Another week come and gone

Hey guys, here is another post from me about my work. I'm still in Bet She'an and working in kibbutz Maoz Chayim. I'm still having fun even though the work is pretty much the same. I hope you enjoy reading!

At the synagogue we are still doing the same work along the wall. Eventually all the walls of the building need to have coping, so we are working one section at a time. The building is shaped as a basilica, with an apse and three rectangular sections separated by pillars. Tuesday we did coping on the section of wall left of the apse but before the corner of the building, and yesterday we worked on the opposite side, on the right section of wall next to the apse. We didn't quite finish that section of wall because we only have a limited amount of mortar to use everyday and we used it all before finishing. We do as much work as we can with the materials we have, and if there is still time after we use everything we do cleanup work and prepare for the next day by getting stones ready that fit into spaces in the top of the wall.

Today we finished the section of wall that we didn't do yesterday, and then moved on to the right side of the wall of the apse itself. This section has more of the large stones along the edge remaining, so we are only filling in between them. One thing I find interesting and somewhat controversial is that if there are stones already in place that are significantly higher than the level of the coping, the stones are removed and smaller ones put in its place. I'm not sure if this is an aesthetic or safety decision, but the removal of authentic and original material during the conservation process always involves tough decisions.

Something else I've noticed is that the work we did yesterday and today is not as good as the work we did on Tuesday. Our coping of the wall on Tuesday was more level and consistent, while our work since hasn't been done completely correctly, isn't level and has more holes. Whatever the reasons for the differences in the work, I'm still learning and getting to actually do things. Over the last three days I have been given more and more independence in what I do. Tuesday all I really did was watch and refill buckets of mortar, but today I did a lot of the mortar cleaning and smoothing, as well as throwing the dirt onto the wet mortar. At the very end I also did the entire process for a small area of the wall that had been forgotten and needed to be finished before we left. It feels good to be trusted to do the work without direct supervision.

After the work day was over I had a meeting with people from the Jewish Agency office in Bet She'an that are involved in maintaining the partnership between Bet She'an and Cleveland. We went to lunch and talked about Saving the Stones, my work, and what I am interested in doing while I'm here. They seem to be very interested in helping me get comfortable here and I am looking forward to being involved with them.