Hello World,
Sorry for the long delay in updating this, Cuba has been keeping me busy! There is so much to see and do that I’m thinking that four months might not be enough!
Let’s start from last weekend. Get settled, this one is going to be long.
Katie, Kyra, Susan and I set out early Friday morning for Viñales, a UNESCO protected system of mountains and caves about three and a half hours west of Havana in the Pinar del Rio province. We took a tour bus from outer Havana through the beautiful, rural countryside along the highway. There were many tobacco and banana farms (called fincas), oxen drawn plows, and humble thatched homes with colorful clothing hanging to dry outside. About half way, we turned into the mountains for a short stop at Las Terrazas, a terraced eco-friendly farming community in a paradise of palm trees, mountains and teal watered lakes. It was absolutely gorgeous! They have a fully self-sustainable community with schools, housing, shops, and a medical clinic, as well as tourist attractions like a zip line, paddle boats and camping spots. Definitely a place that is on my list of placed to return. We headed back down the mountain toward Viñales, alongside more mountains and farms for about an hour, then through the city of Pinar del Rio, and finally into our destination.
When we stepped off of the bus, we were swarmed by village women with business cards offering us rooms in their homes to say in for the weekend. We found an offer that we liked and followed her through the small, one main road town, to her family’s home. Unfortunately, we had some troubles with identification and they wouldn’t accept that we were temporary Cuban residents and we had to find another place to stay. We found a lovely family down the street that accepted our ID and rented us two rooms for the weekend at 15 CUC (same in dollars) per night, plus the option of dinner for 7 CUC and breakfast for 3 CUC. The family was made up of the owner-Margarita, her husband-Estevan, Margarita’s mother, father, sister, and 1-year old nephew, as well as Estevan’s son from a previous marriage that comes home on weekends. They welcomed us with freshly pureed banana juice, oriented us to the neighborhood, and set us up with guides to explore the mountains and tips for where to visit. We headed out into town after that, with an imposing chain of round-topped, tree covered mountains in front of us. The four of us ended up wandering down a dirt path into a tobacco farm, where farmers were harvesting their leaves and tending to a calf that had been born a few days before. Then we headed down to the other end of town to find the botanical gardens, which came highly recommended, but no one in the town knew about. After getting directions from two school children, an oxen cart driver and a lady at a bus stop (also being the klutz that I am and running straight into a bench and bruising my leg pretty badly), we found the gardens behind a gate covered in halved grapefruit and oranges and bananas on a string. Oh…and there was also the doll head fence toppers and baby doll scarecrows, both would have scared off any bird or intruder…it was crazy. The gardens ended up being very nice, some beautiful flowers and views of the Mongote mountains, and a plate of fresh fruit at the end of the path. We headed back to the house for sunset, where we sat on the flat roof and got to see “el puesto del sol” with a full view of the mountain range and the oranges and bright yellows of the sunset. That was definitely a memorable experience and made for some great pictures. We headed down to the best Cuban dinner so far, of fried fish, tomato and bean soup, rice, plantain chips, tomatoes, cabbage, pineapple, grapefruit, papaya, bread, and mojitos. It was sooo good and the four of us polished it off. After that, we planned out the rest of the weekend, tried to motivate ourselves to go out, but with a lack of an idea of where to go and being exhausted, we crashed.
