More about celebrating

Dan has described how the church had been prepared for the celebration, but I have a few additional comments. The first is in the line of a confession. I was surprised that so much had been done to clean up. I thought we were going to have to continue sweeping up our crafts trash, but the place was neat and ready for display. I was touched that Mirna thought so highly of the occasion that she had put a white altar cloth on the table that is their altar and changed the plain blue fabric backdrop to an embroidered white one.

I was gratified by the turnout of visitors. We weren't sure if any of the people who had said they would come would actually get there. Mr. Banner made the kind of warm and fuzzy remarks that you would expect from a politician, but he did seem engaged. Most of the San Ignacio Rotary folks had not been to Yalbac, so the project took on greater reality for them. I had thought we were rather peripheral to their attention, but we are going to dinner with them tonight; Sherree and Aki will be there only if their church board meeting finishes early.

It was a special privilege to serve the water to the folks. Victor was first in line, but I skipped over him to serve Mr. Banner first. Many people came back for seconds.

I will miss the Yalbac folks, especially Mirna, with whom I kidded around a lot, and Jerome, who for some reason attached himself to me after he finished the operator treatment. Mirna's pudding of bread was a treat, as was her cheese dip. And tamarind juice was a new one for us.

Relationships changed in several ways yesterday. San Ignacio Rotary had been skeptical that we could finish on schedule and are now much more on board. I was amused to see Ernest Banner, Dan, Dave, and Harrison clustered around the back of Aki's truck. I thought "Bubbas are Bubbas wherever you go." But it was in the spirit of co-Bubba-ness that they were doing fairly important political business, probably more effectively than if we had been in Banner's office trying to accomplish something before he had to go to another meeting.

In a few minutes we will be off touristing and maybe checking another well. I guess we aren't completely wasting our time if we get another data point on the same trip as climbing Mayan temples.

Peace,
Chuck