Tropical Storm Bonnie

Rain, rain, go away. And don't come back for the next two weeks.

If anyone has caught up with weather.com lately, I'll know that we've been getting hit with terrible storms. It was tropical storm Bonnie, and it's been awful. I can't imagine vacationing here and having this bad of weather. It rained Saturday, Sunday, stormed Monday and Tuesday and rained Wednesday and a little Thursday.

Monday we were out at the dig site for maybe about an hour when it started raining. We hid out in the shelter, but it didn't really stop raining, so we had to go back to the bungalows. We were going to have a lab day, but the tent was still destroyed from the last storm, so we had to work in shifts. Inefficient, but oh well.

Monday night we watched a storm roll in, way out over the ocean. It was pretty amazing, the lightning was incredible. We just watched this storm roll in and knew it was going to be intense. I don't think I'd ever seen that much lightning before in my life. But eventually we saw the power go out across the bay from us. And then it started to rain. And then the storm hit. We're in these little bungalows with open windows, and there is lighting all around us. The thunder was so loud. I'm not even sure how to convey just how intense this storm was, but it was crazy. Plus the storm lasted for hours. It started hitting hard around 9 and didn't stop until well after midnight. Not as bad as the Camp Luther Week 6 microburst of 2008 because the winds weren't as strong. But still. Intense.

Lightning!

But wait. There's another.

More lightning!

So the rest of the week hasn't been all that interesting. We lost internet for a long time, and cell phones were out. Between no cell service and the mud from all the rain, we weren't able to get back out to the site Tuesday or Wednesday, which was a huge bummer. Cleaning really small shells for 9 hours a day is enough to make anyone go postal. Luckily on Wednesday, Dr. Fitzpatrick asked Meagan, Greg, and me to go downtown to hang up posters advertising an event we're hosting on Saturday. So it was much better than cleaning shells.

Class Wednesday was enjoyable again. Our first lecture, by Mary Hill Harris, was about pottery. Pretty interesting. After dinner, our second lecture, given my John Swogger, was about archaeological illustration, and that was really cool. I love learning this stuff.

Today we were able to get back out to the dig site. It was really hot out, but I didn't mind. We've found a few more finger bones and a wrist bone. And lots of shells and pottery. At one point in time, Rachel was making conversation and looked over and asked "If you had all the money in the world, what would you do?" and I thought for a second and admitted "this." It was just a really cool moment, realizing how much I love this.

The Rainforest

When I was in 2nd grade we had to do a project on the rainforest. I was assigned to research the sloth and that's when I decided that I wanted to live in the rainforest when I grew up. As I got older, I learned about all the snakes, bugs, and poisonous things, so I changed my mind. We spent the morning on a rainforest hike, and I'm pretty confident I that I could live there.

So we did a rainforest hike today, with a heavy emphasis on the RAIN. It poured. I don't have any pictures from the beginning of the hike because it was raining so hard. The rain water gathered and flowed down the trail, so we were walking in a slippery stream the whole time.

The hike was a really great time. Our guide was fantastic; her father was from Nevis originally, so she was very knowledgable. She told us all sorts of legends of Nevis, like the jumbies, which are mythical trouble causing spirits, similar to our trolls or gnomes. They look like men with red eyes. When identifying jumbies, you have to look at their feet because jumbies don't walk, jumbies float above the ground. But the jumbies spirits are blamed for problems or sicknesses, so people often wear jumbie bracelets to keep them away. We also learned about Obeah, which is the folk magic and sorcery practiced in the area, similar to hoodoo or voodoo. A lot of the practice is just herbal medicine, but it's associated with charms and magic as well.

Our guide also pulled all sorts of exotic fruit off of plants and taught us how to eat them. The mangoes were so fantastic, but my favorite was soursop, which was a spiny looking green fruit. It was delicious. I also got to try wild cinnamon, which was really strong.

Kevin and the soursop

We found some coconuts along the trail and stopped to smash them with large rocks to get them out of the husk. That was a minor disaster, as we ended up with two people bleeding. But once we got the coconuts out it was just a matter of cutting into them and drinking the coconut water. Then we opened them and had the coconut. They weren't nearly as sweet as I had expected, but it was still really good.

