Mayan Rain Goddess

One of the archaeologists’ pet theories about why the Mayan people vanished, deserting multiple cities each with populations estimated to be in the hundreds of thousands, is that an extended drought destroyed their ability to grow crops, depleting their food source. Many remains of human sacrifices are found in areas where the Mayans lived, and the archaeologists speculate that they were sacrificed to appease the rain god. My theory is that all those lives were sacrificed for no good reason, since all the Mayans had to do to make it rain was to bring me to Belize, get me a washing machine and no dryer, and have me pull the knob to start a load of wash. The heavens would open.

That’s what happened last week when I tried to do laundry, and that’s what happened today. It was sunny when we got up, sunny while we ate breakfast, and as soon as Tom turned on the generator and I loaded the washer, the black clouds rolled in, and by the time I walked from the cabin to the camper, it was starting to rain. Fortunately, the rain god seems to deal only in quantity of water, not in the period of time over which it falls. Last week it drizzled all day, making line drying laundry impossible, but this week it was a heavy but quick shower, and by early afternoon the blue skies were back, we had a nice breeze, and the humidity was low enough that everything was bone dry by 4:00.

All in all, it was an uneventful Sunday. We didn’t see our neighbors because today was Election Day in San Antonio, and the entire town was involved in some sort of election party. We initially thought it was strange that they hold elections on Sunday, but the logic is that most people don’t work on Sunday, so they’re able to vote without interfering with their jobs. Makes sense to me…probably more sense than the first Tuesday in November, or whatever the US Election Day rule is.

We spent the day planning and scoping. Tom came up with a materials list so he can go into San Ignacio tomorrow to order a delivery from the lumberyard that will enable him to finish the first cabin so we can move in, and start work on the second cabin for guests. Because the floor for the bathroom addition is framed, we were able to take boards the size of the sinks and toilets we plan to buy, and lay out the bathrooms so we can really see what goes where and how much room that leaves for towel racks, shelves, and cabinets. Based on what we did, we made a few minor changes in layout, although we know it may change again when we have the real fixtures. If Tom gets everything on his list tomorrow, it shouldn’t be too long before we actually start putting things together and really know what we’re doing.

We had some nice visitors late in the afternoon. Noah, our real estate agent, had been up in the Pine Ridge with his family and a friend, and they stopped by on their way home. Neither Noah nor his wife Marayla had been on the property since the day we came for our second look and made the offer, and we came up here the next day, which was about six weeks ago. We showed them what we’ve been doing, and all either of them could say was “wow.” Marayla’s sister was with them, and Marayla kept saying, “Sis, you should have seen this place the day before they got here. It was all overgown and full of trash. You couldn’t even see the buildings. The underbrush was up to here” (gesturing waist high). We know we’ve made progress, and we occasionally look at the pictures we took of the property before we made our offer, but it was really nice to have someone else confirm that we’re making a difference.