Youth Excursion to Matanzas

That's what was "on tap" for Wednesday. I don't know exactly what it means but I know a little about the location.

Matanzas is on the northern shore of Cuba about 60 miles from Havana. It's called the "City of Bridges" because there are 17 crossing the 3 rivers that flow through the city. It's also called the "Venice of Cuba" (because of all of the flowing water) and the "Athens of Cuba" because it has a lot of poets (I'm quoting Wikipedia again...just so you know).

If I were guessing (which I am, of course) I would say that "Matanzas" is Spanish...or Cubish...for "Identity Crisis" because the poor city can't really figure out what to call itself. I might suggest a combination name that might offer the feel of bridges, Venice, and Athens...what about "Europe"?

The majority of pictures I found googling "Matanzas Cuba" were of cool old cars, beautiful beaches, one tall bridge and this:

I sincerely hope the "Youth Excursion" includes avoiding alien demon statues because this thing will haunt your dreams.

Oh, and here's the bridge:

Looks more like Ohio than Cuba (or Venice or Athens) to me.

But I might be missing something being in land-locked Kentucky and all.

~m

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

Just ONE Phone Call?

Kevin and Megh have arrived in Cuba. I know this because they called me. They had 1 minute on a satellite phone that the Team Leaders brought with them from church.

Kevin had his cell phone. He could have used it if he had been in just about any other country on the planet. But not Cuba. Before they left, I the ever diligent wife and mother thought I would get them a "Phone Plan" so they would call me occasionally. I looked all over the website but I couldn't find Cuba anywhere...I thought it was a mistake so I called. A "transcript" of the conversation follows ("transcript" here means "what I remember them saying or what I want them to fit my humorous writing style):

Me: Blah, blah, blah...family's going to Cuba...blah, blah...can't find the country on your list...blah, blah...I must be a ditz. Can you tell me how much it will cost per minute for him to call home?

AT&T Dude: Just a minute ma'am. (several minutes pass) Ummm...I can't find it either. It's like it doesn't exist! Let me check with my supervisor dude.

(more minutes pass)

Supervisor Dude: Mrs. Bryan? Yeah. Cell phones don't work in Cuba. You can call a land line if you know the number and if you can speak Spanish, but it's over $3 a minute for that...but to call your husband's cell number or have him call you... It won't happen. His phone is a paperweight the minute he steps off that plane.

Me: Great. Why am I surprised? It IS a communist country, after all. How about internet.

Supervisor Dude: Nothing. He will have nothing. It won't even bother roaming. It would be better used as a weapon than a data device. That's all I can tell you. Have a nice day and thanks for choosing AT&T.

So...I got 1 minute to find out how 36 hours went, including dragging some nice camera and electronic equipment into a Communist country...Kev's been in "democracies" that have gotten very "threateny" and "bribey" with his equipment...He carries lots of $1 and candy to help "grease the path" so to speak. He was totally ready for at least some harassment resulting in the expenditure of some cash and a bag of Jolly Ranchers.

Here's what I know:

From Kev: Thefightsweregreat!Noproblem!CustomsinCubawastheEASIESTI'veEVERhad!
Iloveyou!Gottago!Here'sMegh!

From Megh: Mom?

Me: Howisit,Megh?Beautiful?Scary?Different?

Megh: It's AMAZING! Gottago! Bye! Love you!

Click.

In case you're curious, their flight took them from L'ville to Atlanta to Bahamas (Kevin and I got engaged there 25 years ago THIS MONTH!...I wonder if he remembers that? And that he's coming up on a 25th wedding anniversary...Hmm...I better start dropping hints. Actually I should have started 5 years ago. Durn!)

Once they arrived in Havana they were to settle into their hotel on Santa Maria Beach and then walk around the city and have dinner. I looked up Santa Maria Beach on the internet. I found this:

and this:

I'm beginning to wonder about this whole "mission trip thing"!

~m

They Made It! (Baggage...um...ly)

4 AM is an hour for which there is no reason. Humans shouldn't be awake at this hour; most sensible day animals are still snuggled away in their day-animal beds; night animals are finishing off their rounds, brushing their little night animal teeth and finding a comfortable spot in which to snooze.

If you are ever up at 4 AM, you will find that it is at this time when the world is at its most silent, most dark. I realize the Bible says that God never sleeps, but it is at this hour it seems like He turns Nature on to "nightlight" and says, "I think I'll just rest my eyes a bit."

I know these things because Friday morning I was up at 4 AM after a whopping 1 hour of sleep, awaken by my husband who had 0 hours sleep and then tried to wake my daughter who, in her excitement for the upcoming adventure had had 2 hours sleep (if you count teethbrushing and praying).

