Go, Go, Fidel...I mean, Gaza?

It’s been a pretty busy week, once again. The most interesting of the events so far had to be the Pro-Palestine rally that we attended at the Universidad de la Habana. We arrived to find a good-sized crowd, and were eager to hear what sorts of things were being said. It went along the lines of this, “Go Cuba, go Fidel, go Raul, boo U.S….and oh yeah, Israel is evil for what they’re doing in Gaza, go Palestine”. So mostly it was a state-staged event that had a lot more to do with keeping patriotism up and putting down the evil Yanquis than it did with actually demonstrating solidarity with another people. I figure that most of the people there were also aware of the farce, because the majority of the students our age seemed more into socializing and eating popcorn than being inspired by anti-imperialist fervor. Nonetheless, it was an interesting experience to see a Cuban rally for the first time after reading so much about them. Hopefully Fidel will be at the next one.

So the weather here in Havana has been intersting lately; apparently we are experiencing colder than normal temperatures. It has also been extremely windy, and the Malecon is constantly awash with waves, negating my plans to sunbathe after class. I’m sure it makes all of you in the colder climes of Pennsylvania and Boston so sad to hear that I am forced to wear long-sleeved T-shirts to stay warm.

One of the classes this week related to Cuban mental health practices. To sum it up, psychology and psychiatry here are informed by the theory that nurture has a lot to do with one’s current state of mind. We also talked about the ability to confront stress with reason and turn stress into a positive, motivating force. While the class was very theoretical, I enjoyed the philosophy behind it.

OMG Newsflash as I’m writing this, which is now the new most interesting thing this week. Last night, a bunch of us were going to go out with some Cuban guys that other girls in the group have already been hanging out with. As we left our apartment, we walked across the street to meet them all. Not 30 seconds after introductions, a swarm of about 10 or 15 other men came pouring out of the woodwork and the cracks in the street and surrounded us. It felt like a scene from West Side Story or something, and I wanted to start snapping my fingers. Only it was so sketchy that I didn’t. After a quick exchange between our guys and these new people, our guys told us that they’d be back in a minute. We spent about 20 minutes waiting on our stoop, before deciding “screw this”, what is going on. So we left and ended up at another club. HOWEVER, this morning Jose (Whitney’s friend) calls her and asks to talk to her in person to explain what happened. The result? The police arrested them. For no reason except being black (according to these guys). But no charges were actually pressed, and they spent a night in jail before being released this morning at 8 AM with no further consequences. This makes absolutely no sense and I honestly can’t figure it out. The weird thing is that many of the police that were there were also dark-skinned. It’s interesting because the official party line here is that racism isn’t a problem, but I don’t think that’s the actuality of the situation. We have a class on Cuban racial relations coming up soon, so hopefully I’ll have some follow-up information to this.

A few words about Cuban food. It is delicious. I don’t know if they put crack cocaine in it or what, but it’s addictive and I find myself wanting more five minutes after finishing dinner. This is what a typical meal schedule looks like for me:

Breakfast: assorted fresh fruits (pineapple, guava, and bananas are the usual), orange juice, coffee, and then a roll, onto which we can put any assortment of ham, cheese, eggs, butter, or tomatoes. Usually I take a banana to go, and eat it during our coffee break in class.

Lunch: Since it’s not provided here at the residencia, we usually forage whatever we can from street vendors for lunch. My two favorites are a stand right next to our house that makes ham sandwiches for less than US $0.10, or a little cafeteria halfway between school and home that puts together little takeout boxes of rice, tomatoes, slaw, sweet potato, and some sort of meat. This is also cheap, for maybe US #1.00. Delicious.

Dinner: Rice, beans, rolls, some sort of meat (usually chicken or beef but sometimes fish), beets, carrots, sometimes green beans, cole slaw, boniato (Cuban version of sweet potatoes). This is always topped off by dessert, whether it be ice cream, rice pudding, flan, or mago puree with cheese. Mmm.

Fourth meal: Sometimes you just can’t help it. Our fourth-meal of choice is a place called “Oportunidades” (opportunities). They make delicious fried chicken fillets and also croquets. Mmm. I have to say, at this point I don’t miss any sort of American food. The only thing I would add is avocados, which we might have eventually, they just aren’t in season right now.