David and a big rock vs. the coconut

Overall the hike today was a lot of fun. I learned a ton and got to try new things. We didn't see any animals besides a few spiders and bugs. But the trees and plant life were incredible. Our guide also taught us how to catch lizards, so I'll let you know if that works out.

Me and the defeated coconut

Yesterday we walked to Mansa's, this restaurant down the road, for some fantastic ribs. The barbecue sauce was amazing. I also bought some star fruit, which is really good. Last night my roommates and I got dressed up to go out. It was a fun time and we were looking good.

Me and the roomies

This was the only completely free weekend we had, and unfortunately the weather was terrible. It rained almost the whole weekend. Still, I had a lot of fun. I can't believe I only have two more weekends here!

Updates from Abroad

I haven't blogged all week, so I apologize for the randomness.

The other morning we were out waiting for the buses to go to the site. And we looked down the driveway and saw a group of about ten monkeys playing and running around. I was disappointed I didn't get any pictures of them! But they were tackling each other and running around. They looked so awkward on the ground; I generally picture monkeys in trees.

For class this week, we switched restaurants. No worries, the bar prices at the new place are better than the Happy Hour prices of the other place. So we were in this conference room in the restaurant, and it was air conditioned! It was so strange; it was the first time I had been in air conditioning since I've been here. But Michiel gave the first part of the lecture. It was all about site methodology, or how sites are excavated. He also spent a while talking about data structures and Geographical Information System (GIS). So it was a lot about how archaeologists can use computers to interpret and analyze data. Really interesting stuff. Then we had a delicious dinner, and Dr. Fitzpatrick gave a presentation. It was fantastic. He taught us about the Saladoid people, who lived in the Caribbean from 500 BC to 650 AD. It was just a really interesting class and made me excited about archaeology and my future. It's really awesome stuff.

That was a lot to read. Here's a picture of me from the hike last weekend for your entertainment.

Making our way through the jungle

Digging this week went well. We're continuing to find pottery and shells. I found a substantial amount of turtle bones the other day. We've also found more human teeth, and two phalanges. Still no burial though, but we'll see what happens. Then for the other trench, we brought in a backhoe to clear some of the dirt. When they finished, there were darker circles in the soil called post molds. It means that at some point, there was a post in that exact spot. Then the post was either removed or rotted away, leaving the dark spots in the soil. We're still mapping and analyzing them, but it was an exciting find.

Because sometimes dental picks and toothbrushes just aren't enough

It's rained and stormed here a lot lately. When we're at the site we can see the storms come in from the ocean, so we can always tell when we have one or two minutes to get to the shelter. Most of the time when it rains during the day, it'll rain for between 30 seconds to 2 minutes and then stop. Lately we've been having some intense storms at night. I woke up a few times during the week to the thunder and lighting. The storms are so loud since all of our windows are open. Last night we had the worst storm since we've been here. The wind was so terrible; it took down a few branches of trees here. We had to close all of our shutters, which we haven't done since we've been here. Plus the storm completely destroyed our lab. We lost a lot of the material we had collected, and the things that are mixed up are impossible to sort and now worthless. It was really upsetting.

Here's a view of the bungalows from the water. I'm in the one on the lower left.

Not bad living arrangements

I'm officially Scuba certified! I'm now certified as an open water diver. I was pretty excited about it. We'll probably try to do another dive while we're here if we have time.

I realize that in every picture on this blog I'm covered in dirt and mud. So here's one from last week when we got dressed up and went on a sunset cruise.

Looking good

I can't believe it's already the middle of July. The program is already half over and I'll be back to school in a month! Time really does fly!

Mount Nevis!

What an action packed weekend!

