Pambamarca Archaeology Project

When I sat at the airport, waiting to board the plane, I felt incredibly alone. Coming into the project, I was terrified. I felt that I didn´t know what my role would be, or whether I would fit in. ´

We are now three weeks into the project. I feel more at home. Ecuador has a numbing beauty to it, not just the environment, but also the people and the culture. I can navigate the buses. I feel comfortable with my Spanish. I am in love with the site that I work at, and every day of work is thrilling because we come one artifact or wall or bone closer to putting the puzzle together. Every day I try to imagine what it would be like to live at this site, who the people were, what they believed in, what their lives were like. I can´t believe that this will be my job. I rarely feel more at home than I do with dirt on my face and a trowel in my hand.

It feels good to be out of Los Angeles; my time here is like some other life which cannot possibly exist. It is hard to explain to my friends that riding around on top of a bus and ducking under low power lines or our taxi driver getting arrested while he is driving us to the bus station are just things that happen, not occurrences which are particularly out of the ordinary.

The project ends in two weeks, and then I am on my own until late September, embarking on an entirely new adventure. Right now I am comfortable, relaxed even. I have learned how to fix a toilet, a life skill which I am sure my future husband will appreciate. I know that in two weeks, I will be equally terrified as I was just before my flight left.

I have fallen in love with Ecuador, and I know that I will be back. For now, I am not going to fear or dread the end of the project, but rather, embrace each day and the excitement it brings.

Scotty Norman
New Staff