We also spent some time discussing Santeria this week. I don’t want to repeat the lecture word for word, since it was three hours long, but it has to do with the idea that all of us are guided by different “divine energies”, or orishas (you could equate this to say guardian angels or saints in Christianity). Whether or not you are actually aware of the divine energy that guides you (that is to say, whether or not you become a practicant of Santeria and find out who your orisha is), they are present with you as you go throughout life. Becoming a practicant means that you actually tap into this divine energy with you, and then you can begin to change the future. That is to say, they believe that you can see the future or your destiny, and because you are aware of it, you can also do things to change it. The other thing is that with Santeria, there is not a proscribed set of rules, there is a certain code of ethics, and that’s it. Anyway, I’m pretty fascinated by the whole thing. In a few hours, we are going to our professor’s tambor, which is a type of ceremony to pay homage to an orisha. I can’t wait to go, both to compare it to the Haitian voodoo that I’ve seen, and to explore more about this religion in its own right.

Amanda

It's 2 in the morning and I really wish I was sleeping, but I can't until I write about this. OMG. So tonight, we were hanging out in the residencia, and Honorio, Danny, and I decided to go down to the gas station/liquor store to buy a few rum juiceboxes. Innocent enough. Well, we get there and were deciding which flavors to buy, when all of a sudden this Cuban girl starts talking to us, and tells us that we should just buy a small bottle of rum and some juice to go with it. Yes, this was the most economical option, and we had already thought of it. But we wanted the juiceboxes. But in the end, we ended up buying the rum anyway. So as we were walking out, this girl (Amanda) says to us, "oh, wait a minute". Now, this was after 1) she had already asked if Danny was the son of Honorio and myself, implying that we were old, 2) saying that Danny was 33 (we are all 22, so she was REALLY aging Honorio and I if we were the parents), and 3) told Honorio that he was fat. Anyway, she ends up coming with us to a little bar/food place next door. She won't let us talk to the waiters, telling us they will rip us off, and goes to get us some chicken (they charge her the same prices they charged us the other night anyway).

Next, as we open the rum, she starts telling Danny that he has lots of problems in his legs, and that she can't take his pulse through his veins the normal way "because he suffered some kind of trauma as a child". OMG. Tremendous medical advice- and she says that she's a doctor. So the whole time she's hitting in Danny, who is clearly not interested. She's touching him, offering massages, etc. The pollo is taking forever, so she goes to find out about it. In the meantime, this guy that works at a stand next to the bar walked by. He'd already met Danny a few nights ago, and whispered, "Hey Mex (Danny is Mexican), that girl is no good". Now, it's just Danny and I at the table at this point, and we both look at each other like WTF?!?! She comes back and we hear more crackpot medical advice. Then she starts asking us to buy a pack of cigarettes for her. We offered her the remains of a pack that we had on us. She declined, saying they were not the type that she preferred. Honorio responded by telling her that he doesn't usually drink rum either, but since that's what's here, that's what he drinks (beggars can't be choosy, as Danny told her). She didn't really like that, but drops the subject for a second. Finally, the chicken comes, so Honorio and I rip into it. She continues asking for cigarettes, and I have to say the guys have more balls than I do, because I probably would have given in. Since the guys are still denying her, she goes to ask other people at the bar for a cigarette. I soon see her talking to the cook and gesturing wildly towards our table. I alert Honorio (Danny was talking to someone at the stand next door, trying to find out more information about this girl), and as we are rapidly shoving rice, beans, and fried chicken down our throats, we have this intense debate about whether or not we should stay or run away (we'd already paid for the food, no worries). We keep saying "oh, we should go", yet continously eating and making no move to escape. Finally, she went in the bathroom, enough was enough, and we start sprinting towards our residencia across the street (thank God we never told her where we lived), grabbing a confused Danny on the way.

This was definitely my most bizarre experience so far. I don't even know how to describe it, and I need to think more about it before I can properly reflect, but I needed to write all this down immediately. All I can say is that I'm currently sitting on my balcony, in cold and windy weather, scared that somehow she'll know I'm in the penthouse of this building and all of a sudden come get me. And let me say, I've met lots of strange people in all my travels, but never had quite the same feeling as I got tonight.