The next day, we were greeted by freshly harvested and ground coffee, eggs, bread and guava jelly, pineapple juice, pineapple and grapefruit for breakfast. We then had the chance to learned how to make the coffee from Margarita’s mom, Clara, who was about 75 and had an electric personality that became made us excited about whatever she was doing or talking about. So she showed us how to roast the beans, how to know when they’re done, then the proper way to let them cool, how to grind them by hand and the way to brew the coffee in a cast iron pot. All of it was interesting and I bought a pound of the final product to let you all sample! After that, we grabbed some peso snacks and were picked up by our guide, who led us to his house and saddled each of us on a horse. Of course, I got the little one, named Luciero. We headed into the valley between the line of mountains that are visible from the village and the strip parallel to them, where the caves are located. We road through tobacco, sugar cane, corn, coffee and banana fincas, each one a bit different from the next and got to see some amazing views of the mountain range. After riding for a bit, and occasionally racing each other, we visited a campesino, or combination farmer/rancher/cowboy, who invited us into his home and showed us his land. We began by processing raw sugar cane through a machine called a trapiche, similar to a rotating press, which extracted sugar juice from the cane. The guides and four of us each got a cup, then were given a splash of rum and grapefruit juice to make the drink one of the best I have ever had. After that, we got to try a hand harvested and made cigar, of tobacco and guava leaves, honey, rum and sugar. The combination was really good and I picked some up for you guys at home. After trying out the trapiche and machete to process the sugar cane and hearing about the crops, we headed into the mountains toward the caves. We road through a tobacco field and saw the drying process, over a wooden bridge, and arrived at the cave. We left the horses outside and headed into the pitch dark with lanterns, wandering through stalactites and stalagmites and hearing the ecological history of the cave system. We reached the end of the cave and were guided to a swimmable lake! We had our bathing suits on, so we jumped in and explored the cave that way! It was chilly, but refreshing since it was about 90 out on the horses. The water was over my head for most of the way, but toward the end, it became shallower and the lake ended in a mud pit! Supposedly the mud has healing powers, which may or may not be true, but it made for a great mud fight regardless. We swam back and headed out of the cave for our ride back with the horses. The way back was more a chance to see the incredible views of the mountains and ride fast on the horses than visit the sites, so it was a different way to see the same path that we had taken into the valley. The tour ended and we headed back to our casa particular for showers (hot water!!!! The first since I’ve been here!) and the food that we had brought to make our own dinner. We headed out to a salsa and reggaeton party on the town central square, but that ended pretty quickly when one of my friends started feeling sick and it didn’t seem to be a quick fix. We headed back to the casa with her and Margarita’s family was great in helping us take care of her, calling a doctor and everything to make sure that she would be ok. She started feeling a bit better around midnight and fell asleep, so we all got some rest and waited it out until the morning.
I had breakfast early in the am, of bread and honey, coffee, pineapple juice and eggs, then we all packed up before our bus and headed out for one last walk around the town to get everyone some fresh air and recoup from the night before. We ended up walking down a random dirt path again, on the opposite end of town than before, and found a campesino and his family walking just a head of us. I asked him where a coffee finca was and he guided us there, showed us around each crop, explained their growing season and profit (**side note**-1 seasonal harvest of tobacco for about an acre of land is only paid 10.50 CUC by the state, so that is either all the family can live on for a year, or they have to expand their property or diversify crops, yet each cigar made from that tobacco costs 10 CUC and only requires ½ of the leaves from one plant) After our tour of the crops, he showed us a day old baby goat, which was adorable, showed us his drying house for tobacco leaves and rolled us each a cigar from his plants. It was such an unexpected morning, but turned out to be my favorite part of the trip. We paid him 60 pesos for his help and the look on his face was unforgettable, just absolutely ecstatic and thankful. It was all we had, the equivalent of $3, but he was so happy…it was an incredible moment. We headed back to our house and said our goodbyes, exchanging contact info to keep in touch, then went to the bus station for our 2 o’clock bus back to Havana. I passed for 11 for the kids fare (yea yea yea, but hey! It was ½ price!) and we wound our way back through the Cuban countryside back to Havana just in time for dinner!
The end of my Viñales story. Look up at the next blog for more stories from the week. New pictures are being posted!
Sunday, March 9, 2008
Sunday, February 24, 2008
February 24th!
Happy February 24th to all! Not only is today the announcement of the election results in Cuba, but it is also the day that their War for Independence began in 1895 (Spanish-Cuban-American War). So today means many things to Cubans.
