After being away in Mexico for nearly three weeks, the first week back in Iowa is generally hectic and full – and that’s just in order to handle the backlog of things that pile up during one’s absence. In other words, I realize I should have done these blog entries earlier, but time is scarce these days.
It was a good week in Xicotepec for the project team. I’ll do my best to stick to one narrative thread at a time – no guarantees, however. So many things to tell about!
Friday, prior to the project team’s arrival
After spending most of Thursday calling and e-mailing back and forth between Xicotepec, Iowa City and Puebla, Rubén García, Marco Cuevas and I got up early on Friday, cleaned up our acts, put on ties, and went to Puebla – accompanied by Marita Lechuga de García, who had other business to conduct – to try to find the right person or persons at the BUAP (Benemérita Universidad Autónoma de Puebla) who could give the go-ahead for students and faculty of Pharmacy there to participate with the Xicotepec Pharmacy Team from the University of Iowa (Hazel Seaba, Chris Catney, Jessica Eveleth and Becky Lamis).
We had breakfast in Puebla prior to our appointment at 11 AM. After finding the building in the center of Puebla, we had initial meetings with administrators, who gave us enough information to track down the interested students and professors by cell phone and arrange to meet with them all at 4 PM.
We recessed to a shopping mall, on the modern outskirts of Puebla in Angelopolis (so-called because of Puebla’s full name, “Puebla de los Angeles”), where we joined Marco Cuevas’ son for lunch at an Italian restaurant. Afterward we picked up some jamón serrano, queso manchego, wine and tequila in a gourmet foods shop that lacked for nothing (except maybe low prices – US$50 per kilo for cheese, regardless of how good it might be, seems like a lot to me). Overlooking the food court in the Angelopolis mall, there was little to distinguish it from the food court of any other large mall in any other large city in the world. We headed back to the center for our 4 PM meeting.
Once we were in front of the students (Alejandra, Erika, Itzel, Martha, and Miguel) and the faculty (Irma Rosalía and Marco Antonio) we were all able to quickly agree on what needed to be done, finalize travel details, etc. The students would come on Sunday to Xicotepec by bus; the faculty had meetings in Puebla on Monday and would come afterward. In the car on the way home, we composed the letters of invitation on my PC. The weather deteriorated as we approached Xicotepec and we arrived around 10 PM after a final rainy, foggy and, of course, curvy stretch of highway. The letters of invitation were e-mailed before we retired.
As the week progressed, it became clear that the time and effort in Puebla had been well spent. All of the Pharmacy students and faculty, Gringas and Mexicanos alike, worked extremely well together, enjoyed each other’s company, and before the week was up had made plans for future collaborations in support of the Xicotepec Project. For more details, see Hazel Seaba’s post: http://hazelseaba.wordpress.com/2008/03/29/review-of-2008-pharmacy-project-trip/
Time and effort well spent – but also, what could be more pleasant than spending time with good friends in a beautiful city like Puebla, meeting and talking to interesting people in wonderful colonial-era buildings at a university that is more than 400 years old?
