Day 6

Well, archaeology-wise, we've pretty much cleaned off our top layer of dark earth and have reached a ragged layer of limestone dust. We'll see soon what lies underneath. I'll take the camera out tomorrow.

Physically I'm holding up well, somewhere in the middle. The heat and effort is affecting some of the kids and some are gung-ho workers. John and I are in the solid middle. There is a 3-mile perimeter around our gated community and I feel I can walk this hilly route today. John runs it every day in less than a half hour but won't stop to take pictures.

The picture today is from Jerusalem last week. A few times we saw large groups of soldiers just hanging out. Why? Don't know, but probably held in reserve in case GWB was attacked or something. This group was just outside the walls of the old city. Note all the spectators. We saw one woman call out to her son for a tearful mother-and-child reunion.

P.S. If you're ever traveling internationally, Skype telephone calls are great! John and I have been calling landlines in North America regularly for the last 10 days and haven't spent $5.00 yet.