Madaba for July 4

Sunday we slept in and ate breakfast at 8:00. What a change from our workday 4:30 breakfast call! Buses loaded at 10:00 to take us all to the city of Madaba. As noted on atlastours.net, "Madaba has a long history, dating back further than 1300 BC. It was first mentioned in the Bible as Medeba at the time of the Exodus (Numbers: 21,30; Joshua 13:9), it was then an Amorite town close to the Moab border, and it changed hands frequently." It was also the site of a mini-conference organized by Umayri dig director, Dr. Doug Clark. Archeologists gathered for the morning to share overviews of work on their particular sites. Our bus drivers got a bit lost in the city, so we missed about 45 minutes of presentation. However, as very inexperienced members of the team, much of what was said was better appreciated by others. After presentations, we were turned loose to find lunch and go shopping. We asked experienced dig participants Gary and Suha Huffaker if we could join them. And what a treat! They led us to Haret Jdoudna where we splurged on a fabulous lunch feast. We lingered over our meal talking about books. With 45 minutes to shop we managed to get a bit lost but finally found the tourist shops where Yousef, the hospitable shopkeeper, had tea ready and waiting. Ken was late back to the bus, but the group graciously waited for the last Crane. On our ride back to camp, Matt Vincent told us how he met his wife Monique while on a dig here in 2004. After supper, Justin went to the Amman souq with Suha Huffaker. She returned happy with her purchases. I blogged while Ken and Graeme watched the movie The Visitor. Another good day.