My last reflections of the night are this: 1) I get lots of medical advice in other countries that I will feel free to never use. For instance, in DR I was told not to shower after eating or I would suffer a stroke. Here, hearing Amanda's advice to Danny convinced me that Cuban health care may not be as good as I thought, at least not if she's really a doctor..., and 2) Americans have lots of faults. I completely understand this. However, I also feel that as a population, Americans are not as pushy. At least, for me and the people that I am close to in the States, this is certainly true, but it's definitely not a universal thing in the world.

Time to sleep, but more comments on this at a later date.

Dale's Inspirations

Dale, I have to thank you again for your questions that inspire me to blog. One of the things you asked me was related to the price of food, which led me back to the topic of the blockade, and I just wanted to clarify for everyone exactly what's going on with the embargo (to be honest, I wasn't clear on this until I got here). It's not just the US that doesn't trade with Cuba. Being a serious tool, our country also let it be know that any country that trades with Cuba will be regarded as an unfriendly state. Also, the Helms-Burton bill says that any ship that makes port in Cuba is NOT allowed to come to the US within 6 months following their stop in Cuba. You can then follow the economic consequences of that to see how this would negatively effect other countries, because the US is a huge exporter. So yeah, this makes me angry. Why do we think we have the right to stop the trade other countries have with Cuba? Yes, we CAN do it, as in the ability to do it exists, but why do we think we can???

One other note, to balance this out politically. Most Cubans are pretty stoked about Obama winning the election- but not all. On our first bus ride (I don't know how I forgot to write aboutthis earlier) an old man asked Chelsea where we were from, and when she answered, he said "Obama, Obama". And she replied something along the lines of "Yeah, he won, isn't it great?" And the old man was actually unhappy, saying that "we'll all be hungry for 30 years". I wonder if that might have anything to do with the embargo being lifted, because while in the long run it will help the Cuban economy, I think it will have a very rough effect on Cuban individuals because they are used to prices that are being kept artificially low, and when the prices normalize after the embargo ends, I think that will produce some hard results here. But yeah, that's what's going on.

Description of Havana

Imagine some of the most gorgeous architecture that you’ve ever seen in your life. For those of you that have travelled to European nations, think of the Greek and Roman styles of building. The towering columns, the simplicity which is almost more overwhelming than an excess of detail. You could also think of the Spanish style, with a portico running around the second floor of a building. Then take these buildings, and put them together to form blocks. Imagine some of the buildings on wide, sweeping avenues, with a grassy esplanade located between the opposing lanes. Mentally situate more of these buildings, on a smaller scale, along more narrow streets and lanes, with small balconies just feet away from the neighbors. Many of these balconies have brightly colored blouses, towels, and sheets hanging from clotheslines.

Sounds pretty good, right? Now imagine the majority of these buildings in some state of decay. A few of the buildings are in near perfect condition- next time I see Gerardo, I’m going to ask him what the deal is with those buildings. Because the rest of Havana’s architecture is suffering. In the better-off cases, the paint is chipping, or the effects of the salt spray from the sea over the Malecon are evident. In the worst cases, the wooden shutters are warped and barely fit and the buildings are crumbling. I have yet to take lots of photos of the actual architecture, but I will put them up here ASAP- we have several plans for wandering around Havana this weekend, so that will happen.

Note: if any of you are planning on visiting Cuba at any time before the embargo is lifted, and you have Bank of America, complete any financial transactions before leaving the U.S. I learned that one the hard way…

Otherwise, though, I’ve been able to access almost everything else. YouTube, LinkedIn, and MySpace are the other sites that we can’t get on, but those aren’t such a big deal.

Anyway, I'm shortly about to watch Grey's Anatomy with Maria. All the Cubans in our household are terrific. We had a house meeting a few nights ago just to lay out all the rules, etc, and it really does feel like a family. Good times.

One Dog’s Poo Is Another’s Good Luck

Cool custom that we found out: stepping in dog poo is considered to be lucky. Then again, Gerardo might have been pulling our legs to make someone feel less self-conscious about stepping in poo.

While still trying to avoid stepping in dog poo, we have all been doing our best to explore Havana and its environs. Sometimes this just includes little excursions around our neighborhood. Recently we exchanged some CUC (the currency used by tourists) for pesos nacionales (used by Cubans). The exchange rate between the two at the time we exchanged was 24 PN to 1 CUC, which means we ended up with a lot of pesos. The best part of this means that we can now eat at the little cafeterias found on nearly every block. Yesterday, I got a lunch consisting of a mountain of rice and beans, a huge slab of pork, some cole slaw, and a little sweet potato. I paid 30 PN, which probably isn’t even US $1.50. Absolutely amazing.

