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Mayor Dumas, Barbara Dobek has something for you. She's not exactly sure what it is, but it's something good.

This interesting little story starts last month in Guatemala.

Barbara, who lives in South Attleboro, went to Central America about mid-February with her sisters, to Guatemala because her nephew lives and works there as a lawyer for the International Court, and to Costa Rica because her sister has a place there.

`` I spent a lot of time in a hammock under coconut trees,'' she says of Costa Rica.

But earlier during a guided tour of Guatemala City they ended up at the presidential palace, summed up by Barbara in one word: `` Beautiful.'' On the grounds of the palace is a peace sculpture of two clasped hands, and in the center they place a white rose. They change the rose daily in a ceremony of pomp and formality performed by palace guards.

Every six months they select a person from those at the ceremony and give them the white rose, a symbol of peace, and make them a peace representative from Guatemala.

They also get a certificate and are told to take it home and present it to someone of importance in their community like, well, the mayor.

Barbara hasn't given it to Mayor Kevin Dumas yet because `` I can't read the darn thing,'' so she's not sure exactly what it says. She's going to get it translated first.

She has pressed and preserved the rose, and plans to frame a copy of the certificate.

`` I felt like a goose, standing there with everyone watching me,'' says unofficial ambassador Barbara, but it sounds like the highlight of a great trip.

Thanks for the papers

Barbara Dobek brought me back four Spanish-language papers from her Central American trip, but she wasn't the only local person on the road.

`` While visiting Morant Bay, Jamaica, I picked up The Gleaner -- the newspaper of Kingston, Jamaica,'' writes Henry I. Pinson of Attleboro. `` This time I did not do the crossword puzzle, leaving it for you.'' Thanks, Henry.

`` The exchange rate is one U.S. dollar to approximately $60 Jamaican. If you are good in math, you may compare costs with the U.S. `` I went to Jamaica with a few of our alumni association helping to erect a house (one room) under the auspices of Food for the Poor. Food for the Poor supplied the materials, we supplied the labor with the help of Jamaicans.

`` A great learning experience for all of us.''

Did you know?

That draining toilet water swirls in the opposite direction in the Southern Hemisphere than it does in the north, that cigarette ads were banned on radio and TV in 1961, and that Jimmy Carter declared Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday a national holiday?

If you did, you're full of ... These are not facts, according to my Fact Or Crap calendar.

Toilet water swirls the same way in both hemispheres, cigarette ads weren't banned until 1971 and President Reagan instituted MLK Day.

Funny walks and mail

Tomorrow is Egyptian Day, so don't forget to walk funny.

It's also the festival of Veturius Memurias, which celebrates the art of armor making.

See you next week.

ORESTE P. D'ARCONTE is publisher of The Sun Chronicle. Reach him at 508.236.0394 or at darconte@thesunchronicle.com.