well folks, its hard to believe, hard to say, and even harder to prove, but i have officially left the state of Guanajuato, my home in San Miguel de Allende, and my tour of duty on Proyecto Puentes de Salud 2011. last week was a whirlwind, with community visits to prospective pueblos for next year’s project, meetings with organizations and potential partners for PPS San Miguel’s continued growth and development, and some warm, but sad, despedidas (goodbyes/farewell events).

on Friday, the morning was spent packing, eating one final meal of Kelly’s chilaquiles (as phenomenal as always), sipping Alex’s excellent coffee, and sharing jokes and stories with the family for one last time. it was really tough to leave, with all kinds of mixed emotions. by now, this truly is our family here, our home, and after 6 weeks, it feels like normal life. but we have to return to ‘real’ life, and we have the impending fun of these next few weeks. but family, friends, significant others await, and so we left our Mexican home. Henry first, then Sarah, Aaron and myself, to different destinations each. Sarah back home, Henry to Pachuca to see his girlfriend (author of a great blog - http://mytwodirtyfeet.blogspot.com/ about her experiences in Mexico, feel free to continue reading there if you need more Mexican travel writing), Aaron south to the D.F. (district federal, aka Mexico City), and me to Juventino Rosas to catch up with the other companeros. not many tears, but even as Alex told his final joke in the car on the way to the central, i couldnt help but feel how hard it is to walk away from this part of my life.

juventino rosas was a nice first stop, Joe picked me up from the Celaya bus central, and we drove the half-hour back - telling jokes and stories, catching up on our trips, and discussing plans for the next 10 days. we arrived home, and no one was there, because they were at some kind of church lunch event. but we got a text that we should come have tacos in the courtyard of the paroquia, so we headed over. sounded low key, reasonable enough. but when we buzzed in, we were led to an open area lined with tables, all full of people listening to a 12 man band, all who craned their necks to see who had just rudely walked in in the midst of the Padre’s birthday party. joe and i had to walk in front of the band to greet and congratulate the padre, both of us feeling a bit awkward about our entrance and disruption.  but tacos, cervesas and cake were served, and it ended up being a fun and warm afternoon welcome to juventino. that night i got to check out a MESA meeting (an initial visit to set up a support group for women with depression, what we’re looking towards doing in San Miguel, and its in its second year in JR) and see the other side of the project. in the evening, we went out to one of the few bars in town, had a few beers and ended up meeting and befriending the owner and a few regulars.

the next day, we visited the local bakery to say goodbye to Kiko, one of the members of the delegation who had been a great support to the juventino rosas folks. it was another warm event, with delicious bread served, followed by eggs, beans and coffee. foolishly, Lilli (a public health student working with the JR folks, also a Duke School grad - chea!) and I started talking trash, and ended up eating two whole peppers, one chile de arbol, and one chile marron (i think). she ended up crying, i was coughing, and my lips were burning 2 hours later when we departed back to Celaya. milk, juice, bread, and tequila (yes, at 11am) were brought out to help, and eventually the pain subsided. but another goodbye ensued, and we were given tee-shirts with the name of the bakery (they were just intended for the JR group, but i think they figured “what the hell, you too, big gringo!”). then Kiko offered me and Jason a ride to Celaya, where we were leading the charge down to the DF to begin our travels. a few San Miguel friends had decided to join us for the weekend, some of the cool young folks we had met through CASA, including Ana, a native DFena (someone from the DF) who had offered to be a guide in that massive, but impressive city. it was great to have a local there, not to mention a friend, to point out restaurants, sights, museums and other stuff not to miss. i’ll try to post a bit more on our DF trip soon.

the bus from Celaya left me with many of the same feelings, of sadness, of closure, of leaving a part of life that had been a pleasure to experience. but also, excitement - for travels, for relaxation, and in the rapidly approaching distance, for the return to family, friends, and ‘real life.’ it will not be the same after this trip, thanks to the communities we’ve visited, the challenges we’ve faced, the language and culture we’ve learned, but most of all, thanks to the people we’ve met along the way.  thank you, Guanajuato, San Miguel de Allende, Juventino Rosas, Los Tovares, El Lindero, Los Juarez, Viznaga del Cero Grande, and all the folks along the way. it has been unforgettable.

