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Day 6

It is 9:00, and I am sitting here on my bed in a pool of melted sweat, relaxing after a nice dinner of cheese pizza.  Ok, the pizza wasn’t that nice….but it was easy and fast and I was able to eat it after doing a quick internet check.  J  I think I might be the only person to ever visit Cuba and not eat at a Cuban restaurant!!  If I suggest it, Merlin gets very upset and says that it is very expensive, and that “we can eat at his house…..just let him go tell his mother to fix me something”.  The only other place to eat that I know of is the hotel down the street.  They have a snack bar and a hoity-toity restaurant that I cannot afford.  Since I am only eating one meal a day…the snack bar it is. J  When I get home, I will go to the Cuban restaurant in Norcross…..it is wonderful. J J

Anyway, it is dark outside, the temperature is cooling down to a nice 90 degrees and it is time for bed, right? Wrong!  Merlin will be here in an hour to take me to hear traditional Cuban music! It is about time!!  I am so excited and I will tell you all about it tomorrow!  J  Today was another day full of rehairing bows and seeing students and musicians. Many now greet me like an old friend, kissing me on the cheek as they say hello. It makes me feel so good!    We had another breakthrough today in Cuban/American relations, as well.  You know how I keep talking about these moments that always happen for me when I travel overseas? Well today, right on cue, came the next one.  (I could set my watch by these things.)  Today was the day that everyone forgot that I don’t speak Spanish.J  It always happens around the end of the first week…..people just look at me and start spewing Spanish in normal conversation. These are people that know me!  Trust me; this is not because of some new-found fluency on my part.  I think it happens when the novelty of having a foreigner (me) around finally wears off.  It is pretty funny, actually.  Merlin and I were having an in depth bow conversation when all of the sudden, he switched to Spanish, in mid-sentence, no less! .  When I just looked at him, he simply said, “I know…..I just don’t know how to say it in English”, and then proceeded to keep talking to me in Spanish.  I just laughed and laughed. What are you going to do?

My favorite part of the day (so far) was late this afternoon when Merlin, Lasier and I were working on bows.  Two of the young teenage students…both very pretty girls…were hanging out waiting for us to finish their bows, flirting lightly with both of the guys and eating the M and M’s I was sharing.  J  Merlin was playing music on his phone…some sort of Latin hip-hop…. and all of the sudden a slow, Latino love song came on.  Merlin started singing softly as he worked and soon, both Lasier and the girls all joined in.  They didn’t really know they were all singing together, they were just each caught up in the song.  It was one of those moments, you know?  One of those moments when everything got kind of quiet and everyone seemed so content and comfortable.  I just smiled to myself as I combed out the bow hair, thinking, “how lucky am I?”.  I know I say that a lot, and when I am at home, I feel lucky and blessed each and every day. But when I am on one of my adventures, things like this take on a kind of glow and it really brings home how great this life really is.

(Later…….. at 1 am…)

Ok, so if you are going to suffer permanent hearing damage, it should definitely happen in a Cuban bar, don’t you think?  J  I am back from my evening and it was wonderful, wonderful, wonderful!  When we left the house, I could tell that something was different.  It is Friday night in Santiago and the town had a celebratory feel to it. The women on the streets were all dressed up and the children were completely precious, wearing little shawls, three piece suits….the ninas wearing flowers in their hair. We walked to the concert hall where we work every day and turned down a street that was full of people.  Every building had a restaurant or bar in it and they all had live Cuban music going on!  I think I have died and gone to heaven!!  We waited in a park for Lasier, and there were people dancing in the square, a band playing under a pavilion and old cars driving by, spewing exhaust from 1956.  It was awesome!  As we sat in the park and waited, Merlin and I played the ‘what country do you think THEY are from’ game.  England , France , Germany ?  I am usually very good at this game and it turns out, so is Merlin, so we had a great time talking about everyone that walked by. J

When Lasier didn’t show up, we started the evening in one of Santiago’s most famous clubs.  Merlin with a beer and me with a Mojito, we settled in for some music.  I have to say, the music was amazing…but very, very loud. I consoled myself by saying that it sure was a heck of a way to lose your hearing, but early on, couldn’t bring myself to leave.  I mean, I was in Cuba , listening to a traditional Cuban band, for Pete’s sake!!

