The Dead Sea!

Sunday began with breakfast at 6:30, allowing a full morning for square supervisors, like Ken and me, to check notebooks. Other folks found employment moving crates of worthy pottery pieces – diagnostics – to a storage room on the third floor of the girls' dorm. Lizzy, my field supervisor, worked with me so the job wasn't overwhelming and I got through it by lunch time.

Resting during the heat of the day prepared us for our last big outing: a bus ride to the Dead Sea. Our group of 17, including the bus driver, packed cameras, swimsuits, sack lunches, and a watermelon for the 60 kilometer (one hour) ride. The average elevation in Amman is about 765 meters above sea level, while the Dead Sea is 400 meters below sea level. Our bus moved quickly along the Dead Sea highway so I was unable to photograph the drastically changing landscape, small towns and terraced farms carved along valley slopes.

We arrived while the heat of the afternoon still baked the salt-crystallized beach. Stepping into the sea did nothing to alleviate the heat. The warm, oily waters matched the temperature of the air. We floated in every silly posture, paddled around, and tried to avoid splashing the stinging brine into each others' faces. Ken and I searched for and found clay, said to have various healing properties. We painted up. After a few minutes an itchy tingle encouraged us to rinse off in the sea and finally under the marvelous fresh-water showers along the shore. I love fresh water! Guess I didn't have the mud on long enough to work it's magic; people still recognized me instead of thinking I was Justin.

Amman Beach really is a family beach. As afternoon turned to evening, more Jordanians moved to the shore and into the water. Mostly men and children swam, but an occasional woman, fully clad, also waded in. People were friendly and the atmosphere was relaxed. What a change from our usual routine.

All rinsed off, we claimed our chairs and faced the sea and setting sun while we ate watermelon and sandwiches at the lowest point on earth.

The full moon watched as our little bus made the steep drive back to the cooler clime of Amman.