The election results will be announced at 2 and the country is awaiting the news. Although, similar to Tuesday, today seems to be a typical day in Havana without much overt excitement or tension. (Just joking…apparently the announcement time changed to 6:00, I guess even presidential election results don’t follow a schedule here!)
This morning, I headed to the Palacio de Convenciónes (Convention Center) in Miramar, where the Asemblea Nacional was meeting to elect the republic’s next President and Commander in Chief, as well as the new second in command. I caught a maquina (taxi car from the 50s) to Miramar with Susan, Robin and Matt and was able to have an interesting conversation with the driver and another passenger. I asked them if many people were going to the Palacio to observe the elections and what they thought would unfold today. I was told that the Palacio would be busy, but they didn’t transport many people there, and that although today is historic, they weren’t too anxious to hear the result. The passenger was quiet, but at one point spoke up, saying, “Esto es que el Comandante ordene”-this is what the Commandante (Fidel) ordered, as in he has said a all along that he wants Raúl to be his successor and that is what will transpire. That seems to be the consensus around here- why be excited when we know what will happen? It’s more of an emotion of retaining the status quo, whether that individually means something positive or negative, rather than viewing things from the big picture that this is a new era in the revolution. The four of us tried to get into the area around the Convention Center, or even inside if possible, but the police were less than flexible about security today. We tried almost everything, but in the end were denied and ended up hanging out in the parking lot where the invited diplomat’s parked. It ended up being a good place to camp out since we got to see all of the countries that were invited and talk to their chauffeurs about what was going on inside. Then we walked down the street for one final attempt to get in and ended up talking to one of the head security officers from the Ministry of the Interior for about an hour. It was an amazing conversation about the electoral process, conditions in Cuba (he had a very favorable view), political freedoms and events at the Convention Center. He was very proud that Cuban citizens are able to choose their representatives, even though they are all within one party, that they are there to represent their constituents and the issues, rather than being career politicians and that those factors would combine to create the best possible government this afternoon.
After the conversation, we headed back to Vedado and had another good conversation with our taxi driver. Unlike most other Cubans that I’ve talked to, he had many opinions about what he hoped would happen today. Rather than the Raúl Castro/Carlos Lage pair that seemed to be popular, he wanted to see Felipe Pérez, Fidel´s former Chief of Staff, elected as President, and really doesn’t like Lage. So that was interesting to hear, especially as some of his comments could have easily been considered as dissidence and we were riding in a state owned taxi. When we got back, I went out in search of a newspaper and any events surrounding the election. Unfortunately there wasn’t much to report on, as life has been continuing on as usual within the changing political environment. I learned that Sunday papers are combined with the Monday papers because the Correo (postal) workers don’t work on Sundays, so that’s always helpful to know. Other than that, people were listening to music, playing basketball and baseball, doing chores and watching the tv for results. I tried to get the opinions of some of the people on the street, but couldn’t get too many people to stop or if they did, to say something in public about the election. I’ll try for more tonight after there is some closure to the election process and people can react rather than predict.
So, election results were just announced and Raul Castro is officially the President and Machado is the Vice President. He was a name that didn’t come up much, so I’ll do some research and post more details mid week. I video taped the announcement and hopefully I can post it soon! Stay tuned!
The election results will be announced at 2 and the country is awaiting the news. Although, similar to Tuesday, today seems to be a typical day in Havana without much overt excitement or tension. (Just joking…apparently the announcement time changed to 6:00, I guess even presidential election results don’t follow a schedule here!)
