a few things

Well I will try to write mini categories this week to cover more of what is going on.

Las Terrazas
    Two weeks ago we took a trip for our culture class to Las Terrazas about 45 minutes west of La Habana.  Las Terrazas is one of the communities built up after the 50's that they really got right.  It is a natural preserve and the architecture and community are built with the natural surroundings in mind.  It is a beautiful place.  We spent the first part of the day touring the main area, with a photographer from NYC who is friends with one of the directors at the foundation.  The town's population is about 1000.  And we ate at this vegetarian restaurant and it was a beautiful change in our normal diets, Speaking of our normal diets mainly consisting of sugar- some people are talking about dentistry needs…The community is actually very cool and we also noticed a good deal of roosters tied up with bare legs-seemingly good for cock fighting.  
    The second part of the afternoon we spent in a river with tiny waterfalls that has medicinal properties.  While, we had a lovely time relaxing and seeing Cubans relax, most of our entertainment came from our culture professor.  He is what one would stereotype a Cuban cultural man as, complete with personal heart felt philosophies and extremely tight pants.

Church and Rumba
    The next day two of my friends and I decided to try the United Methodist church closest to us.  I had been to a catholic church in the area before and the two compared are quite different.  We could hear the church from a few blocks away.  The services seem to start with a good deal of singing, which was super repetitive like all good church songs so I could pick up on it.  The church is also packed full of people and it is a decent sized place and in Cuba.  By in Cuba- I mean it is hot and humid!  And this was probably one of the hotter days we have been here; all in all we have been pretty lucky with weather, even though I am bracing myself as we move into summer.  (The power just went out in the hotel I am writing this, and my friends that are here and I did not bat an eyelash at the fact the power went out.  I think we are getting used to it here.  It happened in class the other day and our professor didn't miss a beat from her sentence.)  Anyway the church: So as people sat down, there are these three women who go around finding seats for everyone standing on the sides and on the back.  And they are diligent to their jobs the entire service as people leave.  It is also quite beautiful and quite Cuban as men leave their family to go stand on the side and give women their seats.  The rest of the service was equally as intense with people talking in tongues during prayer and arms raised.  At one point I thought people were taking about pocketbooks, but actually they were bibles of all shapes and sizes.  And the minister definitely had a fire to this evangelical congregation.  When enough people had sat down I could finally see the sign language interpreter in the front.  Everyone was very nice at church and then we had to go guzzle water after the experience.

Rumba
After church we meet two more of our friends on Callejon de Hamel aka the rumba alley.  And you know it when you get to it, because Salvador the artist and 'jefe' of the alley has painted the entire thing with quotes and designs and scenes.  In my mind it is worth going just for the street art, but every Sunday at 12 there is the rumba presentation.  And it s a great assortment of people, from the tourist who either only stay for the first half or by the second half start to assimilate into the group, to the performers that are there every week, and my personal favorites the two dancers that are kids, but are absolutely fantastic.  (We have actually been back the last few weeks and have started getting to know the regulars.  I got really excited last week, when Salvador came out to talk to some of the musicians last week.  I still have the US mentality that really important people are harder to find- but in reality here culture is a little different and closer so that more people relate.)  At rumba there are generally the two regular groups.  On is entirely made up of women, which is fabulous and the only group I have seen yet of all women.  According to my friend who knows lots about music, the main drummer (with the afro) has the best technique of all the drummers we have seen there.  And then the other group, where everyone just knows everyone and they pull in more traditional or religious aspects of Cuban culture.  They are big crowd pleasers and I generally dance around, without dancing too much, so I don't get pulled into dancing with someone I wouldn't want to.  I truly can't describe the energy in this e-mail.  But last semester sitting in my dorm room this is one of the things I romantically thought I would find in Cuba.  

Cojimar
I am going to skip over our trip to our Spanish teachers house in Cojimar (where Hemingway lived) but it was a glorious day and as I have the best sense of direction it generally revolves around everyone following me- I just really have an affinity for studying maps, that I think comes from my family.  She took us on a tour, we cooked with her in her house, met and interviewed her neighbor who had fought in the revolution and who showed us his goats two of which had been born moments before…(how was that for skipping over)

INTERNATIONAL WOMEN's DAY
You may wonder why I put that in all caps, but March 8th was a very good day in my life.  Mainly because the entire day I got to just say congratulations to every woman I saw on the street and they would say it back.  I mean it got a little annoying when our history professor said he had to take all the females questions first in class, because it was international women's day- but literally everyone recognized it.  It was just nice to openly share something in common all day.  And it is always nice to have something positive to talk to half the population about and the other half telling you congratulations.
    Beyond this, we had our second dance class that afternoon.  And dancing for an hour just puts you in a good mood.  Our instructors are four of the dancers in the contemporary dance troupe in Cuba and we rehearse in their rehearsal space in the National Theatre off the Revolutionary Plaza.  About 15 people out of the 26 students between the two groups are taking the class and it is just a humorous time.  It has gotten better sine our first two lessons. I can realize when I am doing something wrong, but my main problem is I don't always know how to make my body do it correctly.  Alas, I try and have a great time in-between.  The dancers are the sweetest people in the world, but they are also extremely good dancers.  We had the opportunity to go to one of the company's warm-ups and then some of us stayed form some rehearsing of dances with our culture class.  The warms up are done with live percussion and the singer who actually walks around all the dancers as they are stretching.  The music literally fills the space and not only could you feel all the music had to offer we were so much in the middle of it that I could feel the drummer's foot keeping time.  As it turns out seeing our dance instructors (who are our age) dance, one of them may be the best in the company and the best dancer I have ever seen.  Getting the experience to see the dancers less than a foot away from you at some points is also extremely powerful.  I think dance from now on will mainly be a let down.  It is also really interesting to think that they only have the space we use for dance even though they are some of the most famous dancers in Cuba.  I mean there is not even a mirror in the room, but those are the little things you have to think about in Cuba everyday.
    Back to March 8th.  I was on an extreme high from the day and then walking into our residence late for dinner I realize Carlos Alberto is back.  Carlos Alberto is one of my favorite people in Cuba and one of the guards at our residence.  I was so excited from the day and seeing him that I made him get up and hug me (the general greeting being a kiss on the cheek).  He had been gone for about a month and I had been complaining on and off about it.  Unfortunately he had been very sick, but he is better now and it was extreme icing on the cake to have him back that day.  He and the repairman I have decided are kind of like my Cuban uncles.
    That evening after looking into a very gaudy Beny More show that was just a little too fake for us Beny More fans, we spent the evening on the Malecon.  At first with a trumpet player and then with a Cuban who talked to us for hours about the differences between the US and Cuba.


I am going to cut myself off here as I have to go to dinner but there is always more to say… and next year remember how the greatness of international women's day.