It's Over!

After five weeks (four in Mexico and one in Belize) traipsing around in rainforests, I flew back to the States. Happily I was greeted at the airport by two of the most beautiful people on the planet who came bearing a bagful of Thai food takeout along with their smiles of greeting.

The trip was a National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship Institute which was focused on studying the Maya. This means that 24 university and college faculty from across the country were drawn together for an intensive study. We were given a bibliography of texts prior to departure, some of which I read on the road and some that I am still plowing through now that I am back home. We had site visits at important Maya archaeological sites (Palenque, Chichen Itza, Uxmal, Bonampak), and we visited some fairly obscure locations as well (Hochob, Cahal Pech, Sayil). During the Institute, we were introduced to archaeologists, art historians, epigraphers and other scholars in the field of Maya Studies who presented seminar and field study lectures.

As it was originally planned, we were to have visited Guatemala (in particular Tikal), but recent violence in the Flores region of Guatemala caused the U.S. State Department to issue a travel restriction for the region. And, since we were operating as "consultants" for the U.S. State Department, we were required to heed that travel restriction. Thus, a few days in Belize was substituted for the time we should have spent in Guatemala. If I was disappointed by this change in itinerary, I was also relieved.

All in all, the Institute was an awesome experience. The people of southern Mexico and Belize are hard working, friendly, cheerful in the face of poverty, and dignified in the face of global pressures they cannot control. I am humbled by the ways in which they conduct their lives, and I hope that I was a respectful ambassador between their world and ours.