Saturday morning we had two more Scuba dives. The first dive was at a place called Monkey Shoals, and we dove for about 40 minutes at a depth of 60 feet. That was a lot of fun; the reef was awesome. The coral and fish were so cool. The next dive, at a place called the Doughnut, was even better. We spent almost an hour at a depth of 40 feet. There we saw some really big lobster, eels, and tons of fish. Plus we saw nurse sharks! There was a small one between some rocks, but then we saw two huge ones under a ledge. Then one of them swam out from the ledge and swam away. It was amazing. Both dives were great; I love it so much more than I thought I would. I just hope I'll have the opportunity to dive at other points in my life. Diving is just such a different world; it's a fantastic experience. We still have to take a written test to complete our certification. We were going to take it Saturday, but no one had read the book yet (whoops) so now we're trying to take it Thursday. We'll see.

Sunday, we hiked Mount Nevis. The island is a volcano whose peak is 3232 feet and we made it to the very top. Our guide told us that it's considered the most dangerous hike in the Caribbean, and it was really obvious why. We started off by walking up some super steep driveways. These were paved paths, but we were all looking around like "why are we doing this?!" But then we got into the rain forest. At first we were hiking along a trail, but that didn't last for too long. The majority of the hike we spent climbing up steep, muddy paths. Luckily there were ropes along most of the way, but they were too muddy to help at times.

Climbing

I'm not kidding here. It was a tough hike. And by hike, I mean climb.

More climbing

I am glad I did the hike, but it was really challenging. The whole hike took about five hours. Since we were in a group of twenty people, we didn't get to see any animals at all. No birds, bugs, or monkeys. Plus since we had to constantly watch the ground because every step was unsafe, I didn't really get to appreciate the plant life much. And the view? Clouds. Just clouds.

At the top

Even still, making it to the top was really cool. At the top there is a small bald patch, so we all took pictures and celebrated and ate snacks. And the clouds did clear for a brief moment, which was pretty amazing.

The hike down was arguably harder than the hike up. It was really tough to keep from slipping on the mud and completely falling. I ended up sliding down on my butt to keep from falling at times. But it was fun; we all ended up so muddy.

On a side note, the other day we were driving back from the grocery store and someone in the van shouted "MonkeyMonkeyMonkey!" So our driver slowed down and we all screamed "MONKEY!" and there was a monkey sitting in a tree on the side of the road. So I did get to see a monkey here!

Diggin' the Caribbean

Digging. Dig in. Get it? Thanks, Dad, for the "punny" title!

So digging. We dig from 7-1 Monday through Friday at a site called Coconut Walk. We chose the site because about ten years ago a BBC show called Time Team excavated a section of it and found features from an amerindian settlement. Even on the surface we found a ton of pottery and shells, so hopefully underneath we'll find more good stuff.

Digging is really really hard work. Right now we have three open 5x5m trenches. One we divided into 1x1m squares and we're working in 10 cm layers to excavate them. It's difficult because we're supposed to pick out every piece of pottery and tiny shell we find. It's hard to tell the rocks from pottery, and the shells from coral, but I'm getting more used to it. Yesterday and today we wet screened 4 of the squares. So we had to lug the buckets of dirt down to the shore, and then carry big buckets of water up from the ocean to pour over the screens. It was exhausting.

Wet screening

The other two trenches are side by side, and in those, we're mostly looking for features instead of artifacts. So instead of going through all the dirt by itself, we shovel it into buckets and dry screen it. It's such dirty work. The wind blows the dirt everywhere and there's no way to avoid it. I just gave up and tied a bandana around my face because I was tired of having dirt in my mouth (plus it looks super cool). Still, the hard work is really worth it.

Looking like a bandit

So far with the ocean breeze it hasn't been too hot digging. On day this week it rained for a while, so we all hid out in the old lime kiln. After the rain the clouds disappeared and the breeze was gone, so that day was rough. But besides that, we've been lucky so far.

Ye old lime kiln

The site is from the late Ceramic Age, so between 1500 and 1000 years ago. So far we've found a ton of pottery and shells. There have been a few really cool finds, some beads and intricately carved pieces of pottery. We've also found a ton of fish bones, and some bones of an extinct species of amphibious rat. Those were interesting at first, until we realized that there are literally thousands of them. We haven't found any human bones yet, but have found a few human teeth. Maybe that means a burial somewhere, but maybe not. We will see. The features trench isn't deep enough to tell if we'll find post molds or anything like that, but Monday we're bringing in a backhoe to really move some dirt.

