May 31, 2005
my goodness, i think i got tan enough for every single one of you combined. my shoulders are burning from the tan that i was NOT planning to get while i was there. unavoidable though, the sun practically melts u when u stand outside down there.
the thing that struck me the most, although there were many striking things about this very meaningful and very enlightening trip was the generosity of all the people whoe contributed to this experience. There were so many marianopolites, individual and in a club, that donated generously to our cause both in monetary means and also in humanitarian goods to bring to the cubans. this generosity really makes me believe that montreal teenagers aren't as cold hearted as i'd initially thought. the CUBANS were overwhelmingly generous and hospitable in our stay there...
there was one night when we visited a rural CDR (Committee for Defense of the Revolution) to learn more about their system and how each cuban was represented in municipal governments. These people we visited were obviously very poor but immediately after the talk and question period we had with them, they started bringing out dishes and dishes of grapefruit, bread, oranges, pineapple, ham and cheese, just all this food and even cut open coconuts for us to have...and the whole time we were partying and eating these rural people did not have a bite to eat. understand? they didn't really have much, we probably shorted them a week's worth of food but they freely offered it to us, along with salsa music and dancing. this act of generosity, giving when they didn't have much, touched all of us very deeply, and i realize there's so much more that i personally have to learn about generosity.
there's so much more to come, i just thought i'd share that tidbit with you guys for now.
hasta la vista (till we meet again)
