August 10, 7:52
Now I’ve also met the other (younger) Stas. “What you draw?” he asks and climbs the dirt hill on which I am sitting. I show him the drawings that I just made of Kai, Robert, Stas, Vitali, and Slava. “Very beautiful!” he says. “I’m making a book,” I respond. He doesn’t understand. “Publication.” This time, he gets it. And again, “very beautiful!”
8:21
“Would you also like to see?” (the big) Stas is holding a sherd in his hand that he just had shown to all of the workers. I run down the dirt hill. “Normally the ceramics here are gray, they are covered with a layer of carbonate that we have to clean off with acid. But on this piece, here, you can see the painted decoration.” He gives me the sherd. I hold it carefully. Part of it is very clean, smooth, and fine. I ask if the decoration is a stylized flower. Stas affirms but clarifies that the majority of the decorations on the finds here are made of geometrical forms. Lines, waves, concentric circles. I give him the sherd carefully back. Stas offers to give me the sherd in case I need it “for my sketch.”
The young Stas comes by again to see what I am doing. I find out that he is 16. He points to two workers – one with a light shirt, one wearing a Barcelona jersey. They are also 16. He is learning German in school but says it is “tak cébé,” so-so. His school is in Belţi.
