Thanks to Andrea for covering for me while I was gone. I’ve had more than a few positive comments about her witty little antics – thanks! I have even been getting some Andrea fan mail.

We just returned to the kibbutz from a weekend in Jerusalem. It was nearly unbelievable. To say only that Jerusalem is beautiful would ignore some of its tragic elements. In my very limited exposure of the city, it seems to be contradictions juxtaposed - modern & incomprehensibly old; holy & profane; tender & violent; extreme & casual. It is a city of passions – both good and bad in my mind. It is the greatest place I have ever been. It made me joyful and sad – I wish I was there now. We walked where Jesus did and wound our way though the tiny streets and alleys. The city is layer upon layer of human history including all of the culture, celebration, oppression and liberation that you could imagine. This trip helped me to peal another layer of ignorance off of my confusion about this nation and its political situation.

Jacob will be returning to you all soon, and I will be returning to only managing my own blog. But before I go, I thought I’d leave an “Ode to Food” in honor of the grocery shopping the three of us who stayed behind did and the ‘meal’ we just prepared for our Jerusalem traveling comrades.

We made 2 trips to the kibbutz store and spent almost 600 NIS on food (including ice cream bars for ourselves). We have pita bread, normal bread, tomatoes, onions, peppers, hummus, cookies, chips, pretzels, chocolate (candy bars and Nutella), fruit, granola bars, wine and lots of beer. And now the group has returned so it’s time to eat!

Hooray!

Bye bye!
Andrea

Here’s what Jacob missed by going to Jersualem: playing the bongos to Bob Marley music on the beach as the sun went down with people who speak a different language. I guess that’s what he gets for choosing to go and visit holy places instead of staying here for the weekend! (I’m sure they’re all having an amazing time there while we’re lazy and crazy here!)

The funnest part about joining in the festivities was that while it was a big cultural experience, it just reminded me of some kind of block party, or even a 4th of July party that I might attend back home - there were even fireworks at the end of the hour and a half long program! The party itself: people were eating and talking and having fun, instead of grilling burgers and brats they were serving falafel, and the program was made up of kids doing skits, a choir singing songs, and even a small ‘band’ playing all the music live. There was a stage with a homemade background and lights and just a whole lot of people. It was pretty groovy to be included, even though we had to guess at what was actually happening!

And now it’s obviously been an exhausting day and we must get our rest - tomorrow I have big plans to build a sand castle on the beach, so you can see why I will need all my energy for the day!

Maybe I’ll have time for one more guest post before Jacob returns and changes his password so I can’t do these anymore!

Andrea

Greetings from the kibbutz - this is Andrea Chandler and I will be guest posting on Jacob’s site until he and the rest of the group return from Jerusalem tomorrow (Saturday) evening. There were three of us on the team that stayed behind this weekend…so I offered to attempt to keep Jacob’s fans updated on what was happening on this side of the world at least for a couple of days. He was very trusting to let me do this…

Anyhoo - while the rest of the group runs around Jerusalem (not kidding about the running part - they do a LOT in 2 days), the three of us here are partying with the kibbutzniks in honor of the 70th birthday of the kibbutz. Today is a pretty big deal: we went to breakfast in the dining hall, where a buffet was set up with food and people were just milling around talking and looking at pictures, then we went for a boat ride on the sea - where a man sat and talked the whole time about the kibbutz and the mountain in Hebrew and we could only pick out words every once in a while, and then we had lunch at the fish restaurant. It was really good…and tonight they will feed us more (falafel, coffee and cake on the beach), let us do crafts (not sure what that entails) and there will be a program (in Hebrew, of course, so we will just have to laugh and clap according to what others are doing). At any rate - we’re having a fantastic time bumming around the kibbutz, being lazy, eating a lot, and trying to fit in!

So…until the next time you hear from me - which should be more today and as much tomorrow as I can fit in before Jacob gets back and bans me from his blog - farewell!

Andrea

Happy Fourth of July! Today was a bit grueling on the dig site - It was hot with very little wind blowing. Our group has been saying that we have been loving every minute here, but are getting physically exhausted. Dr. Schuler is a wonderful director of the site. His passion for his work is very obvious and is second only to his commitment to our safety and hydration. The other teams jokingly say that Dr. Schuler is famous throughout Israel for his stopwatch beeping rhythmically over the day indicating our mandatory water breaks. He is great to work with!

Quote of the day: John (while speaking to his fiancé on the phone): “Today we moved a pillar…and let me tell you…pillars are heavy”. Look for video of this crazy stunt soon at csp.edu. We will be trying to do several little videos for the site in the coming dig days.

Today and tomorrow morning are kibbutz laundry days – apparently our laundered things will all be in a huge pile in the complexes laundry room midday; we will be let into the room and each person must pick in the items to locate their things. Apparently it gets kind of funny to watch.

Tomorrow we will be digging and heading to Jerusalem in the afternoon. I will not be able to post for the next few days, but will update you ASAP! Thank you all for your thoughts, emails and prayers – it is much appreciated!