-License Plates: Ohio, Illinois (including a super-retro one i’ve never seen before), Michigan (impressive), and NC (finally!)

-Sports Apparel: Oakland Raiders, and Expos baseball caps (another American but not quite qualifier - but MLB counts in my book)

-Miscellaneous: VA Hospital parking sticker on a pickup truck, american flag socks, and a tee-shirt modeled after the standard Puma design, except instead of Puma, it said Toro, and had a bull leaping over top instead of the big cat. i would love to have one of those to represent Durham (bull city, chea!) but i have no idea where to find another.

Credits: Andy Weinhold, author of the classic ‘I Bless The Rains’ blog about Tanzania (http://andrewweinhold.blogspot.com/) kept a sidebar of retro american sports gear, which inspired these posts. also, credit to George Washington, James Madison, Thomas Jefferson, Ben Franklin, Alexander Hamilton, John Adams, John Jay, and my parents, for creating our country and bringing me into it (respectively)

a few shots from the weekend at the hacienda - a beautiful estate, renovated from its original architecture from the late 1800s, which we got a chance to enjoy for free for a weekend, thanks to a friend of the Juventino Rosas folks. also, a couple pics from the graduation ceremony of our host siblings - felicitaciones!

alright folks, we may be in mexico, but july 4th is still a day of celebration and commemoration of the excellence of our great nation. so, todays post will be on all topics american that we have been fortunate enough to catch a glimpse of in our visit to our southern neighbor.

first, sports gear: charlotte hornets jersey (alonzo mourning), dallas mavericks dirk nowitzki jersey the day after they won the title, chicago bears hat, plenty of dallas cowboys gear, texas rangers stuff, a carolina panthers beanie (out in the communities, no less), patriots hats, a mother and son with retro chicago bulls hats and shirts (yes, matching), a number of bright red UNC hats (do they not know about NC state?), one duke shirt (chea!), a shaquille o’neal lakers jersey on an 8 year old out in the communities, a retro florida marlins baseball cap, an atlanta braves shirt-jersey, a USA baseball puffy jacket on a friendly mexican with a speech impediment, and a few baseball caps with nothing more than an eagle and USA on the back. lesson: if its american, you can find a mexican who is a fan.

next, license plates: plenty of texas, including lots of retro ones, georgia (including the old one with the peach), pennsylvania, nevada, vermont (!), oklahoma, tennessee, massachusetts, south dakota (!), and of course california. lesson: san miguel is a popular spot, even if you have to drive 5,000 miles.

miscellaneous: a huge john deere belt buckle, plenty of TV (law and order, CSI, sportscenter with mexican anchors), movies (anchorman, dodgeball, and men in black have been some of our favorites), a miami sun Windsurfing bumper sticker in a city bus (not even sure what that means), and one of my favorites - my host sister’s Smurf t-shirt.

overall, it is an interesting dynamic between mexico and the US. the recent soccer game certainly brought out a bit of the rivalry, and any discussion of visas or access to el Norte (the US) will reveal a subtle (or not so subtle) anti-American sentiment amongst some Mexicans. “Hey white boy!” or “What’s up guys?” are commonly heard phrases that begin to highlight better the paradox. speaking in english is cool, anything american is cool, and there’s a constant desire to get to the north to make money, live the life, whatever. but as gringos, the candy flew a little faster at our faces on Dia de los Locos, and an occasional sullen-faced youngster or teenager talking trash reminds us that we aren’t always welcome here. it’s a complex relationship, and we certainly cannot blame Mexico for some degree of resentment. yes, folks from the US are americans, but so are mexicans. ‘north american’ in fact, still fails to differentiate, yet either term would be sufficient in the states to clarify a United State-sian from a Mexican or anything else. but as is always the case in foreign countries, there’s a lot to learn about our own culture, both flaws and strengths.

