Thunderstorms and Birds Nests

A baby osprey has just drowned in its nest in Scotland due to heavy rains there...so sad. But it reminds me of a happier outcome after torrential rain.

Thunderstorms and birds nests....I just had to drag out my album from NH some 25 years ago....my first (and only) hands on bird rescue. Out back behind the parsonage was a plain little bush with a wonderful treasure - a small pocket of a nest with newly hatched yellow warblers. We loved watching the parents coming and going and tending the the little nest filled with great gaping beaks! (We peaked in!). Then one afternoon there was a terrible thunderstorm and torrential downpour. When it cleared I hurried outside worried about the nest. It was gone!!! But there were two babies peeping on the ground and the mother was bringing food to them. Where was the nest? Where was the third baby?! There was no way they could fly yet! That sodden hunk of grass...had that been the nest? I gingerly picked it up..nothing but soggy mass of grass upside down on the ground, nest shape gone. and then the nest pooped in my hand. Astounded breathlessly I gently pulled apart the grass and a found the third baby who now sat in my hand and tilted its head at me and said "peep"! Now what? To make long story short Nick and I realized that the father warbler was nearby and calling to the chick which was responding to him! So we set him in a place we hoped would be safe from cats and watched the father begin to feed it! The top picture is from the rescue day. Several days later I followed the father to the baby which was now perched in chicken wire fencing and the baby hopped onto my finger! "Peep! I always hoped one day a grown up yellow warbler would perch on my shoulder and say "Chirp"!

June 22, 1976 Part One

22/June/76

Dear All,
Got your June 15 letter today. The heat is not unbearable yet. In fact, this morning we actually had big (for here) clouds coming off the Mediterranean from 6 am till 10 or so and I was freezing to death having come out to the tell without a sweater. I was ready to grab one of the big sheep or goats that wander on the hillsides to cuddle with, but John D. our area supervisor for the tombs said that the herding dogs are protective of their flocks and I might just be devoured. I crawled into a cave to get warm.

There are 6 people on the photography team. Paul D. is the chief, nice guy who is easy to work for. Then there is Scott R. who was in the Marines and has now lived in Amman for a couple years till he’s ready to go back to school. Then, Kaye B. who’s about 25, and is an aspiring journalist and famous writer. She also has a husband and 3 kids who she left at home with her mother. Then Andy K., a guy who from Canada claims he’s in the Middle East for romance and intrigue. Then Loren C., from Andrew Univ. who is a nice guy. It seems to be a good enough team. We are on a rotating basis so that each person gets to work on a different part of the dig. This week I am with the tomb crew. Yesterday, with the help of Helmie, the local grave robber we made soundings with a long iron nail and started a tomb probe. Since there were no pictures to be taken I did a lot of digging and excavating myself. I even had a case of the trots yesterday (the 1st!) but of course that was from sitting on cold cement steps!
(picture at left is Helmie)

Actually, Sunday we had a day trip to Um Quais, the biblical Gadara, near where Jesus was supposed to have driven Legion’s Demons into the swine. We could see the Sea of Galilee in the distance, also the West Bank. There is a German crew excavating Um Quais. It’s awfully hot there. I’m glad to be here! We saw a Roman theater, hippodrome and mausoleum there all made of black basalt. I was taking pictures with my instamatic of which the battery is dead so maybe have nothing. I may send that film home to see. I need a PX30 Mallory battery I think. 1” diameter ½” thick. Drat.

(This next picture was taken surreptitiously from hip level. The view encompasses Lebanon and Syria and Jordan Israel too. A tender spot.)

Insert from website: http://www.jordansinaihotels.com/quaisday.htm

Known as Gadera in ancient times, modern Umm Qais is in the northernmost part of
Jordan, just south and east of the Sea of Galilee and the Golan. Founded
by the Ptolomies as a military post after the death of Alexander the Great in
the 3rd century BC, Gadera was a member of the Decapolis during Roman
times. There are significant Roman and Ottoman ruins including two
amphitheaters in the area. From the guesthouse one can enjoy sweeping
views of the Sea of Galilee and the Golan.
The biblical significance of Gadera comes from its claim to be the setting for the tale of the Gerasene swine, told in the gospels of Mathew, Mark, and Luke. In this story, Jesus crossed the Sea of Galilee and entered the country of the Gerasenes, where a man had been possessed by a multitude of evil spirits. Jesus caused these
spirits to leave the man and enter a great herd of swine that were grazing
nearby. The pigs then charged down into the Sea of Galilee and
drowned. Terrified at what they had seen, the people of Gadera
implored Jesus to leave, which he did. The man whom Jesus had helped
wanted to go with him, but Jesus requested that he stay behind to tell his story
(Mark 5:20) “So the man went off and proceeded to spread throughout the
Decapolis all that Jesus had done for him.”

