Half way through

27/02/2015 Saturday

This week has been mainly about preparation for going into classes at St Philip’s College as well as a presentation about Corrymeela during the Lent evening service during the coming week.

Yvonne will be in a Social Psychology class looking at Identity and Belonging and also a Humanities class looking at how quotations inspire us.  For this second class Yvonne has chosen a quotation about Fair Trade and will use a puppet play she has written.  (Fair Trade Fortnight starts on Monday).

Saturday night (27/03) we took a table with Andy and Mary Lyn Hill at the Annual Dinner of the San Antonio Chapter of the Fulbright Association. We were joined by Dr Adena Loston, President of St Philip’s College, Cyndy Prior, Dean of Social Sciences at St Philip’s College, Matt Fuller also St Philip’s College and Migdalia Garcia from North West Vista College. Matt, of course is well known in Corrymeela and Magdalia has been to Corrymeela as a group leader with Andy.

There were about 90 guests at the dinner consisting of Fulbright Alumni and Fulbright friends. The distinguished guests included a retired Ambassador and two Congressmen.  The first speaker during the meal was Gerónimo Gutiérrez CEO of the North American Development Bank. This bank is a Green bank set up by the US and Mexican governments to develop and support green infrastructure along the US/Mexican border. Much of the work has been in the area of securing and protecting water sources and development of green energy production.  Money from the governments is used to leverage private investment.

The main speaker was Congressman Joaquin Castro who has followed in his father’s footsteps as Democratic Congressman for San Antonio. He serves on the House Foreign Affairs Committee and he spoke about some of the issues that he has been working on recently. There is definitely a big contrast between the desire to develop cross-border relationships with Mexico and the rhetoric that is coming from the Republican camp and Donald Trump in particular. The speech was certainly optimistic and inclusive in tone.

The Argyle Club served up a good meal in very comfortable surroundings. I had a sense that it may be leaning towards its 19th century past.

Yvonne and I are now exactly half way through our stay in Texas.  How time flies when you are having fun! We have met lots of wonderful people from all sections of this very mixed community.  As in N.I. people, generally, get on very well together and, as in N.I., there is still much to do to break down all the barriers.