Friends

Becca at a Conducting Lesson

With Marielys, Elisa (Prof of English),
Daniela and Elias

Emma with Luis, our Spanish teacher

Becca with Yosneis and Chuchi

With Elias, Mariela, Daniela, and Yohanes.
e got the giggles and couldn't get a shot without someone's eyes being closed.

Becca with Mendez and Yvette

Emma and Lourdes (Leonel's mum)

Emma and Mamita in the comedor

Prof Ham and Elisa and Yosneis

Profs Spindler, Montoya, Molina
and Orestes (don't know his last name.

Emma with Cuchi and Artist Manuel Ochoa

The kids at Betsy's birthday

Emma's first meal, prepared for Yanike and Rolando.

Yanike and Rolando (above)
With Daylins (below)

An Episcopalian meal!

At Varadero Beach with Yosneis and Leandro.

With Margot.

With Leonel and Tina on our balcony.

Leaving

On our balcony on the day of departure
with neighbours Jesus and Marielys

Preparing to leave is like preparing to arrive...there is a kind of savouring of every moment, every interchange, every friend - trying to burn it into my memory. There is also a 'looking forward to'. Of course I am so looking forward to seeing family, especially David and Alan. I am also looking forward to having greater capacity from being in my own culture and language. I am looking forward to seeing friends and walking in Toronto, to eating familiar food, to being in my own kitchen and house, to springtime.

Daniela, Emma, and Elias at our farewell party

But I never like leaving. I never like endings. We have been welcomed here and loved here. Our three months have seemed a long time and yet they have flown by. We can communicate pretty decently in Spanish now (Emma has a remarkable Cuban accent!) and we have shared our lives for a brief while with the SET community. We will really really miss our friends here. Thank goodness for email! We have both learned so much about Cuban life and culture and have been forever changed.

Everyone gathers to bit us farewell. 

Saying Goodbye

I am so grateful for the educational opportunities I have had here -- to study with Maestro Mendez, to research the development of Cuban hymnody after the revolution, to complete a course in Sacred Music from Matanzas (what an interesting perspective) and to sing both the the SET choir and in the Ecumenical Choir. Thanks to all of my professors:  Maestro Mendez,  Reinerio Arce and Néstor Medina, Fred Graham, and  Lori-Ann Dolloff (as well as Luis, our Spanish teacher) for making it all work. Thanks to Yanike Hanson for her leadership with the SET choir. And thanks to all the people who gave me advice and had conversations with me along the way. What a rich experience!

I'm grateful as well for the support of Emma's involvement at the seminary. It was such a good experience of community life for her that she is trying to convince me that we should live at the University of Toronto now.

I am also grateful for the food we ate in the comedor and from the garden and for all the staff at the Seminary.

So, I'll close off now, knowing that the next and last blog entry will be a bunch of photos of friends.

Here's the Easter morning sunrise!

Easter Sunday

The cross on the basketball court as the sun rises

At the seminary on Easter Sunday, there is an Ecumenical sunrise service. This tradition began in 1944 and is a big deal in Matanzas. At 5:30 am buses begin to collect people from the various churches in the city. We showed up at 6:15 (after rolling out of bed) and squeezed in. There were 500 people there.

(It was hard to get up as we had spent the previous evening at the house of my conducting teacher. We were excited to finally get to travel by horse and cart which in Matanzas is not a tourist ploy, but one of the many creative ways of getting around).

The dancers interpret  hymn "Tenemos Esperanza".

Everyone overlooks the basketball court where the service happens. As we listen to readings, pray and sing, the sun rises over the horizon.

On this occasion, there was a group of youth who danced - a project of the Kairos Centre - an ecumenical centre housed in the Baptist church.

Rector Reinerio Arce preached a sermon about hope and we finished off by dancing a big spiral dance to a Venezuelan song.

It was wonderful - a very fitting closure for a wonderful three month stay.

In the moment right after the dance.

