The next demonstrator that we encountered was an African American
woman weaving baskets. She was incredibly feisty, which we assumed was
her 'character', one of the oppressed slaves of a darker time. However, she
still regarded herself as undervalued and, as a fellow museum worker, I was
able to sympathize with this. We felt a little guilty when we left without
purchasing a basket, but knick-knacks did not feature heavily in our budget.
After beating a hasty retreat from the weaver we visited the church, where we
came across another actor, a fiddler.
As soon as we walked into the church he started playing, and we
hurried forward to enjoy some folk music. Unfortunately, he only played about
two bars before stopping to chat to us. Actually that is not strictly true. He
launched into a monologue about his role in World War Two - hardly a chat.
The problem with many of the staff was that there were not many visitors in
the museum that day, only us and one other couple I think. This meant the
staff was not inclined to fire up all cylinders to entertain, plus they had
probably spent hours with no one to talk to so relished a chance of a
conversation. It would have been nicer, and better value, if the site had been
more populated, as there would have been more demonstrations to watch.
However, at least this way we got most of the French toast to ourselves –
once we had fought off the cook!
The audio tour then took us into downtown Lafayette - where we got lost
several times - but did see the very modern and Disney-esque cathedral. Next
to the church was a 450-year-old Live Oak; this does not mean a living oak as
opposed to a dead tree – although this was what we assumed when we first