We did have an interesting the experience the other day, when we first attempted to eat at a restaurant which accepted pesos. Basically, I think they assumed that we didn’t know what was going on, and we had to send the bill back twice, the first time because they were trying to charge us in CUC and the second time because the bill was nearly double what it should be. Good thing we are cheap college kids and pay attention to what the bill means. Also, I’m hoping that eventually people will realize that we aren’t just visiting, that we’ll be here a while- the “tourist” feel will wear off, hopefully.

Last week, we went to the beach. The interesting part of this is not the beach itself, but the public transportation we took to get there. This was my first experience on Cuban public transportation, and it was totally worth it. It did take 2 and a half hours to get there (compared with the 25 minute cab ride back), and was fairly crowded. However, it was also cheap (40 cents of a Cuban peso), and worthwhile because we got to see all different areas of Havana, because the bus wasn’t going directly where we wanted to go. Since then, we’ve taken the bus a bunch more times, and I’m finding it convenient, cheap, and fairly reliable as well, as long as you are staying in the general Havana area.

Another trip made on public transportation was to the zoo. We later found out that there are two zoos in Havana, a good one (the “show” zoo if you will, more so for tourists) and a bad one (more Cubans). Guess which one we went to? Of course, it was the bad one. And it was bad. We paid 2 CUC to get in. What we paid for, I’m not entirely certain. There were only 3 employees, a ticket seller, a ticket taker, and a cotton candy vendor. We certainly weren’t paying for upkeep, judging by the presence of hundreds of beer cans and other such debris (note- pollution as a while is, while not as bad as DR, still an issue here). We weren’t paying people to care for the animals, as proven by the alligator swimming in lime green scum. And we certainly weren’t paying for security, as this picture of a little boy in the rhinocerous’s cage proves. My final reflection on all of this is that while this zoo was certainly the worst of any I’ve ever seen, all zoos are the same in that they unnaturally cage in animals. I’m never going again.

We’ve also attended three different cultural events within the past week. One was a jazz piano show by premiere Cuban pianist Miguel Nuñez. It was good, but not really my kind of music. My favorite piece by them sounded a bit like an alien spaceship landing in a quiet, sunny glenn in the woods. Sunday, a few of us went to the theatre to see a play about Frieda Kahlo y Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz. That was terrific…too bad I was so exhausted from the Power 90 workouts we’ve been doing every day and I slept through most of it. What I saw though was terrific, and I am definitely planning to see a few more shows during my time here.

Finally, last night we attended a Cuban hip-hop show (right near the zoo, interestingly enough). That was awesome. Not gonna lie, I didn’t understand every word, but a lot of the hip hop here had more to do with real messages than in the United States. My favorite lyrics were “En la vida moderna hay más de moderna que vida” (loose translation: In modern life, there is more of modernity than life). I would have to agree with that assessment. People I think sometimes forget that money and things aren’t all that matters. Is your expensive cell phone really more important to you than your kid, or your best friend? The best part of the show was that our professor's friend's son, who is Cuban, thought because of my Spanish that I was Mexican. Yay, it's getting better.

A few random notes that don't fit in elsewhere:
-The price of rice has not gone up here in 50 years. The government keeps it subsidized. Imagine the effects this will have after the eventual and inevitable liberalization of the country's economy. This needs to be done so slowly, because of the effects it will have on people.
-Things that we consider "PC" or not PC in the US don't apply here. I remember in one of my international affairs courses I was rebuked for using the term third-world country. That term is used here. I like it- it's more frank (surprisingly).
-They have juiceboxes of alcoholic drinks here. Need I say more?

A final thought: if I had a superpower, it would be to understand and put myself in the minds of others. I think so many problems in the world today exist because we as humans can’t and don’t understand one another. Think of terrorism. I’m not endorsing it, but I think in some circumstances, if you look down to the very bottom of the issue, what the offending party wants is sometimes reasonable. Look at the issue of the Basques in Spain. They just want some land for themselves. Granted, I’m simplifying things a bit, but that seems to me a reasonable request. They resorted to unreasonable means in an attempt to get what they wanted, but at the bottom their request is more or less rational. Understanding people and what motivates them is so important in making the world a better place (assuming rational actors), and thus my desire for this particular superpower.