for today, i feel proud to be an american (and you know what i mean), and i plan to celebrate like one. as our trip comes to a close, i can still salivate over the thought over a bacon cheeseburger, look forward to sipping some bourbon, and will be glad to hear classic rock instead of mariachi on every radio station. but upon my return, i will also seek out good enchiladas, cook up some salsa and chilaquiles, and speak spanish whenever i get a chance. today, we celebrate our independence day, but i also want to throw a shout-out and some respect to some other Americans who are hardly ever called as such, the welcoming folks that have made our visit to Mexico such a success.

amazingly, tomorrow marks our last day visiting our four communities. monday and tuesday were our final charlas, with their own wrinkles and speed bumps. the difference now, at the end of our project, isn’t that we evade these obstacles, its that we’re more accustomed and better prepared to handle them when they pop up.

monday was our last day at Los Juarez, and we arrived to find one of the most impressive turnout of moms we have seen so far. over 50 moms were scattered around the schoolyard, waiting, when we arrived at 10:30am. but of course, a dose of humility is always healthy, and we quickly realized that these women were not there for us. some kind of government agency was coming to conduct a competency test for women who had been working on completing their secondaria (like middle school), thus these groups of women were studying from graph paper notebooks, scribbling notes in pencil, and cramming some last minute knowledge in before the test. and of course, the level of organization was par for the course: little to none. few women knew when the testing officials would arrive, even fewer could explain how things would go once they were there, leaving us a bit confused about how to run our charlas. but, now much more seasoned in the art of pulling something out of nothing, we simply gathered the women with a quick announcement, and dove in. we pushed through our talk about diarrheal disease with our largest group yet, mass distributed our cups for mixing suero (oral rehydration salts), and moved on to first aid. we split up into our stations and again got it going quickly. of course the testing agency arrived a few minutes later, and women started to trickle out. but i had just started my: “my knee is broken, help me!” act - and a few women traded concerned glances. i broke character for a moment to let them know anyone could leave that needed to, and most did. but as i was still splayed out on the concrete clutching my knee, one leaned over to the next one and loudly whispered, “well, we can’t just leave him!” they sweetly stuck out the rest of my talk, before heading off to take their test.

tuesday was back to Los Tovares, one of our favorite communities. we had a great, lively charla with the kids, then had a few hours to burn before our talk with the moms. an hour in, a few of the kids snuck out of the classroom and timidly asked us if we would like to see their dance. unsure of exactly what we were agreeing to, we followed them back inside. what ensued is hard to put into words - but it was an adorable, hilarious, hectic, sweet and thoroughly amusing display of choreography, time and practice. lines of kids crisscrossed, doing a variety of moves mostly drawn from american hip hop culture, with others doing cartwheels through the crowd. during the second dance, set to a song from grease, a pair of younger girls had only a tenuous hold on the choreography, but were having the absolute time of their lives while dancing away. a girl was chasing one of the youngest kids in the class in and around the dancers, and though i’m fairly sure it was not part of the dance, it is simply impossible to be entirely sure. 

we had a low turnout of moms for our talk, likely due to the once-weekly Tuesday market in San Miguel, but it was a really engaged, interested group. we cruised through the diarrhea talk, occasionally pausing our curriculum to let a mom explain to the others, quite thoroughly, exactly what we were about to say. the first aid talk was equally fun, active and involved. the moms were a bit skeptical about feeling my dorsalis pedis pulse on my foot, but it turned into an opportunity for laughs, and soon we headed back, feeling good about the folks we reached with all of our charlas over these past few weeks.