My Israel birthday was wonderful! I watched the sunrise, as is becoming my custom, on the Sea of Galilee and was actually in bed by 9:30 (despite my birthday, I still had to wake at 3:55am).

Today was very hot. I continued to work in square F2 and am thrilled to say that I found a small artifact!

Note from Dr. Schuler - “Jacob LaCroix made the first significant discovery of a small artifact at the Hippos Excavations. He holds in his hand part of a copper chain for a polycandelon a decorative lamp used in Byzantine liturgical spaces.

A typical polycandelon would hold three to seven glass oil lamps, thus the name ”poly-candelon.” The fragmentary medallion in the middle of the chain is a copper disk with four l-shaped sections cut out forming a cross.

This polycandelon is the first liturgical implement discovered in six season of work on the Northeast Church at the Hippos Excavations”.

With that inspiration – the remainder of the day was very exciting. Later, one of the managing archeologists from the Univ of Haifa helped us find a number of nails and led pieces with his medal detector.

This afternoon I chatted a bit with one of our Australian teammates named Fred. Fred is very intelligent, artistic and well rounded gentleman who is a retired flutist and who serves as a priest in a Melbourne. We had a great and exciting conversation about the Old Testament and Holy Communion. Our lab was filled with activity this evening - but by now most have run off to sleep.

Our day began again at about 4am. We gathered in our parking lot, caught the bus most of the way up our hill and then hiked the remaining ¼ mile to the site. Although it is only the second day, we are all beginning to develop a nice rhythm. We work until about 11:45 then head back to the kibbutz – by that time we are very dirty and have been swimming to wash; then off to lunch, a nap and meetings or pottery cleaning at 4:30pm.

The rest of the day is ours to do as we please with it. Today, after lunch and before a nap I visited the small market shop at our kibbutz for a few supplies and small gifts for friends and family. This afternoon we will be cleaning our found pottery by the sea. Today is also my birthday and a few of us hope to patronize the pub this evening to celebrate. I am having proplems with photos and will post more asap!

Things are very good!

This morning I woke at 3:55am! Our bus departs with all the international team members each day at 4:45am. Today I gave myself some extra time to have coffee on the dark shore of the Sea. I watched the twinkling lights of Tiberius in the distance and tried to call my friend Justin (Justin – you hung up on me!).

The dig site was buzzing with the various teams and officials trying to set up our sites. After some initial prep work we had a short address from Arthur Segal the Polish head archeologist from the Univ of Haifa in Israel we began to dig away. I am working in a space called a square my zone is F2.

We work carefully under the hot sun - shave the dirt by 10 centimeters at a time. I am very tired. I will post pics of the dig site ASAP now that we are mostly settled. Our afternoons have a nice amount of free time in the afternoon – we swim, walk around and work in the lab.

 Small CSP group at MSP

Our dig site

Church at mount of beatitudes north shore

Relaxing in church gardens

Our group has all collected and we are in Israel! Travel was smooth with only a minor delay in Atlanta. The flight (all 11 hours of it) was reasonably comfortable in our huge 777.

Our first day in Israel was a mixture of trying to get our orientation and touring sites around the Sea of Galilee. All three of the international archeological teams are renting accommodations from a kibbutz directly on the Sea of Galilee. A kibbutz is basically a Jewish intentional community or commune with small business, farming, a coffee shop, pup and a restaurant. Kibbutzes exist in several places around Israel. The entire concept is really interesting and very political. Our kibbutz is about to celebrate its 70 year anniversary. You can imagine the political situation when it was founded – Israel was first recognized as a nation in 1948. The men and women of the US team each have our own houses reminiscent of small, humble rental cabins – like what you would find in northern MN.  

It is wonderful to put places to the Middle Eastern and biblical stories that have existed only in my minds eye (with the help of national geographic and small photos) in a first hand context. My first thoughts – I absolutely love it here!!! The people here live some of the oldest land successfully cultivated by humans – the fertile crescent; if that wasn’t remarkable enough – it is spectacular to see the people today chatting it up on cell phone, wearing fashionable skinny jeans while walking in the land that has seen influence from the worlds biggest forces and philosophies.

Shalom!

Well it is almost departure day and I am getting really excited. My mother (Becky LaCroix) and I are busy packing. This is a very unique type of trip and we have been laughing about all the seemingly excessive things we need to bring along.

We are both tying hard to be of the minimalist perspective – but having not ever participated in an archeological dig it is hard to know how much is to much and how much is to little.

Dr. Schuler has provided a very detailed list of needed items and we are sticking to it – rubber gloves and all! I have been telling friends that I’m really excited to see the academics of our group in their element at the dig site and throughout Israel.

Today, folks who have participated in pervious years have been passing emails reminiscing and encouraging us all. A true community surrounds this ongoing project and I am thrilled to join.

We are full of excitement. I will be posting another update ASAP, but may need a couple of days to get internet access.