It was while at Chicasanga that Ellen Martin and her two kids and my wife Mary and my four longhaired “blondies” got to join our all male crew. Dennis would kid that our crusty yang energy needed softening with some sweet lady and kid yin energy. My youngest was Eli, just three, on up to Ben who was nine. Mary became the paint manager, picked out the paint colors and design, and had a crew of painters to decorate the school. She graduated with an art degree so this was her element. The school was beautiful, in earth tone colors and with a twelve-foot quetzal bird painted above the entrance doors. At the completion of each new school, a celebration would be held. The mayor, the village elders, and on several occasions the congressman for the district would attend. There’d be speeches, ribbon cutting, and always a marimba band would play. After the food was consumed, there was dancing, now lit with candles and lanterns once it had gotten dark.