wednesday was our ‘off day,’ but we had a morning tour of hospital CASA, the sortof alternative, holistic, maternity hospital in town. it was a neat facility with a cool, integrative approach, not to mention a really beautiful building, complete with a rooftop terrace for inpatients. that tour was immediately followed by a cab ride and a tour of the Hospital General, the larger medical center for most of the folks in and around San Miguel. it was a really clean, well equipped, and quite large facility, and i think we were all impressed with the organization, cleanliness and approach there, despite a massive number of patients daily (the doc who led us around estimated 600 patients come into the emergency dept daily).

a mellow afternoon culminated with a cup of coffee with some of the interns at CASA, a group of nice, fun young folks, about our age with similar interests. they showed us a neat coffee shop tucked in just off of San Miguel’s main square, where we chatted in english, told jokes, and shared stories about our different projects and goals going forward. its too bad we’ve only met them now, because they would have been some fun companions for going out and seeing a bit more of the city.

wednesday evening, Sam and Dr Carlough arrived in San Miguel - the two main folks that run the OIA (office of international affairs) at UNC school of medicine. they joined us today for our health fair in El Lindero, another successful, busy, and enjoyable day. we saw around 30 patients, I screened for, and found, a lot of folks with problems with depression, and I managed to refer a good number to the psychologist in San Miguel. I believe we also finally found a community without high rates of undiagnosed diabetes, which was a bit of a relief.

tomorrow, we return to Viznaga del Cero Grande, another of our favorite communities, for our final health fair of PPS 2011. its shocking that it is already coming to a close; it feels like just a few days ago that we arrived in these dusty communities, drenched in sweat in our mismatched scrubs, yet now we are saying goodbye. we’ve been invited to a few year-end events next week, so we can postpone the nostalgia a bit longer: a graduation ceremony and a theater performance are on the docket for our farewell tour next week. but in all reality, it is both sad and mind boggling that we are leaving so soon. but i suppose my spanish is evidence that i have been here for a few weeks - i’m finally past nerves over having basic conversations, i’m able to explain my way around words i don’t know, and i feel like i can really communicate with my family (at long last!). at least one goal has been accomplished.

but i suppose i shouldnt get ahead of myself: hurricane Arlene is bearing a course directly for San Miguel. tomorrow’s health fair may yet be canceled due to torrential rain, risk of flooding, and high winds. if so, we’ll simply shift the date to next week, and we can relive the joys and sorrows of another ‘last’ visit. another sign of how far we’ve come: not one of us is panicked about the prospect of a heavy storm totally shattering our plans for the day, we’re just a bit more ready, and used to, making do.

Sunday night spectacle on the square

photos from the weekend

no Kevin Nealon, Colin Quinn or Tina Fey here to greet you, but it’s been a happening weekend in the old SM of A, and I thought I’d keep you good folks in the loop. Saturday started off with a delicious breakfast, inspired and cooked by our very own, La Jefa (the boss), Sarah. Scrambled eggs with cheese, toast with jelly, and refried beans (well, why not?) were a great way to start the day. Alex’s always delicious coffee helped wash it down, and then we eagerly awaited the arrival of our buddies from Juventino Rosas. we managed to talk a little trash with Alex about the upcoming Gold Cup final between the USA and Mexico, while snagging a restaurant suggestion from our host sister Abish. First, she recommended a seafood place in town owned by the family of a player, but when I asked if it might be, ahem, dangerous for a couple of American fans, she subtly revised her suggestion to Casa Payo, an Argentinian steakhouse. when our friends finally arrived, we headed to our routine Saturday morning venue, the organic market with lamb barbeque served by Alex’s daughter Normita. after showing our friends around and enjoying a delicious lunch, we decided to head out to a newly excavated and opened archeological ruin, about 30 minutes outside of town. we loaded up into their borrowed 1983(?) VW van, and hit the highway.

however, just as we cleared town, a light started blinking on the dashboard, indicating something we didn’t want to see in this brutally sunny, dry day: overheating. we pulled off into the nearest parking lot and cut the engine. all the guys did what guys are supposed to do - pop open the engine (in the back, on a VW) and stare intently into it. now, we’re no mechanics, but we did notice one odd thing: the battery was upside down. as we started fiddling with it, we realized it was both leaking battery acid (of course, only noticed this after it was on our hands) and sitting on a few seemingly important wires and tubes. an hour or so of spitting, mumbling things in country accents, staring cluelessly at the engine block (we did right the battery), and unsuccessfully trying to cool down the engine, we called Alex. of course, he knew just the guy to call.