This morning, I headed to the Palacio de Convenciónes (Convention Center) in Miramar, where the Asemblea Nacional was meeting to elect the republic’s next President and Commander in Chief, as well as the new second in command. I caught a maquina (taxi car from the 50s) to Miramar with Susan, Robin and Matt and was able to have an interesting conversation with the driver and another passenger. I asked them if many people were going to the Palacio to observe the elections and what they thought would unfold today. I was told that the Palacio would be busy, but they didn’t transport many people there, and that although today is historic, they weren’t too anxious to hear the result. The passenger was quiet, but at one point spoke up, saying, “Esto es que el Comandante ordene”-this is what the Commandante (Fidel) ordered, as in he has said a all along that he wants Raúl to be his successor and that is what will transpire. That seems to be the consensus around here- why be excited when we know what will happen? It’s more of an emotion of retaining the status quo, whether that individually means something positive or negative, rather than viewing things from the big picture that this is a new era in the revolution. The four of us tried to get into the area around the Convention Center, or even inside if possible, but the police were less than flexible about security today. We tried almost everything, but in the end were denied and ended up hanging out in the parking lot where the invited diplomat’s parked. It ended up being a good place to camp out since we got to see all of the countries that were invited and talk to their chauffeurs about what was going on inside. Then we walked down the street for one final attempt to get in and ended up talking to one of the head security officers from the Ministry of the Interior for about an hour. It was an amazing conversation about the electoral process, conditions in Cuba (he had a very favorable view), political freedoms and events at the Convention Center. He was very proud that Cuban citizens are able to choose their representatives, even though they are all within one party, that they are there to represent their constituents and the issues, rather than being career politicians and that those factors would combine to create the best possible government this afternoon.
After the conversation, we headed back to Vedado and had another good conversation with our taxi driver. Unlike most other Cubans that I’ve talked to, he had many opinions about what he hoped would happen today. Rather than the Raúl Castro/Carlos Lage pair that seemed to be popular, he wanted to see Felipe Pérez, Fidel´s former Chief of Staff, elected as President, and really doesn’t like Lage. So that was interesting to hear, especially as some of his comments could have easily been considered as dissidence and we were riding in a state owned taxi. When we got back, I went out in search of a newspaper and any events surrounding the election. Unfortunately there wasn’t much to report on, as life has been continuing on as usual within the changing political environment. I learned that Sunday papers are combined with the Monday papers because the Correo (postal) workers don’t work on Sundays, so that’s always helpful to know. Other than that, people were listening to music, playing basketball and baseball, doing chores and watching the tv for results. I tried to get the opinions of some of the people on the street, but couldn’t get too many people to stop or if they did, to say something in public about the election. I’ll try for more tonight after there is some closure to the election process and people can react rather than predict.
So, election results were just announced and Raul Castro is officially the President and Machado is the Vice President. He was a name that didn’t come up much, so I’ll do some research and post more details mid week. I video taped the announcement and hopefully I can post it soon! Stay tuned!
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
New Pictures!
Hello!
All is still well in Cuba, things are just as calm as yesterday and they seem to be remaining that way at least until Sunday´s election results. In the mean time, I was able to compress some pictures and post them on my flikr site at www.flikr.com/photos/tiny987 . Nothing too extraordinary, but they´re very representative of the normalcy in Havana. Hope that you enjoy them!
All is still well in Cuba, things are just as calm as yesterday and they seem to be remaining that way at least until Sunday´s election results. In the mean time, I was able to compress some pictures and post them on my flikr site at www.flikr.com/photos/tiny987 . Nothing too extraordinary, but they´re very representative of the normalcy in Havana. Hope that you enjoy them!
Tuesday, February 19, 2008
History in Cuba
Welcome to a changing Cuba! Today was an amazingly normal day in Havana despite its historic implications. This morning, Fidel announced in the Granma and Jovenetud Rebelde, two of the government´s newspapers in Cuba that he will not accept the position of President of Cuba or Commander in Chief in this Sunday´s election. He will retain his position as a member of Parliament and also will continue to write his reflections column in Cuban newspapers, so in those ways will keep active in politics and the revolution. In short, he will no longer be the head of state, Raul will take over that position, but he will remain an active member of the domestic politics through parliament, which in actuality may or may not be so active with his declining state of health.