Then they walked in.  Five adults.  Laughing, dancing their way to their seats, making a graaaaand entrance.  The man looked like a brunette Woody Allen and was dancing across the entrance way wearing a tee shirt that said, “F*#% you, you f*#^ing f*#%”.

The Americans are here.

For the first time, I saw how we really look to the rest of the world.  I have to admit, I was laughing at the tee shirt…you can blame the mojito on that.  I mean, who wears a shirt like that??? Then I realized that not only was I a little embarrassed, but I had reached my decibel limit.  Two professional salsa dancers had come out and were working the crowd. Merlin wasn’t so thrilled by the music either so I suggest (yelled, really) that we go find something better.  He was horrified that I would pay $5 for each of us and then leave 45 minutes later, but I explained that given my face, it was only a matter of time before that salsa dancer zoned in on me and that one mojito was NOT enough to get me out on the dance floor! He acquiesced and sure enough, as we were leaving, I glanced back to see the Americans being dragged onto the dance floor by the pros.  (Whew, that was a close one)  J

We strolled from place to place, checking out bands, making a quick stop in the middle of a square to visit with some bass playing friends of Merlins.  After talking about Baby Basses, (everyone here loves Ampeg!!!), we asked the advice of his friends and ended up at a delicious bar across the square.  Long and narrow, with a hundred plants hanging overhead and oscillating fans blowing the air around, the outdoor café with its live band was perfect.  We were soon joined by yet another of Merlin’s bass playing friends, and sat enjoying beers and the music for a while.

Several phone conversations took place  with Merlin on his cell phone and

it turned out that he was in the middle of a big personal problem involving women.  (Doesn’t it always involve women?!)  As he got more and more depressed, I finally taught the both of them about the blues.  Not playing the blues, which they both understood completely, but having the blues.  (Try explaining THAT in a second language!!)  When we finally closed the restaurant down, Merlin declared that he had the blues and needed to go home and play his bass for a while.  The three of us strolled through the darkened streets of Santiago laughing and joking, slowly chasing his blues away.  When we neared my corner, Merlin said, “Please to come, Anna….help me chase the blues away…we will play the bass!!”  I laughed and explained to him that I was old and that he and his friend would do just fine without me.  J  After a bit more cajoling, I sent them on their way and walked the last block home.  I am happy, peaceful, and about as far away from the blues as a girl can get.

Buenos Noches,

Anna

Day 5

Don’t tell my parents!!!

So, today started just like any other day…….isn’t it funny that I can say that when I haven’t even been here a whole week?  But when it feels like you have been here for months, you can say….today started just like any other day. J  I got up and ate some of the fabulous fresh mango and pineapple Anna had made for me, before heading out the door for the half hour walk to the concert hall.  I now know my way there with no problems and would love to walk it by myself, so that I could slow down and take some pictures.  But Martin has told Merlin that he MUST take good care of me!  In fact, Merlin says that he is my Cuban body guard and he takes being my escort very seriously.  By the time we are ten minutes into our commute, I am soaked with sweat.  It is really, really hot here. The humidity is soaring and luckily, I came with my Haiti mindset. That being… dress comfortably, pull your hair back, prepare to never be dry and step in front of every fan you see!!  J  Even the Cubans are hot.  You can see them all fanning themselves and keeping to the shady side of the street.  But they don’t seem to sweat much.  They look cool as can be and I find myself wishing I had a bit of their DNA.

