Having enjoyed Sebastian’s blog from yesterday, I can only say that all is forgiven! Would he consider coming back another time so that we can express our appreciation properly?  There is no doubt that it is only with Christopher’s and Sebastian’s help, coordination and efforts providing all the supplies that Elizabeth and I are able to put all our efforts into the conservation/restoration for the Archbishop’s House and Rachol. This morning one of our ex students Caecilie arrived from Denmark where she is studying at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts. It’s always a pleasure to see her and despite the jet lag she got straight in to working on the project here at the Seminary. test-cleanThis first full day of the project in Rachol was dedicated to the examination of the painting, removing it from the stretcher after much difficulty and removing a PVA glue on the edge. We cleaned the surface dirt (dust and droppings) and dampened it in order to shrink the canvas. It all ran almost smoothly and we left exhausted. Tonight there was much celebration at the Seminary for the feast of St. Joseph Vaz, the only Goan saint I believe, an incredible man whose thinking was much before his time. We were honoured to be invited to eat together with the Seminarians in their dining hall, delicious local food and much laughter. removing-pva-glue I have noticed that the Seminarians are always very jovial and have helped enormously with finding some materials and hanging the extremely heavy linen out to dry ready for the reline. relining-canvas-out-to-dryBy the way I am not too sure about visiting the garden or fetching the linen after I have been told to watch out for the snakes. We do have spiders (small), bats flying inside (not too big), the odd looking foreigner (at least one of us) lost in this enormous spectacular 17th century four sided, very thick walled complex building. We sleep in a separate wing, beautifully equipped with all we could wish for, including a mosquito net which Piero’s girls have hung over their bed. Exhausted we fall into bed not knowing what tomorrow may bring.