June 17, 1976 Letter: Part Four Petra

The morning view from the rest house toward the museum and.... Looking down at the grand entrance on the main road into the center of Petra

(Lots of these pictures will enlarge if you click on them)

We got up really early the next day. Jim & Oscar had already gone off, so Carol, Murry & I headed over to the Palace Tombs. On the way a little Bedouin girl came running up the hill to us. Pointed to her tent and said, “Come, Chai” chai is tea. So we followed her down to the tent. Carol & Murray stopped to watch a woman making yarn on her spindle. So I alone followed the girl to the next tent. I was shown to some blankets on the floor and the mother sat down next to me and started breast feeding her baby. Then the kids gathered around and she put the baby down, put a radio next to its ear and went to make chai on the camp fire. We visited for a good hour and a half. Fatima the girl taught me the tune to the song Basim had taught me. So I’ll be able to entertain PEO with a Bedouin long song now, “Ridahah”

Inevitably the mother brought out a dress she wanted me to buy and an old tattoed woman came in with Nabatean pottery sherds and jewelry for me to buy”Shucran la! Ono thank you)” I kept saying. “I have no money.” The little girl had been to school in wadi Musa and so spoke English a little. She gave me several good sherds. Put them in my pocket so I knew them to be presents!

Goat hair tents just like the days of Abraham! And a mixture of old and new ways to carry water!

Check out the beautiful Gold Knife (almost a sword!) that the father has! Possibly handed down for generations. This is the outside of the "Palace Tombs" that we were originally headed for.After that Murray carol & I did visit the tombs but the Bedouin visit was best. We left Petra that afternoon after stopping at the rock where they say Moses struck it to get water. Sorry no pic! So here I am, happy and with many friends and making more. I got into an interesting discussion with a couple who was pretty concerned that I wasn’t concerned about being saved before I went to sleep in case I died. Apparently if I’m not afraid of death then the devil’s in me. I asked them not to pray over me when they went back to their tent but I’m sure they did anyway. They’re still nice people. A lot of good people to get into interesting discussion with.

Well, I hope this gets to you! Lots of love Nancy

PS I got your letter today, Dad. I think I have another in Amman. They tell me at the American center Not at ACOR. So I have to get it myself. The mail gets mixed up occasionally I guess.

This is a picture inside one of the "palace tombs". Note the little girl...we were soon to learn that there are children EVERYWHERE in Jordan!

Also please note that I have just added the promised pictures to Part 1 of this June 17th letter. So go back and look!

June 17, 1976 letter: Part Three Petra

Water is like diamonds there. Precious moisture. I must have consumed a good gallon or more of water each day there and rarely had to need to relieve my self. If you splashed water on yourself it evaporated in seconds. Like magic. We got a ride back to the rest house outside the city in a jeep (It is nice to be on Heshbon dig – you get favors!) Believe it or not the Siq/entrance is just wide enough for a jeep. It as better than any amusement park ride! The driver didn’t slow down for one curve. Just took ‘em and fast! We had a good meal at the rest house and then around 9;30 several of us. Carol & Murray, Oscar & Tim S Ray B, Jim S and Marilyn and I went back down into the city with our flashlights and slept in a big cave near the Treasury. (In the morning a bedouin gently sent us on our way so that he could open up his Pepsi stand there!)

The view from the back of our cave.The view toward the Siq from our "porch". Can you find the "exit"?
Another view from our porch looking farther down toward the center of Petra. Note the holes for scaffolding (that's the theory anyway) on the opposite wall!

We were only waked once in the night by a donkey or another animal scrabbling in the cobble below. We got up early and went into Nazzal’s camp where we waited for Bob C and the oothers to come down from the rest House. Then we went down a wadi to find the waterfall! This wadi is filled with oleander! Note the teensy trickle of water nourishing the oleander!

Maybe this was the waterfall...look closely...hmmmmmm

Beautiful. We found the water and waterfall which if you follow it leads right into the Dead Sea! [I have no pictures of or memory of this waterfall!] There were goats running all around and every once in a while a Bedouin child would run by.

On the way back we came face to face with a Bedouin woman and her children tending goats. They are very small. I wouldn’t have known she was old enough to be the mother except that she had a baby on her back and was making yarn [see sketch] We stared at them and they at us. Then Oscar asked if he could take her picture “La!” [No!] It probably would have been ok if one of us women had asked. We planned a 3 hour climb to Jebel Harun (Aaron’s Mountain). So we went back to Nazzal’s camp to rest up. We ended up not going which was too bad because the Bedouins would have given a a “mansef” had we gone up with enough people. So anyway we ate our supper there and chatted with Basim and Mamoud. Pam & I learned a Bedouin love song from Basim. We slept under the stars that night. Mamoud helped us into our sleeping bags and would have sat with us all night if we hadn’t kept saying “How do you say goodnight?” So we’re all bedded down and Carol got a little bug in her ear. After she had danced around a little we floated it out. The only other problem that night was the incredibly full moon. (This is a picture of the "moonrise" - note the campfires appearing in the mouths of the caves where the bedouins lived!)I have never seen a moon so bright. It really was like a blind spot light. Once during the night I woke up to see a donkey standing over me [funny I remember it as a huge horse] We threw rocks at him and he went and got his friend. They were kinda cute. Big gray donkeys wandering around in the moonlight. Then it got cold! Wish I had a picture of those donkeys in the moonlight!!!!