When we got to the school, people started pouring in, picking up their bows from yesterday, dropping others off.  Did I mention that they were dropping more off?! You would not believe the pile of bows we have to do! I say ‘we’, but Merlin deposited me at the work bench and took off. He had lots of work to do elsewhere so I was on my own.  I started cutting and cleaning and filing and polishing and combing and tying and rosining til I thought my hands would fall off.  Official count as of now is 20 rehairs, 5 faceplates and four thumb leathers in two days.  J Please don’t tell my parents because they might seriously start to re-think their expectations of my work at the shop!!  J  Merlin did help with some of those faceplates…in fact, if you count the ones that he did by himself, we are up to about 8 faceplates.  Not bad for two days!!  J  At one point, an elderly man brought me a bass bow and asked for hair and a faceplate. His faceplate was bad, but it was still in one piece, so I told him that I would try. I would definitely do the hair but that I would have to see, time-wise, if I could get to the faceplate.  He walked out and returned several minutes later, walked up to me and handed me a huge, beautiful mango.  I laughed and laughed and told him that presents would get him special treatment.  I looked at that mango all day long and his bow was finished by 6 oclock. J

Before lunch, David, the conductor of the symphony came in to sit and talk to me while I worked. He is a few years younger than me and has lived all over the world.  He speaks good English and I enjoy hearing about why he chose the music that they are playing for this concert.  After hearing him discuss the difficulty of playing Faure with the orchestra, I finally asked him, “How is it possible that these people play so well with such terrible equipment? “  Earlier I had heard a Paganini Caprice being played in the court yard by what could have been Jasha Heifetz….seriously.  David said, “When I was growing up, my bow was terrible….it had no camber and a third of the hair.” When I would say something to my teacher, they would say, “You make it work….if you have no hair, you find more power in your bow arm…..whatever it takes, you find a way”.  And that is exactly what these musicians have done.  These are not, ‘oh-bless-their-heart-they-are-poor-and-have-no-resources’ musicians…..these are ‘thank-god-they-aren’t-showing-up-for-major-symphony-auditions-cause-all-those-Curtis-kids-would-be-screwed’ musicians. J And it is a pleasure to be rehairing for them.

My wonderful friend from yesterday, Lasier, is back and watching most of the day. He can still read my mind and when I figured out how to say it to him in Spanish; he grinned and said that the last LSF guy said the exact same thing to him.  He brought me two cookie-type things at one point for breakfast and later offered to go get me a beer.  I tried to explain to him that drinking while working didn’t really work for me and that I would wait til later, He smiled and took off, coming back 15 minutes later with a heaping plate of food!!  He said that I had not stopped or eaten all day long and that I needed food.  He took the lid off with a flourish and showed me a giant plate of meat. Yeeesh.  Some of it I recognized…ham, cured ham (I think) and some sort of shrimp heaped on what looked like white worms but wasn’t pasta.  ???  The rest of the meat ….there were six different kinds circling the plate…looked tripe-ish.  Oh my…..  Oh, and there was something that looked like Vienna sausage.  The whole thing was covered with slices of cheese.

Most of you know that I was a vegetarian for 10 years.  Now I eat meat all the time, and I have no problem with it…mostly.  But this…..there was a whole lot of pig staring at me off of this plate.  How was I ever going to eat it?  This was street food at it’s finest……all at room temperature.  I just didn’t think I could do it.  But really, you cannot just travel somewhere and turn down kindness like this!!  I didn’t want him to think that Americans were too good to eat their food….or that I didn’t appreciate it!  So, I took a bite of ham in front of him….”Yummmmm’, I said, smiling.  Then I took a bite of Vienna sausage.  Umm…..so definitely NOT Vienna sausage. After he stepped out, I started pushing the food around like crazy, trying to pile it up,  leaving big empty spaces on the plate.  That plate of meat sat their all afternoon.  Cubans would come in, I would offer them some, they would dig in and the blank spots would grow.  At the end of the day, there was STILL meat on that plate!  But there was a lot less and I didn’t feel so badly.

Towards the end of the day, Merlin’s bass teacher came in for an emergency rehair. He is flying to Havana to play a Donzenetti opera tomorrow and was having bow problems.  Merlin did it for him while we talked about bass players we knew.  I shared some M and M’s with them and he showed me photos of his two year old son.  It was a great ending to the day and it stressed for me again, just how small the music world is and how we all have this great thing in common that brings us together, even when we know nothing about each other.