I got this news at around noon and spent most of the rest of the day out on the streets of Havana, around the areas of the University (a political hub) and the Plaza of the Revolution, where the Communist Party headquarters and monuments to Che and Jose Martí are located. Unless you had read the newspaper, you probably would not have known that today was any different that yesterday or the days before that. People were working, going to school, taking the buses, just as they always do, maybe a few less people in the parks, but that´s about it. I expected both the University and the Plaza of the Revolution to be the most abuzz, since they almost always are with the political news, but they were low-key, operating status quo. I took tons of pictures, many with people reading the article, but little reaction.
In my opinion, there will be more reaction to the elections on Sunday and I think that that´s what many people are waiting for. The reason that today was chosen to announce Fidel´s resignation is unclear, but it leaves lot of speculation about what will happen this weekend, when Raul officially takes power and must choose his second in command. Many seem to feel like this has been coming for a while and that nothing drastic will change, but there will definitely be minor adjustments on their way. As for now, its business as usual until there´s further news.
On a note of optimism, at the close business today at 5, when the flags were at the Plaza of the Revolution, a rainbow appeared in the sky. Kind of crazy, yet a fitting ending to a historic day.
Didn´t get a chance to prepare a long update yet, but I´ll put one up over the weekend!
I got this news at around noon and spent most of the rest of the day out on the streets of Havana, around the areas of the University (a political hub) and the Plaza of the Revolution, where the Communist Party headquarters and monuments to Che and Jose Martí are located. Unless you had read the newspaper, you probably would not have known that today was any different that yesterday or the days before that. People were working, going to school, taking the buses, just as they always do, maybe a few less people in the parks, but that´s about it. I expected both the University and the Plaza of the Revolution to be the most abuzz, since they almost always are with the political news, but they were low-key, operating status quo. I took tons of pictures, many with people reading the article, but little reaction.
In my opinion, there will be more reaction to the elections on Sunday and I think that that´s what many people are waiting for. The reason that today was chosen to announce Fidel´s resignation is unclear, but it leaves lot of speculation about what will happen this weekend, when Raul officially takes power and must choose his second in command. Many seem to feel like this has been coming for a while and that nothing drastic will change, but there will definitely be minor adjustments on their way. As for now, its business as usual until there´s further news.
On a note of optimism, at the close business today at 5, when the flags were at the Plaza of the Revolution, a rainbow appeared in the sky. Kind of crazy, yet a fitting ending to a historic day.
Didn´t get a chance to prepare a long update yet, but I´ll put one up over the weekend!
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
Buenas!
Hi World!
It´s pesky me again. All is well here grand ole´ Cuba and I´m having a great time, keeping busy exploring outside of Habana for the first times. This weekend our group decided to shake ourselves out of some starting boredom by renting a beach house in a village about 25 kilometers outside of the city called Guanabo.
We traveled out on Friday afternoon after classes ended at 4 and caught a CUC taxi van for the ride. Everything got off to a smooth start until we got to the highway between the Habana Tunnel and Santa Maria beach (the beach that we usually go to). All of a sudden, there was a POP and the car started bumping around, forcing us over to the shoulder. Keep in mind that throughout all of this Cuban law is that cars have the right of way in all situations, so 12 Americans on the side of the road was a dangerously funny situation. Bottom line, it ended up being a flat tire, but made more exciting by Cuban solutions to the problem. First off, a lever operated lift was placed under the car, then a wooden block was placed in front of the popped tire. The driver then droved the car on to the 3 inch block of wood, lifted the car with the jack, then used a wrench to replace the tire. In reality, it wasn´t that unusual or exciting, but it was so much better because it was at the beginning of our trip and the wooden block was amazing. Oh….also, the minute we stepped out of the car, it started to rain and the second we got back in the car it stopped. It was just an overall make lemons into lemonade, laugh at the whole thing type of situation.