Classes and the Random Thoughts They Provoke

So as of today, we are already a week into classes. It’s pretty incredible how quickly every day passes by, yet at the same time I feel like it’s been eons since I got on the train in Philadelphia. Anyway, classes are going really well. My favorite is a two way-tie between Cuba in the 21^st Century and Cuban History through Film. The first class is amazing because we have a different professor for each class- if we are talking about health, a doctor teaches the class, and so on. I have lots of comments to make about that class already, but pretty much all of those are going in the “secret files”, to be mailed only on my departure from Cuba. That in itself is an intense experience- the fact that I need to be so concerned with what I write on my blog. And it’s not me myself that I worry about, it’s that I don’t want to bring the wrath of the government down on people here. And for all I know, the littlest comment could do that. So precautions seem like a good idea in this case.

Cuban History through Film has been great as well. The first movie we saw was called “The Last Supper”. The idea for this film came from the notes of a slave owner in the 1800s who decided, during Holy Week, to assume the part of Christ with his disciples. He chose twelve slaves, washed their feet, and ate dinner with them. I found this movie to be sumamente fascinating, in so many ways. I have to say, the course of studies that I have undertaken in the past five years has made me realize that I am fully a product of 20^th century Western thoughts and values. There have been many different triggers which made me see that; from this movie in particular it was the idea of slavery. It’s very hard for me to disengage myself from this day and age and try to imagine a time where you could think someone was inferior to you because they were different from you. Even more heinous then was the fact that slaveowners were using religion to reinforce the system and maintain their power. What I got from this movie was that the upperclass whites in those times (so the plantation owners as well as their overseers) essentially thought that they were born with these powers and these rights because of the color of their skin and the families into which they were born. It’s very akin to the idea that kings had their power through divine will. Divine meaning from the gods, so then you have this tie between power and religion. The slaveowners then taught slaves that they were born to work and serve the whites, and that by accepting this and working hard, they would make their way into heaven. The slaveowner in the movie also told his slaves that in heaven, everyone was equal and that there were no divisions between color or classes. This is a huge contradiction to my 20^th/21^st century mind- if equality exists in heaven, and everyone is eager to go to heaven, then why are you enslaving people instead of working towards recreating this ideal place here on Earth?

So this is also interesting because the church obviously had close ties to the slaveholders. It’s interesting to think, both here and in the southern United States, about those who are descended from slaves yet still are very devout in their religious beliefs? I would have assumed that there would be present more resentment of a religion that was complicit in the enslavement of their people. Then again, it is true that the problem with religions in general is the practicants of them who take things too far, and not necessarily the religion itself, so maybe that’s understandable.

The other thing that was fascinating to me was the slave rebellion that finally occurred at the end of the movie. Basically, the slaveowner was being two-faced. He told the slaves that they wouldn’t have to work on Easter, yet at the same time told the overseer to do “what was necessary” to boost production, which was an implicit permission to make the slaves work. Easter morning comes, and the overseer enters the barracks to send the slaves to the fields. Rebellion occurs, ending with the death of the overseer and the burning of the plantation. I understand that. What I don’t understand is how the whites didn’t see that it would come eventually. You know how people always say that unless we learn from history, we are doomed to repeat it? I think this is true. If you treat someone poorly, they won’t take it forever. Maybe this isn’t true on an individual basis, but in the long run with large groups of people I think it is. You can’t continue to oppress a people (and I don’t just mean slavery, this could be economic oppression, social oppression, lo que sea) and expect that negative consequences won’t come back to you in the end (cough, American foreign policy, cough).

So the other exciting thing relating to my classes is my decision on my Capstone project, pending approval from Prof. Jones at NU. I decided, after talking to Professor West-Duran and his wife, that I am going to research youth development in Cuba. This is pretty much perfect for me; it’s a great blend of my actual course of study at NU with what I actually want to go into as a career. I’m pretty excited about this, because in addition to the actual research, I’m going to do volunteer work with a youth development organization- we’re still working on what and where, but I can’t wait.

Adventuring

So I haven't had much time to blog lately. One is coming later today, but in the meantime check out this awesome video.