Spider Ant, Spider Ant, Does Whatever a Spider Ant Does!

Wondering what a spider ant is?

This is a spider ant.

The picture doesn't really do it justice, but they are at least four times the size of a regular ant and at least twice as fast. And they have really long legs. Their tails kind of stick up in the air, so Jacob calls them Scorpion Ants.

But no matter what you call it, they're weird, and kind of freaky. Neither of us had ever seen this kind of ant before. Just one more experience in Libya.

We're Ruined!

Not really. We just went to see the Roman ruins in Sabratha, Libya.

It was really neat to see those things that are so old but in still great condition.

We went with two other people, both named Ted and had the same last name, too! (They were grandfather and grandson.) And we had a great time.

This is the amphitheater at Sabratha. It's from the 2nd century AD.

 

Here is the partial remains of a mosaic found on a wall at the theater.

 

Here's Jacob with the steps of the theater behind them. They were in surprisingly good shape.

These figures ran along the edge of the stage. There were some other figures with less clothing on, but we figured clothing is probably good for a public site. :)

 

This is a view of the stage and the column work behind it. We wanted to go up into that area, but the stairs were blocked.

Here are some, as far as we can figure, reflection pools down by the sea. Yes, the Mediterranean Sea.

Christina even touched it!

This is a well preserved hallway with an arch just behind the theater.

And the only Roman writing we found in the whole place. It's just a fragment, but it's clearly Roman.

Jacob really loved this shot. We figure the columns are the remains of a temple, but this particular part was not labeled.

Here's Samson, er, Jacob.

Jacob asked for a "cute" pose. Christina tried...

This is the largest mosaic we found. It was actually on the ground by the baths.

And yep, you guessed it, there were toilets there, too. Here's one of them. They had about 20 of these in a semicircle, so we guess they weren't bashful. You can kind of see the trench below that would normally have water in it that would wash the waste away.

Jacob's giving the toilet a try. He's pretty pensive when he's on the throne...apparently.

This was the best preserved statue we came across that day. A lot of the statues were missing heads, arms, and family jewels. Even though she is, too, there is some exquisite detail that she had but others did not, due to wind, water, and sand.

This was an obelisk at the site. It was actually part of a mausoleum that dated back to the 2nd centry BC! That's old!

And here's a closer look at that obelisk.

It was really a great experience for both of us. We got to see things we have never seen before, but there is another site in Libya that is apparently three times the size of this one. Hopefully, we'll get to see that one, too!

Our First Arabic Lesson

On one of our trips to the market, we got to talking with our driver, Omar. Turns out he's Libyan (not everyone is) and he was willing to teach us some Arabic words. But he said he was teaching us in the Libyan accent, so it's not quite right to say we learned Arabic but that we learned some Libyan.

We learned:

Thank you - Shoo-kran

You're welcome - af-wan

Airport - mah-tar

We tried to get the Arabic writing for those words on here, but it was impossible for us to find in a decent form. But we think you get the idea. So practice up, so that when you visit us, you can speak the language of the natives!

Our Place in Libya

We said that pictures were coming soon, so here they are.

We're starting with pictures of where we are staying, since we've only been here two days, we haven't seen that much. But we will in time.

But our place is really quite nice. Almost all of our meals are catered, we have a house waiter and a maid. It's really nice. We stay in it with three other guys, each with their own rooms. We share the kitchen, living room, dining room, pool, and other common areas.

Here's our bed.

And our bathroom.

But we can't figure out what this is.

Is it a bidet or a urinal, or some kind of weird sink?

Here's the staircase in our house.

Here's the dining room.

And a sitting room.

Here's a view from our balcony. That house looks very similiar to ours.

Here's our pool.

Here are some over views of our neighborhood. There are seven houses in this area, but there are four or five other places for the ex-pats to live.

The biggest house, the last picture from above, is where we all eat together on Wednesdays.

It's also where the workout room is.

And here's the tennis/basketball courts. That guy in the picture, that you can barely see to the right, is trying to rig lights so that we can play at night.

So far we're really liking it here, but we are excited about the other experiences to come.

We Made It!

We finally got to Libya, a little worse for wear, but we made it here.

Tuesday did not really go as planned for us; things took longer than expected, things went missing, problems arose, but we somehow managed to get to Libya with almost all of our things. But I'll tell that story once it's resolved.

So we are just trying to get over our jet lag and get ready for work tomorrow. Thank you so much for prayers. We will update soon, and with pictures!

It's almost time, and we need prayers!

Well, it is just 5 more days until we move to Libya for a year. It seems really really crazy. And we have so much to do. Why is it that we waited until the last minute to get everything together. I don't know; we must love killing ourselves. My one consolation is that I'll be able to sleep on the plane. So I can go full out from now until then, and I think I'll be able to recover.

Having said that, we could use some help, specifically in your prayers. We need prayers for the following things:

- that we will get everything packed up in time for the move
- that there will be no troubles with the flight or going through customs
- that we are able to recover from jetlag quickly
- that both of us find favor at work
- that we will be able to be comfortable in a new environment
- that we will be able to find a place to worship with other believers
- that we will be a witness to our fellow workers with our work and attitude
- that we will be safe throughout our stay
- that we will have fun!

Thank you so much for your support in all this. We love you!