Lately, people have been asking repeatedly when we are leaving. Thursday is coming so very fast!!

Just as the dance was breaking up nine year old Daniela tapped us on the shoulders. I anticipated the missing-ness of leaving and my eyes filled up (as my half Irish father would say).

After the service we all filed over to the comedor for hot chocolate and a biscuit.

Sunlight streams onto the basketball court after the service.

I spent the rest of the day finishing up my school work and starting to prepare for leaving. Emma wandered about squeezing in as many visits as possible.

Two more saints...

Ysamin, Lourdes, Becca, Nancy, Mario and Bill

Two more saints...sadly

The week before Palm Sunday, we received the sad and sudden news that husband of our friend Lourdes (the mother of our Cuban-Canadian friend, Leonel) had died suddenly of a heart attack. In Cuba, when someone dies, there is no time wasted (there is no embalming and no ice to preserve the body) so burial happens within 24 hours. By the time we heard about his death, Mario was already buried.

Lourdes and Mario with Emma

We so enjoyed knowing Mario and will treasure the memory of our time getting lost in Old Havana with him, eating chocolate at the Chocolate museum and looking for churros (doughnuts).

Lee on his porch in 2011

Then on the Tuesday after Easter, I got a text message from Alan that his brother Lee had died. Lee was 52. He had lived with diabetes for a long time. A work accident in which he broke his back some ten years ago exacerbated his poor health. We felt very far away indeed. Due to David's illness, he cannot travel to the USA - a hospitalization would be prohibitively expensive for us (and our travel

insurance would not cover it). So, the day we travelled back to Canada, Alan travelled to Ohio to be with his family.

Now that we are back in Toronto, I remember Lee in all the kindnesses of ordinary life - the bowls we use daily to prepare food and the HUGE tiger that sits on David's bed.

In Cuba, Emma helped me connect and grieve by bursting into tender hearted tears. We send all our love and prayers to Alan's family. 

Sunset on the way home from Havana.

Gratitude for Support

A cake celebrating our stay and Merlon's birthday, the day before our return to Canada.

At first when I had the idea to come to Cuba, many people said, “You want to study theology and music in Cuba...really?!” Well...here I am!

And I am here thanks to the people and organizations who have supported me, who have believed in this project.

I want to pause and say “thank you!” Last week we had a chapel meditation on being light for the world as we walked the Labyrinth. I am here walking for a while with my Cuban sisters and brothers, just as they are walking with me. Sometimes the pathway is complicated, but we keep on walking. I try to hold in my heart the spirit of generosity that has enabled us to be here so that I might pass it on, here, and when I get back to Canada.

To all the folks at Emmanuel College at the University of Toronto, thank you! Thank you for believing in the idea of a formal exchange with the seminary in Matanzas. Thank you for putting up with my plans and the enormous change of plans that was necessary when David got sick. Thanks to Fred and Michael for working with me to shape an academic plan. Thanks to Wanda for dealing with all the administrative complexities. Thank you for financial support. Above all, thank you for believing in the rich rewards of intercultural experience and education.

To the Anglican church – thank you! Thanks especially to Bishop Patrick Yu who was the first person to get behind the project. Your vote of confidence and your financial support helped me believe that it would indeed be possible. Thanks for believing in the importance of music leadership in the church – a music leadership that is vital and relevant, partnering with other forces in the church for a vibrant future. Thanks also to the National Church who also supported my vision.

Thank you to the Evangelical Theological Seminary of Matanzas for making this project happen. I especially appreciate the support of David and Alan’s visit and the circle of angels who looked after David (and me) when a stay in the hospital became necessary.

Thank you to my professors both in Canada and here in Cuba.

Thank you to my own community of Holy Trinity Anglican church who have nurtured my thinking and given me the freedom to take a study leave for my own benefit and hopefully for the benefit of the wider church. So many friends have walked with me for this and many other journeys.