In addition to digging, we have lab 3-6 every day except for Wednesday. And by lab, I mean they have a tent set up for us, and we have to clean all of the finds with toothbrushes. The pottery and some of the shells aren't bad, but we've found a ridiculous amount of nerites, which are the worst type of shell to clean. Lab work is kind of boring, but it all has to be cleaning before it can be sorted. It's likely that we won't get to do much more than clean everything here, so I'm probably going to do an independent study research project on all of it when I get back to NC State in the fall. I'm really excited about it! Right now lab is just overwhelming because there's SO much material that needs to be cleaned. Hopefully we'll catch up eventually.

Wednesdays instead of lab we have class. And class is at a bar, and our professor scheduled it for Happy Hour. AND they feed us pizza. Needless to say, it's really a good time. Quetta, one of the program directors, gave the lecture this week. We also watched the Time Team video from the last excavation of our site. Right now we're working with 4 professionals. The 3 program directors are Scott Fitzpatrick (NC State), Michiel Kappers from the Netherlands, and Quetta Kaye from University College London. Right now we're also working with Willem Schnitger, who's also from the Netherlands and specializes in data management. Later in the month we'll have other people join us, including an artist, a finds manager, and a ceramics specialist.

Being here is amazing. It's just such an incredible opportunity. At the end of every dig I'm so gross and exhausted, but I can't help but smile. I'm on an archaeological dig! I'm learning a ton and loving it all.

Nevisian Adventure

Our Sunday field trip was a tour of Nevis! We drove the road that goes all the way around the island and made some stops at historic places.

We went to Nisbet Plantations for lunch. It was a sugar plantation way back when, and now is a restaurant with an incredible beach, as well as a resort. I had a grilled fish burger with fruit relish on it. It was so delicious. After lunch we were able to spend some time at the beach, and then to tour the plantation house. My first thought was "wow, I could definitely have lived in this time!" But then I remembered all the crazy, heavy clothes they had to wear and I'm not so sure. I'm getting used to the heat here and learning to cherish the breeze, but it's still really hot.

The view from the plantation house

Afterwards we stopped at Newcastle Pottery, a pottery place run by native Nevisians. They make all of the pottery from scratch with dirt from Nevis at the shop, and the fire it in a huge pit out back. The woman working there explained the process, which was really interesting.

We left there and headed to Fort Charles, a British fort built in 1671 to protect the island from the French. Nevis was a key island in the sugar trade at the time, and came under attack by the Dutch, Spanish, and French. There's not much left of the fort today, just an old wall, a cistern, and a few cannons. It was still cool to see, though. A big piece of history.

Remains of the wall at Fort Charles

Our final stop was a natural hot spring pool. Emphasis on the word hot. Two brave souls in our group got into the water but I don't think I could have. The water is heated by the geothermal energy (the island of Nevis is a volcano). Local people actually do bath in the nearby streams, that are heated in the same way.

Hot springs

So it was an unusual 4th of July, but still a memorable one. I'll get around to posting about the field work, lab, and class soon. But everything is still going really well here. It's just going by too quickly, I can't believe a week is gone already!

Breeze Beach

Sunday morning, before we went on our field trip, Kevin noticed a set of stairs up by the pool with the sign "Breeze Beach." I'm really not sure how no one had noticed them before. But these stairs went straight down the cliff side. At the top they were stone, but near the end they were really steep wooden stairs.

Check out the conch shells

So the stairs lead to a beautiful rocky beach with an incredible view of St. Kitts. The water was a fantastic shade of blue, I'd never seen anything like it.

St. Kitts

The beach itself was really rocky, but we still explored really far along the beach. It made for a fun adventure. Plus there were so many gorgeous conch shells everywhere. There were also tons of snails living on the rocks, which was cool.

Lots o Rocks

Then after our Sunday activities we went back down to watch the sunset. We couldn't really see it because of clouds, but it still made for some pretty colors.

Sunset over St. Kitts

Sorry it took me so long to post this, and sorry the post is so picture heavy. I'll have to make a facebook album when I can, but the internet connection goes in and out all the time.

Just heard the news about LeBron. Sad day, Cleveland.