But it's a DRY heat!

Yesterday got a little ridiculous in the heat department. To my friends and family back home, I can empathize with you: the heat-wave isn’t just hitting North America. I’ve heard from locals that it’s not supposed to get this hot until mid- to late August. Yesterday, it was up to 40 C or so in town, but it was worse in the field.

 A few people had gone back to the site to touch up drawings or gather some additional data. At the tell, it went up to 49 C. It was so hot that one of the long cloth/plastic tape measures began to sag and melt as someone was working on a section drawing.

Today is supposed to get hotter. Joy. At least it’s not humid, which is a blessing. 

Yesterday was also the day when Jordanian students found out whether they had been accepted into college/university or if they were forever doomed to take up, in all likelihood, the family business. Understandably, this is an emotional time. People drive around like maniacs, friends hanging out the windows, celebrating (or not, as the case may be) at the tops of their lungs. They let off fireworks at odd times, and some get a little gun-happy.

As we were taking photos of stone tools from a previous year, a series of loud bangs came from outside, echoing over the flat rooftops. The team’s logistics man, a former army engineer, looked up. “That’s probably fireworks.” The next series of explosive sound came in staccato bursts. “That wasn’t.” He nodded appreciatively, listening to a third burst of sound, likely from the same source as the second. “I’d like to have one of those. Semi-automatic.” At the end-of-season party later that night, he showed us the bullet that had landed in the hotel’s courtyard earlier in the day. It brought home once again just how different things are over here. 

Thoughts of bullets and melting tapes were lost in conversation, laughter, dancing, and much drunken singing along to “Paradise by the Dashboard Light” and “All the Small Things.” Some of the people from the Tell Madaba dig dropped by, bringing a speaker that dwarfed the ones we had; in true Jordanian fashion, a very loud good time was had by all. This morning, I suspect, hangovers are had by many.