After work, I went home, walking part of the way by myself. Merlin quizzed me on directions and finally seems to feel that I am ok.  I go in to tell Anna that we will not be going to Guantanamo after all and that I will be staying another three nights after tonight.  She smiles and hugs me and says that she is so glad and that I am part of the family.  J  When I ask for directions to the laundry mat, she insists on doing my laundry at no charge.  “It makes our family so happy to have you here”, she said.  How lucky am I?  I gave her my mango, explaining that it was a gift to me and that I wanted to give it to her as a gift. She laughed and said that tomorrow morning, she would make me more mango for breakfast….”not THIS mango”, she said, pointing at the one that I had given her, “I will make you a different one”.

I feel so cared for. J

Tomorrow, I think we might finally be going to hear some music, so if you don’t hear from me, it is because I am salsa-ing with a good-looking Cuban man.  J I will follow up with all of the details later. J But for now……

Buena Noches,

Anna

This morning, Merlin was supposed to pick me up at 8 am to go to work for the day.  At 5 minutes til, there was a knock on my door…he was here!  With lots of “Buenos dios’s” and “Hola’s” we were off. Today he took me a different way to the school and we spent more time in the neighborhoods before being spit out into the hustle and bustle of the center of town.  The sky was bright blue and the heat was coming off of the street in waves.  Between that and the smog from the cars, it was a bit of a shock to this poor girl who had not had her coffee!!  Speaking of which, there is no such thing as ‘to-go’ here.  And if I were to ask to run into a shop and down a quick cup of espresso, Merlin would immediately insist on marching me back to his mother and have her make me a cup!  For now, I will just deal with the caffeine headache and enjoy my surroundings.  This much noise, color and life is surely enough to distract me! J

When we arrived at the school, Merlin went to find out which room we were working in and within 15 minutes, I was spreading out my tools and taking in my first bow. Ahhh…I cannot tell you how good that felt!  Don’t get me wrong…there is nothing wrong with just being a tourist and having a good old-fashioned vacation!  But I have been focused on coming here and doing some good for a long time and the last couple of days have made me somewhat antsy!  Two clips of the scissors….old horse hair falls to the ground, and I heave a sigh of relief.  This is what I came here for.  The first hour went be so nicely….I had three bows come in and I was leisurely putting a thumb leather on one while listening to the symphony rehearsal next door. It probably should have occurred to me that the majority of the bows were actually over there being played!! Sure enough….rehearsal ended and bows started flying through the door!!  And just when they slowed to a trickle, here came the students from the local middle and high schools!

I looked at the giant pile of bows and decided that I had officially lost my mind!!

I spent the next two hours rehairing like mad! When Merlin asked me if I wanted to go to his house for lunch, I decided that it was HIM who had lost his mind!!!  I couldn’t go any where, and told him so.  I had a bag of nuts and a protein bar in my bag…if I could find time to eat them.  J  The afternoon sped by with Merlin dropping in from time to time to help. He is actually quite good at faceplates, so as soon as I got them all glued on, I gave them to him to cut out, which worked great cause I was still rehairing like crazy.  J Merlin tried to explain that I didn’t need to clean and lubricate the bows…just put hair into them.  No way!   I tried explaining that you have to do this….the bow will last a lot longer and perform better if all of the parts work well together and aren’t gunked up with the residue of 10 years of hard playing in the heat and humidity of Cuba.  I don’t think he really understood me…it did lose something in the translation, but being respectful of my place there as the guest and his teacher, (his words, not mine), he let it go.  J

The room we are working in is right on the main square of the building and has giant French doors that open out into the courtyard.  I draw quite a crowd for most of the day and one man in particular sits across from me and watches almost all day long.  It turns out that his name is Lasier and he does all of the woodwind repair for the symphony.  He is really paying attention and within a half hour, anytime I search for something in the pile of tools in front of me, he actually picks it up and hands it to me!  I am going to be sorry to see him leave!  It is like having your own bow-rehairing assistant!  J  I offer to teach him to rehair, but he says no, that he prefers watching, so I continue enjoying his assistance.  At one point in the afternoon, he left for a moment and returned carrying two small fried apple dumplings.  He handed them to me with a smile and said, “For you”.  I was so touched.  And I really appreciated his thoughtfulness.  I was beginning  to get quite grumpy when it hit me that it was 4 o’clock and I had not had anything to eat since last night.  Lasier surely saved the day and I resolved to take a little better care of myself tomorrow.  It would be a poor showing in Cuban/American bow relations is I bit someone’s head off for no reason at all!!