We got to Guanabo safely and settled into our houses. That was also a fun story. We still don´t have our passports back from the government so we have to rent casas particulares (guest housing) illegally from families. The one that we ended up renting was right next door to the Committee for the Defense of the Revolution, so that was an added twist to keeping our cover story intact. We bought tons of food and had great meals throughout the weekend like pork marinated in onions, garlic and tomatoes, rice with onions, scrambled eggs, fried rice and tomato salads (yes…guess what? These days i´m liking tomatoes and eggs. CRAZY!) Then after dinner, we went to the beach and walked and hung out there for a while. A few of us went crazy and decided to go for a swim in our clothes, which ended up being one of my favorite things of the weekend. The water was incredibly warm and the sky was full of bright stars and overall, lots of fun. After that, we headed home and I ended up scoring my own room with 2 beds and a bathroom all to myself. Saturday morning we slept in a bit, then had breakfast and headed to the beach at around 11. The water was a little chillier, but we all had a good time swimming, having chicken fights, tanning, reading and looking for shells (there are the most incredible shells here!) We headed back in between for lunch and dinner, which we ended up eating with the house owner and having some great conversations about life in Cuba and by the beach in Guanabo. Interesting side note, there were open sewers in the town which made for some interesting walks and treks back from the beach, unfortunately Lauren ended up contracting dysentery from swimming in the ocean with the sewage, but everyone else was fine. Saturday night we went out on the town, but didn´t end up finding much, so just walked around for a while, chatted on the beach, then hung out back at the house. Sunday morning was a torrential downpour, so we were stuck inside reading, playing Uno and Phase 10, and listening to Paul play his guitar. It ended up clearing around 1, which was just in time for us clean up and most headed home. Katie, Mary and I stuck back and closed up the house and took a bit to walk on the beach before going back to Havana. Our car never ended up coming, so we pulled a guy with a big car on the main street over and bargained with him to drive the three of us and 9 friends from Canada to Havana. We crammed in the back of his 50s van/wagon, avoiding police stops and laughing about the crazy times of the weekend.
Monday we had 2 block classes, history and international relations, which were interesting and have diverged from each other luckily, but I still need to build up my attention span. In history, we´re learning about the Cuban 1868 War for Independence, la Guerra Chiquita in 1879 and the Spanish-American-Cuban War for Cuban Independence in 1895. The facts here are quite different from those in US schools to say the least, but its interesting to hear another side of the story. In IR, we´re talking about the change in Cuban diplomatic relations after the Triumph of the Revolution (1959) in terms of both Cuban diplomats being received abroad and foreign diplomats being received in Cuba. After class, Mike, Mary and I had a great walk around some of the back roads from the University back to ANAP and found some very pretty tile and nice houses. Night time was pretty calm, just hung around the house.
Tuesday was our day off from classes, so Mary and I decided to explore new areas of Havana. We got our student ID cards laminated on Calle Lazaro by finding a little sign on the top of a door, ringing the door bell, having a beach bucket lowered to our level, placing the ID and 10 pesos in the bucket, watching the bucket go back up to the roof, waiting across the street at a church, then having the bucket lowered again with the finished product. Now that´s Cuba if I ever had to give a single example. After that we went down toward Habana Vieja and saw a lot of Cuban life outside of the tourist sector, where everything was in Cuban pesos and the residents were operating within the given restrictions, like assigned housing and limited material resources. It was a definite eye-opener, but something that was great to see and start to get a sense of. After that we stumbled upon the Casa de Musica, the Cuban equivalent of the House of Blues and got their schedule. We walked back along the Malecón after that back home to ANAP, I did laundry in a bucket, then headed to the Ministry of Foreign Relations for a formal meeting with them and the visiting representatives from AU. The head of AU Abroad, Vice Provost and a Dean and professor on Cuba and our group heard about Cuba´s relations the world, especially the US, straight from the source. It was a great meeting and got to hear some interesting perspectives and views on the future. After that, we had a huge feast at ANAP with 2 turkeys, beans and rice, tomatoes, cucumbers, cabbage, fruit cocktail pie, orange juice, malanga (potato) chips, fried rice, grapefruit and oranges. It was AMAZING! Then we had a meeting with the AU delegation about our program and how everything was going, a few new precautions, but pretty much good reports on all accounts!