This was the next morning! Next post will tell the adventures of that day and conclude the June 17th letter home. Note also the only freestanding building in Petra. Said to be a temple. And I think this was a Eucalyptus tree. I remember getting a kick out of that because in High School we made up a number "wisdom sayings" which we posted on the blackboard in our Algebra Class...one of them was "Don't sleep under the Eucalyptus Tree tonight." The 70's. What can I say!

June 17, 1976 Letter: Part Two Petra

(Some pictures are clickable!)
At Petra for 3 days all we ate was 3 rolls of bread about 6 inches long and a box of cheese (like Tiger cheese 6 pieces [laughing cow]) and 3 oranges and a lot of hard boiled egg (of which I didn’t eat any ) and a lot of water. Petra was fantastic. We left ACOR about 8:00 ands made one stop on the way for pics of camels then a stop for Pepsi-cola and we were there.

It was a long hot ½ hour walk into the city. The first view of the Treasury knocks you out and that’s about all that a lot of tourists see. To appreciate Petra you’ve got to live it! My slides will show a lot. In the heart of the city is Nazzal’s Camp, a semi-commercial establishment and the museum.

The facilities are run by Bassim Rhinani, a guy named George and Mamaud. George wanted me to marry Basim and then we would marry my sister. I told him about Julie and he thought everything would still work out fine. The Arabs are incredibly friendly and almost overly helpful! Courtesy and hospitality are everything here!

(Click on this picture of the camp/hotel and note all the stairs leading to caves)

Before climbing up to Ed Deir with Bob C the first afternoon we were invited by Basim to have Arabic tea at the museum. Just my kind of tea! ½ water 1/3 sugar ½ tea! That is so refreshing.

It took 1 hour and 15 minutes to climb to Ed Deir. It is the monastery. The biggest building and almost the highest in the city which once housed about 30,000 Nabeteans in 1000 or so caves. If you can order a book by John Lawlor about the Nabeteans it would be good! He is on the dig here. The climb was exhausting but worth it! I can’t describe it. Once up there you can look out over the Wadi Musa for miles and miles. Incredible!

Definitely click on this picture or you might miss the little blue lizard-what a view it has!

This was a long letter! More to come!

June 17, 1976 letter: Part One Madaba

Our cafeteria and classroom/lecture and general group hang out space.
June 17, 1976 (Madaba, Jordan)

Dear Family,

Hopefully by now you have received my letter telling of my providential arrival in Amman. Things are going really well. Right now I’m sitting on top of an old fashioned 2nd grade size school desk. I sat in it yesterday and my back is rebelling. The original school we were to be at fell through so we’re at a girl’s school in Madaba (same town) which was built by the Swedish for the Lebanese refuges who are housed on the surrounding hills. [note: it must have been Palestinian refugees, the Lebanese were too newly arrived I think to have this built for them].

This is beautiful country. The heat isn’t too bad yet because of the wind. So far all we’ve done here is have lectures, interspersed with official greetings from antiquities people. We were “in class” yesterday from 8-6. Phew! That was more exhausting than Petra. I’m in a large classroom with about 8 other women, one of whom Pam B is a very good friend now. It’s alright. The bed is comfortable but the light coming thru the widows at the top of the wall from the hall is awfully bright. Our facilities are interesting. Dad, maybe you’ve seen a Turkish toilet and you’ll know what I mean when I say it’s primitive and takes practice. I’m glad I had the shots! It’s a one shot affair (shut me up quick!)

The enclosure on the right is the turkish toilets...water tank on the top in a misquided attempt to create showers. Bad idea.

The drawing is a satiracal attempt to describe the lovely turkish toilet by the dig architects. The method for using them is to squat over the hole by placing your feet on the raised footprints and hoping your aim is good. Need I say more?
Note the ever present kids on the wall checking out the married couples tents!