15 minutes later, an old beat up Nissan rolled into the lot, and an older mechanic and two teenaged assistants piled out. they looked into the engine while we explained what little we knew. a few minutes passed, with them running the engine and fiddling around, and then Alex pulled in, with Kelly, Abish and Akim in the car. another 20 minutes, and Karen pulled in, and it qualified as a regular street festival. 4 cars, 7 gringos, 5 of our host family members, and 3 mechanics - forget the fact that it was a largely abandoned gas station, it had become an outright fiesta. fortunately, Alex’s guy knew exactly what he was doing, so after re-connecting the fan (turns out, that’s important), and charging us the almost offensively low rate of 350 pesos (like 30 bucks, for a roadside visit and repair), the party broke up and we headed on to the pyramids. a few wrong turns extended our drive, and after bouncing around in the Guanajuato countryside for an hour or so, we arrived at the site, to find it was closed for the day. we all laughed (what else can you do?) and turned back to San Miguel.

later on that evening, we caught up at their hotel. we clinked cervesas on the rooftop patio and shared jokes in spanish and stories about our respective projects. we headed to the restaurant in time to catch some pre-game coverage (complete with an Ines Sainz appearance). the meal was incredible, with skillets of grilled steak and sausage, and sides of mashed potatoes in taco shells, delicious garlic bread with a fresh pesto, and creamed spinach. the game started out even better - with an early header by Michael Bradley and a great sequence from Adu to Dempsey to Donovan spotting the US a 2-0 lead. but, Mexico was clearly the better team, and spent the rest of the 1st half, and all of the second, demonstrating that. fortunately, with such a delicious meal and great company, it was hard to be in too sour of a mood. we went out on the town afterwards, and enjoyed drinks at a roof top bar, and caught local live music before calling it a night.

in the morning, we tried again - this time successfully - to visit the pyramids. it was beautiful and relaxing, under a cool, slightly overcast sky. there were a few interesting facts about the pyramid, one was that it held the bones of a body of a priest that had been transported there hundreds of years after his death. other bodies in the ruins were of others who had died for various reasons, including tuberculosis and wild animal attacks. as a result, this is one of the only pyramids that faces the sunset rather than the sunrise - because it was a place for the dead, not the living. we returned to in the early afternoon, bid farewell to our friends, and dove into a lazy sunday.

in the evening, we headed downtown for a light show on the cathedral, that Alex was very excited for. unfortunately, heavy rains opened up once we were downtown, and while sipping coffees on the square, we worried that it would be called off. Abish met up with us and we all shot the breeze, enjoying our covered spot and watching the deluge. soon, Alex arrived, and we skeptically found a spot to watch, if the show was really to happen. but sure enough, at 9:15 sharp, all the lights on the square shut off, and lights emerged on the front of the cathedral. haunting music backed an interesting and impressive display of visual effects. once it finished, tons of fireworks lit up the sky over the church and the square. we cramped into the car, and drove back through the rain, which had now lessened considerably, telling jokes and chatting. it was a beautiful end to a fun weekend.

this week will be our last visiting our communities, and the end of our curriculum. amazing to think we’re almost done! our final week will be spent organizing things for next year, but we’re really getting to the end here. i’ll keep you guys posted, but already we’re planning our travels after the end of the project, and this little blog will come to a close. but dont worry, we arent there yet! onward and upward… (and pictures soon!)

-jake