(Guest post by Michael Quinn)
It’s now half way through our third week in Cyprus, and it is also the last week that we can dig (the firing range is reserved starting the 24th). Most days have a comfortable rhythm: suffer through waking up at 4 am, get to the site and work as much as possible until our long break at 8:30, and then work begins to slow down as the heat grows more stifling, but everything always comes to a stop when someone finds something cool. Usually around 12:30, we pack up our gear, close down the trenches, and smush together in the cars like a tin of sardines. On Tuesday this week, the heat was particularly bad. Most days, the weather could be described as hot, wet, and humid, but Tuesday was a dry, smothering heat that crept upon you over time until eventually everyone was hiding in any shade they could find and guzzling down water in a last ditch effort to not succumb to dehydration. For the first time in a while people were whipping out their extra emergency waters and gatorades to cool off. Once time was up though, people hopped back into work: preparing the site for another day’s work, and then we hightailed out of there back to the apartments for a welcome shower and an afternoon nap either by the beach or in the air conditioned apartments.