Thanks especially to my friends and family who have supported me along the way, even when they think I’m a bit crazy to be doing what I’m doing. Thank you especially to Alan who’s enthusiastic support and willingness to stay at home and be with our son David made this journey possible at all. Thank you also to David – you are so brave and strong!! Thank you for looking after your Dad while I’ve been gone. I am so glad you both got to visit. We’ll be home soon – I can hardly wait to see you!! Thank you to Emma who is just the best travel companion there is.

Thank you to all our friends here in Cuba. My heart fills with a tender nostalgia when I anticipate how I will miss you. Thank you for opening your homes and hearts to us. A little part of us will stay here with you!

Good Friday in Varadero

The path from CESERSE to the beach!

Good Friday

This year, because of the Pope's visit, Cubans were granted a holiday on Good Friday. We took advantage of the day off school and the fact that I didn't have to work at a church, to go to Varadero with Yohanes, Mariela, Daniela and Elias. Riding there and a back in a converted truck, we parked ourselves on the beach beside the Presbyterian Casa (CESERSE) which offers hospitality to tourists in the winter and a variety of programs for those in need in the summer (seniors without family, kids with disabilities, kids with cancer etc...) We had a fabulous lunch there and also enjoyed Mariela's amazing cake on the beach - as well as all kinds of other treats.

Elias, Yahanes, Mariela, and Daniela
Elias and Daniela were Emma's main Spanish teachers!

We all spent too much time in the water and got a little sun burnt, but it was a glorious day!

We had to wait a while for the return trip (an hour) and rewarded ourselves with dishes of ice cream once back in Matanzas.

A note about transit in Cuba: There are taxis for tourists that can be pretty expensive ($25 to Varadero from Matanzas). The same car loaded with Cubans costs $1 per person. There is a bus system on a schedule (Viazul) for foreigners and Cubans that costs $6 and is pretty reliable. Then there are the buses and converted trucks that you get at the side of the road which cost 50 cents to Varadero and $1 to Havana. We travelled all these different ways depending on who were with and how quickly/reliably we needed to get somewhere. It may seem unfair that tourists get charged so much more, but then we don't earn $20 a month!

Becca and Emma relaxing!

More on double (and then some) economies: Official events and buildings often have two prices - for foreigners in convertible pesos and the same number in Cuban pesos for Cubans (1/25th the value). At first I bristled at this difference. But, I grew to accept it as a fair system. The two currencies in Cuba make life complicated A convertible peso is roughly equivalent to the Canadian dollar. There are 25 Cuban pesos (moneda nacional) per convertible peso. Most things are bought in Convertible pesos (CUCs) but fruits, vegetables, some restaurants, and stuff you buy on the street is all in moneda nacional.

Palm Sunday Weekend

The Baptist Church in Matanzas, all dressed up for a wedding.

On Saturday, we were very lucky to be invited to the wedding of one of the members of the Ecumenical Choir. She also asked me to play the piano for the entrance song. It was a simple and joyful occasion.

Haydee, Becca, and Santiago

We had supper with our friends Haydee and Santiago and got ready to go all together the next morning to a Palm Sunday service.

The congregation in Limonar

We left at 8am and travelled in the converted back of a truck to the Episcopal church in Limonar, about 45 minutes from Matanzas (using transit) in the countryside. Cubans with trucks have converted them into passenger vehicles by adding benches and a roof - fitting about 25 people (or more). The service there begins at 10am. A tiny church, there are about 25 members - all women. Professor Marienela de la Paz is the rector there in addition to teaching at the seminary. Professor Clara Ajo also attends there as does Santiago who assists as part of his responsibilities as a seminarian. The women were very warm and welcoming.


We travelled back the same way and spent most of the afternoon visiting with friends. I had a rehearsal and then Emma had a movie night with Yohanes, Mariela, Daniela, and Elias and I ate with our neighbours Jesus and Marielys.

The next week, being Holy Week, was quiet at the seminary as most seminarians go home for the week. I hunkered down with my final work and Emma continued with her studies.