Visa renewal

July 26 – Thursday

I ran into a problem today, a relatively minor one but which required some hours to resolve.  Doug Clark announced last evening that he was taking a small group of folks to the police station to get an extension on their visas.  Every visitor that arrives at the Amman airport pays $20 Jordanian ($28 US) for a visa that is valid for one month only.   Doug and  few of the supervisors arrived in Jordan quite a bit earlier than the rest of the archaeological team and by now they needed visa renewals.  Of course I did not read the stamped note in my passport from the immigration official as I left the airport, but I am already 6 days over the one month time limit.  So I went along to the police station with the group and I was singled out for finger-printing (all 5 fingers on both hands) and asked to pay a fine before I was able to receive the new stamp in my passport with its permission to stay in the country.  For most of the others getting the extension was mostly a formality.  Don’t we all love bureaucracy!

So while that was happening my team back at Umayri was working away doing their best to remove as much of that mud brick debris from the ballroom as they could.  I worked with them from dawn until I had to leave after the second breakfast and by then we had made some good progress.  It will be more of the same tomorrow.

I thought that I should share with you a brief note about the potty arrangements at the excavation site.  There is no running water of course, so it would be improper to refer to it as a bathroom, a WC, toilet or even a loo.  In the Australian outback we would refer to a structure like ours as a dunny.  Before the archaeology team arrives at Umayri someone, presumably the Bedouin workers, digs a deep hole in the ground a little away from our dig site and covers it with a rectangular box that has a strategically placed foramen magnum in the center.  This box is then enclosed in a small, upright nylon tent about 3 feet square that is firmly staked to the ground.  It is favored with a zippered opening at the front for individual access.  It is not a pretty sight, and especially now after the zipper has broken leaving the nylon door flapping in the breeze, but it is still functional.  Everyone holds the fervent hope that they will be spared some terrible illness that would require frequent trips down the hill.  Some try to avoid it completely and restrict their fluid intake, preferring the risk of passing out from dehydration over the risk of fainting at the sight and smell of the dunny.  I will spare you a photograph of the thing.