We will start with last Sunday. It was less than a week ago, but it feels like it has been a very, very long time. We didn't do any work on Sunday, and were still in Akko. We presented the information and work for the conservation reports that we had prepared about each of our sections in the International Conservation Center's courtyard. It was a quick presentation where we talked about the condition of our area and the conservation that needed to be done to preserve it. My section was an area of wall underneath the façade of a vaulted archway. The wall had extensive water damage and some of the stones needed replacing. A lot of the wall was missing the mortar between the stones, and large gaps were present. The façade of the vaulted arch had relatively little damage, and only needed a little mortar in between the stones to fix it up. The rest of the wall needed a lot more work. Ultimately the drainage of the water coming from above would need to be addressed so as to prevent further erosion. After our presentations the instructor for our work in Tel Aviv, Shay Farkash, came and presented information about the wall painting stencils we would be restoring. Then we gathered kitchen materials from the ICC's storage that we would need at Masada. The day ended with Hebrew lessons (for everyone else) while I started to prepare dinner. At the end of the lesson there was a mini surprise party for Laurine, who's birthday was the next day. We couldn't really celebrate on her birthday because it was Yom HaShoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day.
Monday morning we left. We stopped at a rest stop north of Tel Aviv when the siren went off for the moment of silence for Yom HaShoah. After we continued on to Yad VaShem in Jerusalem. There we met with a child survivor who told us his story of how he had been given to a Dutch family so he could be saved. Unlike the stories of survivors who had actually been in the camps, his story mostly focused on his life after the war and when he made aliyah to Israel. It was an interesting story, but it didn't carry the same emotion in it like stories of survival in the camps. I kind of feel bad saying that, but it's true. We then ate lunch, and then had a tour of the memorial. After we went through the memorial we left for Masada. The drive to Masada was long and boring. The scenery was okay, but we went through the center of the country instead of along the Dead Sea and through the desert. Apparently there was a miscommunication with the driver and we took the long way We got to our 'house' on the west side of Masada at the base of the Roman Ramp a little later than expected, but that was no problem. We did a little exploring of our surroundings and then called it a day.
Tuesday we started our work at Masada, and worked there through Thursday. These three days every morning we had to hike up the Roman Ramp. It was tough but I managed! Tuesday we had a brief tour of Masada and saw the different places where they were doing conservation work. They recently received a donation and are now able to conserve some frescoes that had been removed from the commandant's residence on the northeast side of the mountain. We were supposed to learn about fresco preservation and then help this project. After the tour and lunch we went to the onsite fresco lab that was built into one of the rooms on the south side of the mountain. The leaders of the program are two Italian conservators, and they explained the conservation program and what they were doing to conserve the frescoes. Then we got to fill in some of the holes in the frescoes with plaster. After the work day was done we visited the northern palace before heading back down. The Masada Sound and Light Show is held every Tuesday and Thursday, and we were given tickets to go see it that night. The show surprised me by focusing mostly on the story of Masada, with lights added to it to highlight locations. Most sound and light shows that I have attended in the past were more like lights dancing on the site to music, but this show was a narrated storytelling as lights shown on different places on the mountain. It was very corny and played up, but still entertaining.
Wednesday we went back up the mountain, expecting a full day of work with the frescoes. However this is not what happened. Apparently the conservators had worked too fast over the past weeks and there was no longer any work for us to do with the frescoes. They were at a stage where the work was too sensitive and important for interns to do. Instead we did a lot of sitting around while they tried to find work for us to do. Also the person that was supposed to be in charge of us didn't come to work. We first helped the conservators move the frescoes from the lab to the room where they came from so that the plaster that was on the walls could be measured. The amount of plaster needed to fit the size of the frescoes. After taking the frescoes back to the lab Noah went to work mixing mortar, I was sent to sweep some rooms of dust, Laurine was put in the commandant's room applying a layer of plaster where the frescoes were going to be put, and the other girls went to clean mosaics in the western palace. After they had enough mortar for the day Noah joined me in sweeping. It was not the work we had in mind. We did this work until lunchtime. After lunch Noah and Laurine went and joined the others cleaning the mosaics. I started working on filling holes in plaster on the wall outside the commandant's room. This is what we did until the end of the work day.
Thursday started out much the same way as Wednesday. We arrived ready to work long before there was work for us. Everyone sat around the National Park's office waiting to be given work. I went back to work on the plaster outside the commandant's room, and took Noah with me so that some of us were at least working. Eventually the girls were given work similar to mine on a different wall near the office and cable car. After lunch we were able to get some work with frescoes. There were some frescoes that were removed from an unknown location, and they said we could work with them since they weren't going to be shown to the public. The Italian conservators taught us the process of cleaning the surface of the frescoes using water and different chemicals. It was good to be working with frescoes, even if it wasn't the frescoes we were originally supposed to be working on. Since Thursday was our last day at Masada, after work I did a little more exploring of places that I hadn't seen, such as parts of the western palace and the cisterns at the bottom of the Roman Ramp.
Our time working at Masada was rather disappointing. We spent a good deal of time sitting around waiting and doing nothing instead of working. The person that was in charge of our work wasn't there, which meant other people that weren't prepared had to work with us, but they didn't know what we were supposed to do. Because the work that we were supposed to do had already been done we ended up doing other jobs that were less exciting and important. There was a lack of communication that prevented us from doing any real work. Finally, we were in the desert, which brought it's own difficulties that we had to cope with.
Friday morning we got on the bus and drove to Tel Aviv. We went straight to Neve Schechter, a Jewish culture center in Neve Tzedek housed in the Cafe Lorenz building, an old German Templar house. We met with Shay Farkash, our teacher for the week, who gave us a short introduction/tour of the building and the neighborhood. Then we went to Sarona, the old German Templar colony outside Jaffa. We ate lunch there and had a tour of the village. After the tour we split up to settle into the houses we were staying at during our week in Tel Aviv.
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