Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Earnest Banner

We all piled into Aki Fukai's Honda SUV for the trip from Santa Elena to Belmopan. All except Ray, that is, who spent much of the day at the Octavia Waight Retirement Home. We encountered a light rain on Western Highway, foreshadowing the deluge that poured down while we had lunch and conversation at Perkups in Belmopan. Pat and I had watermelon juice to drink - a firstfor me. I wonder how you squeeze a watermelon?
After lunch Aki and Dave dropped us (Sheree, Chuck, Pat and me) at the Government Rural Development Board where we met with Earnest Banner, Rural Development Coordinator for all of of Belize. He grilled us about our plans for Yalbac and showed a high level of interest in what we are doing there. He promised that if we called him in advance he would be there for the installation. He also wanted to send his people to learn about the workings of the system while we installed it.
When Sheree asked about other possible sites with water needs he quickly listed three locations in desperate need: St. Matthews, Biscayne, and Franks. All of these are desperate for clean water and located in the Belize City district to the east of Cayo. Sheree and I plan to explore these options during our next trip. It's amazing how one thing leads to another...
Dan

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