Cuba "Doings"

It's Wednesday. I haven't heard from my family...and don't expect to. In cases like this, no news is good news, or at least no news is news that I have to worry about and fret over because I can't do anything 1,000 miles away (1,003 to be exact. Sort of.)

But I do have their schedule and through the wonders of the internet I can give glimpses of where they are going and what they are seeing.

Friday: after settling in a "pitiful" Santa Maria Beach (see pictures of how they might suffer in the post below) they were to eat either at the hotel or somewhere down in Havana.

Saturday: Story time in Alamar. Alamar is a "barrio" and was built with "prefabrication construction in the sovietic architectural style" (quoting that esteemed repository of knowledge Wikipedia). This is what they mean:


You can see a YouTube video here...it's just some kids playing basketball but it gives an idea of how many of these types of buildings there are in this little spot. Over 100,000 people live here.
Alamar is the home to Cuban Hip-Hop. Feel free to check it out yourself on YouTube...because it's a bit "revolution-y" and my family isn't snuggled safe in their L'ville beds I'll not link it here.

They also put on a sports program with the youth there..."sports" is Baseball for the boys and volleyball for the girls. This might prove to be a bit challenging for my family as "sports" isn't really something they "do." It's not even something they "watch"...which is hard to believe because I come from a hardcore football family. (GO HUSKERS!) Hopefully they will be able to pull up enough "sportiness" to survive the event...either that or they successfully busy themselves filming the event so no one notices their "un-sportness." I know I prayed for them that day.

Sunday: (and Saturday night) There are perpetual "parties" and "services" that happen all week. Because they are with someone from the State Church they are allowed some freedom to worship. Kevin's been in various church situations around the world and I'll be interested to hear about his experience in Cuba and how it compares.

They will also spend time on a "spiritual retreat" consisting of reading through some material and their Bible and documenting their thoughts and insights. The team took over packets for this spiritual retreat in both English and Spanish with the plan that they will start the 30 day "retreat" in Cuba with the Cuban Christian kids and then each group will finish up as a group in their respective homes.

They plan to visit the Christ of Havana which is a large statue that looks like this:

The statue was built from marble that had been brought from Italy after being personally blessed by Pope Pius XII. It was unveiled Christmas Eve 1958. Fifteen days later Fidel Castro entered Havana during the Cuban revolution. That same day, the image was hit by lightning and the head was destroyed. That's all I'm saying.

Tomorrow they Excursion!

~m