Kids peer over the fence into our compound and their continual cry is “Hello, Hello, what your name? How are you?” In our back yard which faces North, we have 7 or so tents for the married couples. My favorite Bedouin couple (as I call them) are Carol & Murray M., who I met at the Mount Hotel and who were also on the Petra trip. Nathaniel Y and I are going to have a tent warming party for them. He’s bringing water and I dust. Then we make mud pies! (we’re talking about bone baggies now – oh, they have to be labeled too!) Mr. Y is from Taiwan and goes to Drew University. Back to the back yard. When I woke up this morning there were some Bedouin and 2 camels and a hundred goats & sheep or so passing by on the other side of the fence. Also a donkey, making his obnoxious sound. Donkeys sound so miserable. Just like Bottom the Weaver! The food is great and I haven’t had any problem yet!

This was where we gathered to wash our faces, brush our teeth and wash our clothes. We were each to ration ourselves to using no more than one of those 5 gallon buckets of water PER WEEK. We were the judge and yes we did take note of who over did their allotment. To the right of this water trough was the wall that separated us from the road across from which was the refugee camp. There were always children on top of that wall watching us brush our teeth and conversing with us! "hello hello what is your name? Where are you from? Do you know Steve Austin?"

Letter from Greece June 10, 1976

Ah, can't forget a little more about the days I spent in Greece before I got to Jordan. I was there on my own. Each day I took a different tour and gravitated toward those who spoke English (in a manner of speaking...so to speak....)

June 10, 1976

Dear Mom, Dad, G, Grandmother, and et al.
Well, now if this all sounds a bit English, that is, British it’s because I spent me day in the company of two lovely and charming Welsh gents. Bryn V and his brother Phil are 21 & 22 respectively and come from Wrexham. They’re on a holiday from their jobs. Bryn, who is a pipefitter for an air products company owned by someone from Allentown PA, & I got to be quite chummy.

Today I met these blokes on a cruise ship which went to Hydra (beautiful!) Poros (o.k.) ,and Aegina (resorty). Every day I meet more people. I’m not home sick only sad you can’t be here too. I’m surviving on 1 meal a day plus OJ and coffee in morning time. The rest of the time I live on Lemonda (lemon juice carbonated ) and coca cola. My stomach doesn’t know it is supposed to be hungry at the right times yet. I think we fool it well!



Perhaps you have wondered what I looked like back then...this is the picture the photographer took of Bryn and myself on Hydra. Back on the tour boat I overheard an "ugly american tourist type" couple commenting on how awful it was that those boys had "picked up that lovely Greek girl." Hah! That was me! I set them straight! Did my Maine accent sound Greek to their Texan ears??? Don't you love my "afro perm"?

You notice how my English goes bad. It’s from hearing so much other languages all the time. G, you would love the tours. The guides speak first in English then in French. Sometimes I understand all the French and then am surprised when they go into English again and realize I was understanding French. The last two nights I have gone from a walk around the Syntagma Square and over to the SAREION (assembly hall) in the Gardens and over around Hadrian’s Arch. It is European. Mothers & babies, men sitting on benches. All the young men in the tight shirts and ladies with big glasses. Girls walking arm in arm. Either everyone is walking in this surge of people or sitting on benches or at the sides at cafes. People here love to walk and talk. People walking have as much right to the streets as cars. In the states people are given a crossing of 3 ft to walk in. Here you get 30 or 40 feet and your own traffic light. Red or Green (picture of walker). Everyone waits at the light, it changes. Cars and busses and trolleys screech to a halt. Walkers surge forward down next side walk. Cars surge forward. It’s almost like a shuttle loom rhythm. I bet you can’t read this can you. (I’m certainly having trouble 32 years later and I have it enlarged!) I walked back from the park tonight with a Delphi young man who has had 3 years of English. He is an engineer and told me things to do.

Would you believe I have not seen the Acropolis up close yet? I will go early tomorrow before the crowds and then through the Plaka. Also I hope to go to the Archaeological Museum.

I can’t remember if I sent you a card yesterday or not. But I went to Delphi. Met an Australian girl who’s been away from home 8 months now. Her name was Anne. Also two girls from Vancouver, Canada. English speaking people migrate to each other. Athens is cosmopolitan. It is truly a crossroads of the world. Everyone is here. I have so many languages buzzing around in my head that English becomes truly difficult at times.

English spoken by the Welsh is unreal. It takes getting used to. Bryn & Phil were extremely witty. Phil looks like a blond Jamie T. Sort of Cherubic. Bryn was more wirery (9 stone) and had bright red hair. There was a photographer on the boat who took at least 30 pictures of us and sold them to us for 200 drachmas. 1 dr. is about 3cents. Did you notice I left my deodorant at home? Well, Johnson’s Medicated Powder works well, but I got some Roll-On Noxzema deodorant this evening that cost me 120 drs. That is $3.60! It might have been better to smell and buy an icon. Both of which I probably do anyway. Well onto Jordan tomorrow. I’ll find someplace. My love to all! Nancy.

PS Dad, I saw a Westerly Centaur in the harbor of Pireus.
PPS Bangor Wales is a student town.