Lourdes

Never appeared in this blog before but she's a relevant starring in our current lives. Lourdes is cuban and has lived for around 15 years in Finland. The reason why she left her home country: diverge opinions with Fidel Castro, I guess. She and her husband are good examples of Cuba's excellent educational system at University: I known for certain that their knowledge of food chemistry and microbiology when they arrived to this country was higher than the average in Finland. This latter country provided, however, a bright future that was already denied in the Caribbean island. Everytime I think of her, I cannot help it but imagine the great efforts she had to make at the beginning in Finland. They ignored the language, the culture, the terrible burocracy of this country and had very little money...but they coped with all the difficulties and fought for finding a new place to live in Europe. She has told me several times how was it to arrive to this country in winter time with Caribbean clothes...Fortunately, they were not alone and found in Eero Puolanne and some other colleagues at University very good friends. And they lived and raised their family in this country. Why Finland???? I asked more than once, cause Spain would have been much easier for them: the language, the culture, the weather, the legal issues (their grandparents were Spanish and they would have found total free health-care assistance from the beginning, without job or even clear legal situation). They knew people here already...and that is making a big difference cause coming alone to this country under those circumstances is playing russian roulette. She was my main company and reliable friend at University the first time I visited Finland and I appreciate her so much. I am looking forward to recieving them as guests In Spain so that we can find our common Spanish background walking throught the historical old-town of Cáceres.