Tuesday July 11, 2006
Work continued for yet another day, but at a slower pace today since we spent a lot of time waiting for the backhoe. As we excavate each "square," which is 5 m by 5 m (hence the name!), we carry dirt and rocks into central piles outside its boundaries, which then need to be picked up by the backhoe and used to build roadways around the site. It's a pretty good system--as long as the tractor guy comes when we need him, and today he didn't. Other teams were keeping him busy on other parts of the mountain, so there was nothing to do but wait. Oh well. Maybe a slower day, like today, will help our productivity tomorrow.
I think we'll need a bit of a boost then, since we spent our last hour today starting a brand-new square. This was a first for my team, since we started the season (only about 10 days ago--though it sure feels like we've been here longer than that) by working on a square that was already half-finished last year. Then, a couple of days ago, we finished that one and moved into the square next door to it, which was also already half-done. So we had the illusion of great progress, up until this morning at least! But now it's definitely slow going, starting from surface level. This new area not only had been our dirt-and-rock pile for a week, but now today had a loaded backhoe driving over for half an hour. How do you spell "hard-packed"? Yikes! Dan and I tackled it with picks, swinging hard, and were able to drive the points only about 2 inches into the ground with each swing. Brutal! So we made sure we gave Dr. Schuler a rough time about this. "Talk about bait and switch," we'd say; and, "Never mind how Jesus did it, you saved the worst wine until now!" (see John 2, if you don't get the reference). Thankfully he knows us well enough by now to know that we're kidding.
Actually, we Canadians seem to have acquired a pretty good reputation within the group. I don't think it's an exaggeration to say that we're pretty hard workers who others know they can count on. "Let's get the Canadians over to help" has been said a couple of times when people have really big rocks to move. We take a lot of ribbing over "eh" too, of course. In fact, the latest joke is that just as some of them have picked up our "eh," we've got a new"bilingual" greeting too: "Howdy, eh?" The Americans just crack up when they hear it.
Dan inspired quite a bit of hilarity yesterday too when he built an Inukshuk close by our work-site. Nobody knew what it was, and hadn't heard of an Inukshuk either. Naturally they assumed it was an idol, rather than a boundary-marker, so we told them that if we sacrificed 5 scorpions and prayed hard, it would snow the next day. And guess what: this morning dawned cloudy and relatively cool!
This Canadian-American thing was something I hadn't experienced in a while, but remember well from when I studied in the States, both in Portland and in St. Louis. We're sort of a conversation piece, I guess-- an unknown quantity-- and it's pretty easy to maximize that "foreign" quality, playing to the audience I suppose. On a more serious level too though, I enjoy the chance to make a good first impression not only for myself but also for our country. As I say, it's gratifying to have the sense that all of us-- Clint, Joyce, Dan and I-- are doing that.
Naturally there are plenty of jokes along with all the hard work. The problem is that I'm so bad at remembering them. One I recall though is that our leaders are a great example of a Lutheran paradox: Drs. Mark and Rhoda Schuler. Hah! I also have the habit of starting most days by encouraging our crew to "make hay before the sun shines" (we start about 5:00 am, and sunrise is about 6:10). And of course there are lots of little puns and word-plays that seem funny at the time but have a pretty short shelf-life. I guess the point is that it's certainly not all work and no play.
Did I write before about the weather on the lake? It's uncanny, how still it is every morning and then how suddenly and strongly the wind comes early in the afternoon. Apparently it has to do with the regular and progressive heating of the land throughout the morning, which results in this breeze right off the Mediterranean. Today I was walking to the dining hall for lunch when I could literally see this happening right in front of my eyes. The shallow water close to our beach here on the eastern shore was dead calm. Then, several hundred metres offshore, I could see cats-paws of wind dancing here and there. And about half-way across the lake there were whitecaps-- no kidding!-- making their way here. It was absolutely amazing to see that weather system taking shape. Sadly, I didn't have my camera with me to record it.
I bought a little book yesterday about this kibbutz and read it through this afternoon before laying down for my brief nap. A fascinating place. It was the first Jewish settlement on this side of the Sea of Galilee, established in 1937 just 2 days before a decision was made by the British authorities regarding which parts of Palestine were to be considered Jewish and which parts Arab. A presence was needed here, so a carload of settlers set out and created one. The conditions were terrible for a long time, and in fact the opening shots of the 1948 War of Independence were fired right here-- the Syrian army that commanded the Golan Heights which surround us bombarded the kibbutz to launch the war.
Anyway, what an interesting place this is. Kibbutzes have changed a lot over the years, but in the early days all of the children lived and slept in separate buildings away from their parents, so that both Mom and Dad could focus on their work and the kids could be socialized and educated with their peers. Now of course it's different. Even today though, nobody owns private cars here, but the kibbutz runs a fleet of them that everybody shares in together. It's a form of small-scale socialism that actually seems to work rather well.
Well, I suppose that's it for today. I'm not at all sure who I'm writing this for, or how many of you there are, but I do hope you're finding this blog interesting. Maybe if I can figure out how to post pictures to it, it'll be better still.