Finally at 6 o’clock, I call it a day and tell him that we are done.  My will is strong but my eyes are shot.  As we clean up, he keeps saying, “Do you want to go to my house for a beer?”.  After going round and round, I finally convince him to sit with me in the square to enjoy our drinks, rather than sit inside.  He takes a seat next to me on a wall and looks bored as the people stroll by and the breeze rustles the trees.  An elderly man walked by carrying flowers and I asked Merlin who he thought the flowers were for.  “They are for his wife”, he said with disinterest.  “No!” I cried, “I think they are for his secret girlfriend!!”  And with that I introduced him to my favorite game……making up completely ridiculous stories about the people that are walking by.  J  Soon, a man carrying a shoe box and a woman with a drink sat across from us.  “He is in love with her!!” I said with great dramatic affect, “But she only likes him for his drinks!”  Merlin deadpanned, “And because he buys her shoes. “  I laughed and laughed and finally said to him, “See…..isn’t this fun!?”  “At this moment, I am very happy”, he said softly.  We talked some more about secret girlfriends, (he has two) and working hard, (he has three jobs), before throwing our cans away and heading for home.

On the way to my casa, I try to explain to him that I don’t want his mother to cook me dinner and for him to entertain me.  I want to go check my email and have a quite dinner.  He takes a lot of convincing, but finally says goodnight.  What does one do when kindness clashes with conscience?  I love his family, and enjoy spending time with them, but I do NOT want to be a burden to them!  Feeding an extra person three times a day is not only a big expense, but is a lot of extra work for his mother It seems that when Martin, the other LSF person, comes to visit, he eats all of his meals there, spends all of his free time there and even has his laundry done there!  I don’t know, maybe that was what was expected of me?  But no one told me and I just don’t feel good about it.  I am hoping that in the next few days I can feel things out so that I don’t hurt anyone’s feelings.

I ended my day at the nearby hotel checking my email and having dinner.  It was there that I heard a violin plucking.  I turned around and it was one of the men from the symphony whose bow I had rehaired earlier today!  He came over to say hello and showed me his violin.  It feels neat to actually be out and run into someone I know. J J After listening to his band play for a while, I finally head home.  Anna, my land lady, greets me at the door and runs to the fridge.  She hands me a plate with a small pineapple on it.  With a smile, she lifts up the top and it is filled to the brim with chopped mango and pineapple, “For your breakfast” she says.  How wonderful are these people?  I am going to sleep now, feeling content and well cared for.

Good night all,

Anna

Day 3

Did I just get here yesterday?  It is already starting to feel like I have been here a long time.  Every time I go somewhere, the first few days are like a first date.  Of course, I am on my best behavior, but so is everyone else.  They are formal and polite and we eye each other carefully, not quite sure of what to make of each other.  Then it gets a little better, each person a little warmer.  Today, that started happening.  By Sunday, I suspect we will all be one big happy family. J

This morning Merlin was supposed to pick me up at 8 to have breakfast at his house and to go get my visa to work at the school.  I sat on the front porch talking (sort of) to the woman that owns the home I am staying in.  Her name is Anna also, and it turns out she is a retired genetics professor.  Her husband, Alejandro, is the director of the TV station here in town.  In Cuba , the people who have rooms to rent are some of the richest in town.  Their home is lovely, and I am paying $15 dollars a night to stay here.  (Of course, I am paying in Cuba dollars, which is a little bit stronger than the USD.)  Anyway……we sat and 8 o’clock went by, 9:00…..10:00……..finally, she took pity on me and brought me a bowl of fresh pineapple and mango. Yummmm!!!!!  The mango is amazing!!  When Merlin finally showed up, I was only half finished with it, but she kept it in the fridge in my room so I could enjoy it later. J