Today we went on a bus tour or the architecture of Havana. We got to see some really nice examples of the different time periods and could get access to museums that would have otherwise had an entrance fee. Then we had the buss for an additional 4 hours after the tour ended, so we tried to go to the beach, but got caught in some rain, so we headed inland to Guanabacoa and ended up exploring there. It was raining and dirty at the beginning, but then we found a dominoes social club that invited us in and gave us lessons on how to improve our game. We played with them for about an hour until we had to get back on the bus and had a great time. When we got home, I played baseball with my 10 year old friend, Yoel, and his older brother that works at ANAP, Javier. Baseball is like second nature to the kids here, there are things that would take people years to learn, but here it´s almost instinctual. After that was dinner time and now I´m here at the internet!
One other crazy update, I found out that the Cuban Olympic Committee is right next door to our residence and I got an interview to work with them or help out around the office. Right now it looks like I might even be with the President of the Committee…sweet! I´ll keep you all updated!
That´s about it for now! I´ll post again soon!
-Jen
It´s pesky me again. All is well here grand ole´ Cuba and I´m having a great time, keeping busy exploring outside of Habana for the first times. This weekend our group decided to shake ourselves out of some starting boredom by renting a beach house in a village about 25 kilometers outside of the city called Guanabo.
We traveled out on Friday afternoon after classes ended at 4 and caught a CUC taxi van for the ride. Everything got off to a smooth start until we got to the highway between the Habana Tunnel and Santa Maria beach (the beach that we usually go to). All of a sudden, there was a POP and the car started bumping around, forcing us over to the shoulder. Keep in mind that throughout all of this Cuban law is that cars have the right of way in all situations, so 12 Americans on the side of the road was a dangerously funny situation. Bottom line, it ended up being a flat tire, but made more exciting by Cuban solutions to the problem. First off, a lever operated lift was placed under the car, then a wooden block was placed in front of the popped tire. The driver then droved the car on to the 3 inch block of wood, lifted the car with the jack, then used a wrench to replace the tire. In reality, it wasn´t that unusual or exciting, but it was so much better because it was at the beginning of our trip and the wooden block was amazing. Oh….also, the minute we stepped out of the car, it started to rain and the second we got back in the car it stopped. It was just an overall make lemons into lemonade, laugh at the whole thing type of situation.
We got to Guanabo safely and settled into our houses. That was also a fun story. We still don´t have our passports back from the government so we have to rent casas particulares (guest housing) illegally from families. The one that we ended up renting was right next door to the Committee for the Defense of the Revolution, so that was an added twist to keeping our cover story intact. We bought tons of food and had great meals throughout the weekend like pork marinated in onions, garlic and tomatoes, rice with onions, scrambled eggs, fried rice and tomato salads (yes…guess what? These days i´m liking tomatoes and eggs. CRAZY!) Then after dinner, we went to the beach and walked and hung out there for a while. A few of us went crazy and decided to go for a swim in our clothes, which ended up being one of my favorite things of the weekend. The water was incredibly warm and the sky was full of bright stars and overall, lots of fun. After that, we headed home and I ended up scoring my own room with 2 beds and a bathroom all to myself. Saturday morning we slept in a bit, then had breakfast and headed to the beach at around 11. The water was a little chillier, but we all had a good time swimming, having chicken fights, tanning, reading and looking for shells (there are the most incredible shells here!) We headed back in between for lunch and dinner, which we ended up eating with the house owner and having some great conversations about life in Cuba and by the beach in Guanabo. Interesting side note, there were open sewers in the town which made for some interesting walks and treks back from the beach, unfortunately Lauren ended up contracting dysentery from swimming in the ocean with the sewage, but everyone else was fine. Saturday night we went out on the town, but didn´t end up finding much, so just walked around for a while, chatted on the beach, then hung out back at the house. Sunday morning was a torrential downpour, so we were stuck inside reading, playing Uno and Phase 10, and listening to Paul play his guitar. It ended up clearing around 1, which was just in time for us clean up and most headed home. Katie, Mary and I stuck back and closed up the house and took a bit to walk on the beach before going back to Havana. Our car never ended up coming, so we pulled a guy with a big car on the main street over and bargained with him to drive the three of us and 9 friends from Canada to Havana. We crammed in the back of his 50s van/wagon, avoiding police stops and laughing about the crazy times of the weekend.
