– The best part of the dig is the second breakfast.
-What? Second breakfast? Are you Hobbits?
-No! Well, in a sense, we are kind of Hobbitses 🙂
Most of my friends make fun of my stories about the food at the site. Because most of my stories contain mention of the famous second breakfast. The juicy watermelon, the spicy falafel sandwich, peaches, hummus… just the thought of it melts my heart and produces the drooling. The fact is we are all different, we come from different time zones, different food requirements and most of us normally have one or none breakfast back at home. But when we come to Jordan we all take this “dig diet”. Our fearless leader constantly remind us that we must eat to be strong and to be healthy. So we start our day at 4 AM with a breakfast. Just as it sounds, it is way too early for food for most of us, but it is the “dig diet”. Although many jump out of bed to get the breakfast I tend to be in the category of skipping the 4 AM food because my body refuses to eat before the dawn. When it is still dark outside I just can’t get myself to eat. This is not welcomed by our leader who keeps remining us to eat all the time, so that we can work!
Anyway at the site, after couple of hours of digging the sun is already burning hot around 9 AM and just about the time I start to regret not eating anything the sound of the horn (car horn so that everybody no matter how far out on the site can hear) invites us to get the second breakfast.
We all try to hurry to witness the unwrapping of the food because everyday there is a different surprise. Watermelon and melons are a must!! Everybody loves at least one form of the watery fruit. It is so refreshing and mostly feels like a perfect substitute for all the sweating done so far in the day. The rest of the fruits are a changed depending on the day. Sometimes there are perfect and sweet peaches, or cherries and bananas. It always looks and tastes fresh and sweet.
The falafel sandwich is also a must. It is basically the base of the “dig diet” because we have it for second breakfast as well as for most of the dinners. The sandwich is a fresh pita bread stuffed with falafels and fresh veggies in yoghurt and pickles. Although full of flavour most of us add extra spicy sauce to make it even more tasty. Of course, there is always a bag of extra bread and hummus (also another staple in the “dig diet”).
Sometimes there will be a pack of cookies mostly filled with date jam or just sprinkled with sesame seeds. It might seem like a lot of food for just a “second breakfast” but it is true that working hard makes you hungry and we must work hard.
After the beautiful and refreshing “second breakfast” we continue the work and because it is more hot and more difficult to work in the sun we often make small breaks for drinking. We mostly drink 2 litres of water while at the site. Sometimes we add some unhealthy but much needed “medicine” like canned sodas. But the favourite drink at the site and the most enjoyable one is the Beduin tea. Made from the crazy amounts of sugar boiled in water the black tea is often fragranced with some herbs that are picked just on the site. It sounds crazy to most of my friends that we love drinking hot tea in the sun but it is the best thing ever.
The work at the site must be finished before noon because we must get back for our lunch. The “dig diet” might sound like a lot of food and too often, but the lunch is the most rewarding thing after the shower. There is always the variety of things to choose from the soup, salads, baked veggies and fried meat to delicious desserts. The food might be amazing but it is the company what is most enjoyable.
After pottery washing and pottery reading and doing paper work and resting there is always a time for ice cream break or a cookie break and of course dinner to close the day and prepare us for sleeping.
