Noon Time At 12:15 we all begin to finish our day's work and start the cleanup process. All of the tools that we used that day have to be carried back to our storage shed and put away. After waving goodbye to our two guards we set out on a tired, and very silent and bumpy ride back to the hotel. That same familiar stomachache returns to you, but you are so exhausted you barely notice.
Back at the hotel I try to be the first person off the bus and the first to the water hose. The first thing you have to do when returning from a day's work is to take the pottery pail and cover the pottery with water, so that during pottery washing the dirt is easier to remove.
Lunch is served at 1:45 so I have a span of about thirty minutes to attempt to remove all of the dirt and sand from my body with only a few trickles of water. If you are lucky, it may be halfway warm.
The main diet we consistently ate was chicken and rice, cooked in more ways than you can imagine. Each day's lunch was special; I never thought I could get so excited over a different color of rice or a different array of vegetables.
By the time lunch is over I am ready to crash. I don't have to be at pottery washing until 3:30, so I can get an hour nap.
It is 3:30 and time to wash. We all meet outside the hotel and collect our day's pottery that has been soaking, along with a nylon mesh bag and a brush. Each individual piece is scrubbed until clean, so that reading and dating is easier. All pottery from each pottery pail is placed in a nylon bag. Once all the pieces are washed, the tag on the pottery pail is removed and placed in the bag with the pottery. This is done so that at all times the pottery can be identified. While today's pottery is being washed the pottery that was washed the day before is being read. Each pottery
sherd is examined, identified by date and all
diagnostic sherds are counted. The total number is recorded and all sherds that are publishable are counted and set aside for special handling.
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