
Went to bed last night to the smell of smoke and thought nothing of it – I assumed they were burning garbage. Woke from a nightmare of the house fire we had when I was a kid to D and L yelling in the courtyard. The dokhan (store) next door had caught fire. Apparently D and L noticed it first – the smoke kept them from sleeping - but it took them a while to figure out where it was coming from until flames started jumping from the roof of the dokhan. Finally figured it out and went running to wake the village. T darted out just as I was finally waking up fully in time to see huge flames jumping from the roof of the dokhan, which our nook faces (though the view is mostly blocked by the wall around the house). Jammed my boots on, grabbed a light and whiste and ran outside and nearly into G. G asked where T was. There’s something dangerous going on and people need help, where else would T be but in the thick of it? We started forward as the flames got worse. T came out for a moment and we yelled for him but he went back in. I heard him shouting “La!” (“No” in Arabic). Apparently Mohammed Ali, who owns the dokhan, had come with his keys, hoping to save some of his inventory (and a safe, we found out later). T, knowing that we’d likely loose someone or at least wind up with someone seriously injured if they tried to empty out the shop was yelling at him not to open it.
The wind was out of the north, blowing embers directly across the narrow alley towards our house. They managed to clear everyone out of the dokhan and the attached guest house just in time and we waited outside to watch and see if our own house would catch. I asked G if we should pack up while we could and he agreed. I was shaking – bad memories- but threw all of our stuff into the luggage and T and I dragged it out to the courtyard. Went back out in time to see the portico on the dokhan (made of palm logs and fronds) go up. The women started wailing which made the scene all the more disturbing. T had gone back in and I stood with the others, shivering, to be sure he came back out if it started to get too bad. He finally did, and so we stood in a group watching. By that point there was nothing to be done. I looked up at some point, confused by the lack of light as it had been a bright full moon when I went to sleep to discover the moon was eclipsing.
Finally went back inside at the urging of the villagers, dragged our beds out into the courtyard because it was still too smoky inside and tried to sleep with the smoke and occasional snap-pop of the palm logs snapping in the fire. Didn’t sleep very well.
Still unclear how it started. T thinks it was a short while the generator was running and given that the wiring isn’t exactly up to code around here, that seems perfectly plausible. I think I smelled smoke before the generator went on, though, but that could have been smoke from elsewhere. The villagers think it’s part of a broader pattern of trouble between the people who have accepted the resettlement money and are planning to move and those who don’t want to leave (not all of whom are Manasir, just most of them). A few sheep were slaughtered the other night (and not by the mysterious wolf-thing they’ve been trying to kill lately). Some are inclined to attribute the broken window on the Land Cruiser to the same pattern, but that seems unlikely. We, as guests, seem to be sacrosanct.
Went ahead and went to work today. Long day. It’s getting hotter. The workmen were tired and so were all of us.
I’ve decided to have a lazy afternoon. My ankle is bothering me again and both calves ache so standing up to draw plans seems like too much to ask right now. I need to catch up on registration anyway. Only a few more days before we leave for Karima and then Khartoum – I figure I should relax while I can.