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!