Monday we had 2 block classes, history and international relations, which were interesting and have diverged from each other luckily, but I still need to build up my attention span. In history, we´re learning about the Cuban 1868 War for Independence, la Guerra Chiquita in 1879 and the Spanish-American-Cuban War for Cuban Independence in 1895. The facts here are quite different from those in US schools to say the least, but its interesting to hear another side of the story. In IR, we´re talking about the change in Cuban diplomatic relations after the Triumph of the Revolution (1959) in terms of both Cuban diplomats being received abroad and foreign diplomats being received in Cuba. After class, Mike, Mary and I had a great walk around some of the back roads from the University back to ANAP and found some very pretty tile and nice houses. Night time was pretty calm, just hung around the house.
Tuesday was our day off from classes, so Mary and I decided to explore new areas of Havana. We got our student ID cards laminated on Calle Lazaro by finding a little sign on the top of a door, ringing the door bell, having a beach bucket lowered to our level, placing the ID and 10 pesos in the bucket, watching the bucket go back up to the roof, waiting across the street at a church, then having the bucket lowered again with the finished product. Now that´s Cuba if I ever had to give a single example. After that we went down toward Habana Vieja and saw a lot of Cuban life outside of the tourist sector, where everything was in Cuban pesos and the residents were operating within the given restrictions, like assigned housing and limited material resources. It was a definite eye-opener, but something that was great to see and start to get a sense of. After that we stumbled upon the Casa de Musica, the Cuban equivalent of the House of Blues and got their schedule. We walked back along the Malecón after that back home to ANAP, I did laundry in a bucket, then headed to the Ministry of Foreign Relations for a formal meeting with them and the visiting representatives from AU. The head of AU Abroad, Vice Provost and a Dean and professor on Cuba and our group heard about Cuba´s relations the world, especially the US, straight from the source. It was a great meeting and got to hear some interesting perspectives and views on the future. After that, we had a huge feast at ANAP with 2 turkeys, beans and rice, tomatoes, cucumbers, cabbage, fruit cocktail pie, orange juice, malanga (potato) chips, fried rice, grapefruit and oranges. It was AMAZING! Then we had a meeting with the AU delegation about our program and how everything was going, a few new precautions, but pretty much good reports on all accounts!
Today we went on a bus tour or the architecture of Havana. We got to see some really nice examples of the different time periods and could get access to museums that would have otherwise had an entrance fee. Then we had the buss for an additional 4 hours after the tour ended, so we tried to go to the beach, but got caught in some rain, so we headed inland to Guanabacoa and ended up exploring there. It was raining and dirty at the beginning, but then we found a dominoes social club that invited us in and gave us lessons on how to improve our game. We played with them for about an hour until we had to get back on the bus and had a great time. When we got home, I played baseball with my 10 year old friend, Yoel, and his older brother that works at ANAP, Javier. Baseball is like second nature to the kids here, there are things that would take people years to learn, but here it´s almost instinctual. After that was dinner time and now I´m here at the internet!
One other crazy update, I found out that the Cuban Olympic Committee is right next door to our residence and I got an interview to work with them or help out around the office. Right now it looks like I might even be with the President of the Committee…sweet! I´ll keep you all updated!
That´s about it for now! I´ll post again soon!
-Jen
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