4:05. Must. Leave. Load the car. Grab a Diet Coke. Hurry. Get to the office and change vehicles. Check time. Must Hurry. Get to UPS. Need Caffeine. Will the package be there? Must Hurry. Who plans a trip that leaves before God is awake? Megh's asleep in the back. Here's UPS. Kevin runs in. Runs out empty handed. Needs tracking number. Runs back in. Time is ticking. The team is waiting. Kev runs out...with a box! Unbelievable! Gets to the car and the phone rings... it Miracle Man Norm checking in to see if Kevin was successful! Unbelievable! Hurry! Airport! Caffeine! Another phone call! The team's in line! Must hurry! Need Caffeine! Drop them off at the door! Megh, wake up! Get those bags inside! Must hurry! Need to park! Need Caffeine! Run in! Find my family! They're checking in...last ones of the team with a long line of people behind them. Who travels at this hour? And some look like they've even showered! Hug my family! Hug! Kiss! They must go! I stand there for a moment watching my baby who was waddling and in diapers just the other day (or so it seems) joyfully bounce off with her dad and 12 other people to a Communist country to "crash" with the youth there.

My wistful thoughts are suddenly interrupted by Dave Stone (our pastor at Southeast Christian Church) happily saying, "OK, gang! Time to PAR-TEE!" I make a mental note in my caffeine-craving brain: Find out what morning beverage Dave drinks...it might come in handy if I ever have to do this again.

Still recouping,

~m

But Wait! There's More!

Thursday brought on all that the day before such a trip does: frantically packing, frantically finishing of last minute homework, frantically trying to find the DVD drives that were supposed to arrive today that are desperately needed for this trip but weren't here yet and weren't going to be here until Friday.

AAAAACK!

(Feel free to take a moment and go to http://scaredsilly.blogspot.com and view one of the many humor-filled and relaxing videos until your pulse returns to normal. I like the one about the aquarium...)

Ah...that's better.

Ultimately the bags got packed, the homework nearly done, the friends were called, Facebook was alerted (multiple times) and...

God provided a Miracle Man Named Norm at UPS who thought he could have the drive intercepted when it arrived at one of the terminals at 4:45 AM on Friday. This means that not only I would have to get up at some ungodly hour to take my family to an airport by 5AM we had to fit in a stop to the office and a UPS terminal AND not be late. All the while hauling duffels and camera equipment the size of Mini Coopers around...

At any point the UPS connection could break down...because the window of time was so small for Kevin to be there to intercept...the truck had to be right on time...the package had to be already pulled... ut there is always the potential that the message didn't make it clear into the belly of this UPS amazing transferring maze.

So...more prayer...while Kevin tried all night working on Plan B and frantically tying up HIS loose ends...

~m

They Made It! (Physically)

What a wonderful chaotic mess! It started with the Pack and Pray Party Wednesday night. Large duffels were drug in filled with donated baseball equipment. Then a hundred pairs of donated pants and bags of school supplies had to be delicately shoved in and around the bats, balls, and cleats. It was, once again, a "loaves and fish" moment except this time it was the duffel bags that seemed to keep multiplying.

(The size of said duffels is roughly two of what you see in the picture and although there were only 11 it seemed like there were dozens. And they were red and black and blue.)

Each bag had to weigh only 50 pounds. Mama J brought a couple of cool devices to ensure that was the case. They looked like this:

And, boy are they nifty! I think one bag was repacked 4 times just so that people could take turns using this little gem.

We also found out that there was a potential snag in the trip...the leaders of the group needed "religious visas" so the team could work with the church down there. Without those everyone would be simply a tourist and it would be illegal to have contact with any of the scheduled guides or contacts. That means taking a bunch of Junior High students into a communist country with no national language help or advocates. This would not be good and the trip would have to be postponed or canceled. Much of the prayer time done by several of us that night was for those visas to come in.

It was nearly 11 pm by the time we were done packing and praying and weighing and cleaning up after ourselves.

Not until Thursday afternoon did we find out that God graciously provided the religious visas and the trip was absolutely, positively a go!

So far, this is starting to sound like a typical Bryan vacation, isn't it?

~m

They Made It! (Financially)

I will be doing several postings because I now have time.

First of all a note concerning faith:

When this crazy trip became a "project" and Megh started raising money to go, she made a comment that she would like to raise enough money for both her AND her dad's trip. I responded, as any Mother-of-the-Year candidate would, with a pleasant, "That's nice dear."

But I was doubtful. $2,400 is a lot of money to raise and there wasn't a lot of time.

So I prayed and asked that she could raise that money in a way that she would see God at work.

And He did. At the final bell God brought in enough for both their trips AND some more for someone else who needed it.

It was a beautiful moment of faith building that was not missed.

Especially by me. I was humbled and surprised by the final total. I don't know why this is...We've lived on God's kindness and the generosity of others for over 15 years now...but the whole "cup runneth over" and "loaves and fishes" thing still amazes me.

When I realized this, I asked God to help me see where he's been "running over cups" of mine and I've missed it. Because I certainly don't want to miss anything that God is giving...

Thank you for your prayer and support for this adventure.

They're already working.

~m