A Typical Dig Day in Mosna
It was up at 4:45am every day, tiptoe around the house so as not to wake Teodore and Maria, gather everything up and leave the house. My backpack had trowels, heavy gloves, my latex gloves, and camera. Out through the front gate of the house which was actually a 10' tall fortified one piece wall, and out through the still dark, quiet morning. Past the medieval Saxon Church and down the three-block long main street, heading to the long house attached to a church for breakfast. It was perhaps a mile walk to and from meals every day and once we forced ourselves out of bed, was very enjoyable out there with absolutely nothing moving and the sun slowly rising.
Breakfast was help yourself with everything laid out on a table. A selection of yoghurt, cheese, cold cuts, bread, water bottles to take with to the dig, juice, coffee or tea, fruit and candy bars. We'd make a sandwich to take out into the field or eat inside if the day was rainy.
Most of our meals were nothing to write home about. Very few vegetables or fruit, heavy on greasy soup, potatoes and unidentifable meat. Sort of reminded me of my Russian grandmother's cooking. And when, purely by chance, there was something tasty for lunch or dinner, it was a very small amount for the 9 of us to share and we ended up eating lots of bread to fill ourselves up. To give credit where credit is due, Ceausescu did manage to almost bankrupt and impoverish the Romania people and what we ate was what the people in Mosna grew or raised themselves. Now eating in the restaurants on weekends was a completely different situation. Delicious food.
In the dig field, a farmer had deep-plowed most of the land near the excavation site, just to show his displeasure and who was boss, and one of my favorite things was walking back and forth through the plowed up earth to see what had surfaced. These big ruts also served as our bathroom facilities.
The school bus would come around 1:00pm to drive us back for lunch. Time to take all the gear, shovels, trowels, etc., load on the bus and bump on back down the road. Many times, ex-Marine and I walked back to stretch our legs after hunkering down in the pit all morning. It would be hot, sunny and in the 90's about noon, one of the reasons we started so early.
Lunch over, it was time to wash the day's finds and pick away at important pieces with dentist's tools. After three weeks, I was confident that any dentist in the US would hire me as a dental hygenist. A few hours of washing pottery, shards and talking amongst ourselves made the time fly.
A walk back to Teodore's house, sometimes through the courtyard of the Saxon Church, watching the kids playing on the street, or stop in one of the shops for some extra goodies. All the villagers knew us and would wave, or extend greetings. Those who spoke English welcomed a chance to practice their English and every once in a while, a group of tourists would pull up to visit Mosn'a ancient and historic Church. Then time to rip all those disgustingly dirty, sweaty, stinky clothes off, take some Aleve or Advil and rest until dinner.
A walk down the street for dinner, eat, and perhaps try the local, lethal, homemade firewater, Tuica. Tuica (another name is the Turkish "Raki") is the general, popular term referring to good quality "fire water." Strong stuff. There was also home-made wine - that, fortunately, or unfortunately in desperation, grew on us. A walk back to the house and go to sleep. Then, get up the next morning and do it all over again... Another weekend was almost here.
