Study Travel in Cuba -- the Beginning

On the steps of the chapel at SET 

Our journey in Cuba has begun. My daughter Emma and I arrived on January 8 in Matanzas, Cuba where we are spending three months. I am studying at the 'seminario evangelico de teología de Matanzas' (SET) which is the protestant seminary here in Cuba, and Emma will be going to the local school. The other half of our family, David and Alan, are planning a visit in mid-February.

Emma and David walk down the path at SET (in February
when David visited)

Our first week here was a week of getting oriented and settling in. Our "apartamento" has two bedrooms (with two beds in each), a hotplate and fridge and a bathroom (but no toilet seat, Emma would want you to know). We have an awesome porch with a view of Mantanzas Bay. We needed to spend some time figuring out how to equip our kitchen with plates, cups, glasses, cutlery etc...( it takes half a day to find some pots and another half day to look for forks and not to find them!). Everyday things in life are not easy. But the people are warm and helpful and we are making friends...spending lots of time hanging out with people. For the first two weeks we ate all our meals with the students, except on the weekends.

While many basic things are hard to come by (like a pot) and quite expensive when you finally find them, the fruits and vegetables are wonderful, especially to us Canadians arriving from our winter. We so enjoyed the papaya from the market! Vegetables grow here at the seminary and we can buy the most fantastic yogurt from a neighbour. The food in the dining room is very simple - bread and milk for breakfast, rice and beans and salad (lettuce and cabbage) and some kind of protein at the other meals. Simple but good and in the company of a lovely group of students and workers.

Our balcony

Emma plans to start school next week - on Tuesday, when we get back from Havana. It goes from 8 to 4:40 (or maybe it starts at 7:30, we're not sure).

We're making lots of friends. Our neighbours Jesus and Marielys have been very kind. Also Yohanes and Mariela, who have two kids - Daniela (9) and Elias (12) - Emma plays with them alot and she is picking up Spanish like a sponge. In a way the delay to start school has been good, because it gives her time to learn a little more Spanish.

My Studies

Emma in the Plaza de la Libertad in Matanzas,
outside the Pharmaceutical Museum where
Mendez rehearsals and teaches.

I have started my classes. I'm working with one of the country's leading choral conductors, José Antonio Méndez, two times a week! I'm also singing with the local Ecumenical choir. I am also doing a sacred music course remotely and completing a course on liberation theology and postcolonial theologies. Emma and I are both taking Spanish classes as well.ons ran very

As part of my studies for the liberation theology course, I will investigate the flourishing of Cuban hymnody immediately in the years after the revolution. Apparently that was quite a creative and energetic time, and people are still around to tell the story.

In Havana with Mario Emma and Becca enjoy a game of baseball on TV.

A few snapshots:

Baseball Game - Matanzas is in the playoffs so we all set off. The stadium was packed - everyone sits on concrete seatscand emotions ran very high. It was noisy and boisterous and full of spirit like I have never experienced. The players were all really good. Then the rain that had been threatening started to come down (with lightening and thunder) and eventually everyone tried to leave at the same time! We walked home through the rain, bought some fresh bread to enjoy on the way back with our new friends.

A magician performs for school children in Guamacaro.

Insects - there are many and some are big! The ants got into our peanuts the first day. I have also had to kill two large (the size of three or four loonies) black spiders! Plus we killed two scorpions in our apartment.

Néstor is the professor of Hebrew here. He speaks with a Sephardic accent and learned it from his neighbours in Havana, at Emma's age. Passionate about it, he continued to study on his own and now teaches here, while completing his Master's degree.

At night we are often lulled to sleep by Afro-Cuban drumming and singing in houses where they practice Afro-Cuban religions, just below where the seminary is located.

Emma has been teaching people how to "break" their noses with raw spaghetti. [chewing on it, while you bend your nose, try this at home, as it's fun]
Last week we visited an art project in the country. A group of famous artists went and each one worked with a class.

A view of the Bay from the roof of our building.

Reflection:
This is week of prayer for Christian Unity. Next Monday there is an Ecumenical Service for the city of Matanzas at the Catholic church. Tuesday, they'll be a service here at the (protestant) seminary. The preacher is a local Catholic priest. Wednesday there is another service at the Anglican church. Issues of ecumenism, unity (amidst diversity), and solidarity are articulated frequently in sermons here (there are daily chapel services at the seminary) and people work very hard together. They do not have the luxury to do anything else. People share what they have - be it food, forks, pots, coffee, or song - out of necessity, and perhaps, love. The other word that I hear a lot is 'convivir' which is translated literally as living together or co-existing. My sense from the context is that it means more than that - at least to the students here at the seminary - it has an intentionality inherent in it - a 'solidarity' and caring for each other. It is impossible to separate this 'convivir' and 'solidaridad' from the real, hard circumstances of life here in Cuba. And I'm not saying that people don't sometimes act out of their own self-interest. However, there is most definitely a keener awareness of each other, of all of our needs, sorrows, and joys. What kind of lessons can I (we?) learn from that?