I figured Merlin was on Latin time, (this is an actual thing according to my guide book!!!  Count on everyone being at least 30 minutes later than they say), but it turns out that he was sick.  Not ‘oh I am so sorry’ sick, but “ohhh I should NOT have had an entire bottle of rum last night’ sick. J  Bless his heart; he was seriously, amazingly, terribly hung over.  I asked if he wanted to go later and sleep for a while but he said no, so off we went through Santiago , looking for my visa.  In his neighborhood, we walked down the middle of the street with him greeting just about everyone.  There were people walking everywhere and any time a car, horse drawn cart or motorbike would go by, they would just swerve around us.  The horse or mule drawn carts are loaded with fruit, and each one is topped by an elderly man who looks like the cover of the National Geographic.  You know the type………deep lines etched all over their faces…. thin with gray hair and gnarled hands that look like they have seen 30 lifetimes of work. They don’t pay me much attention, but the other passers by look at me curiously, breaking into big smiles when I smile at them.  Every person but one did this and it made me feel so happy!

As we neared the center of town, the traffic and noise swelled and I found myself straining to hear Merlin’s conversation.  We walked for 45 minutes, passing a million pastel-colored shops and businesses, finally arriving at the school.  The sounds of a woodwind quintet battle with those of a saxophone quartet and everything is bouncing off of the salmon colored terra cotta walls.  The entire place has a hacienda-like feel, with the halls being open air and doors leading off to rehearsal rooms and studios.   I know that they don’t have much money, or very expensive instruments, but that has not stopped these people from learning how to flat out play!!

Merlin converses with a group of people in muey rapido Spanish and after waiting a while, a man comes and takes my passport.  I am told that he will have it for two days and they give me a copy to carry around for ID.  Now I am not stupid…the very first rule of international travel is to guard your passport with your life!!  I know that in Europe , the hotels hold them while you are in the building, but you don’t actually GIVE your passport to someone for two days!!  However,  amid a chorus of “No Problema’s” from everyone there,  I realize that this is how it is going to happen.  Sometimes you just have to trust the people you are with and this is one of those times.  J  In the middle of all of this, Merlin makes many rapid exits to find a bathroom.  His late night revelry on the beach is soooo not agreeing with him and he looks terrible!!!  As we leave, I tell him firmly to go home and go to bed. I can tell that he is torn…he wants to be a good host, he wants to take care of me, and mostly he is muey embarrassed, but he desperately needs to go lie down. I explain that if he throws up on me, it will most likely affect our budding friendship, and anyway, I need to find the internet.  J

So I drop him off at his house and I take off to find the Hotel Santiago.  Ahhhh….I wondered where all of the tourists were!  I still haven’t seen a single American, but this is definitely where the Europeans are.  I find the hotel and it is waaay swanky. Huge and fancy with a convention center, I feel just a little guilty for wishing that I could stay there!  I wonder what it is like to live the kind of life where you travel and stay in places like this.  But the thought is fleeting….if I was staying here; I would have already missed a thousand memories with my new Cuban friends.  Give me a room with a local family anytime.  J  I find the internet and check in back home.  It appears that Yahoo has either frozen my account because they think I have been hacked, (because all of the sudden I am trying to log on from Cuba ?!!? ) or they don’t actually allow communication between their US customers and Cuba . In either case, I can’t access my email there at all, so there is no telling when these reports will actually get to my friends.  We will see…..  J I can access Gmail so at least I can tell my folks that I am well and that life is good.

After a nice lunch at the hotel and a long nap at the house, Merlin is back, looking a bit better.  J  He takes me to his mother’s house to wait while she cooks us dinner.  We sit in the front room of their home, on five rocking chairs all facing each other about two feet apart.  The small room is made up of cinder blocks that have been white washed and there is a big pile of bricks lining one of the walls.  Merlin’s father explains that they are slowly doing construction on the house and that when he has the materials, he can do the work, but it takes a long time to save up for the materials.  The rest of the house is in a room behind a sheet that has been nailed up across the doorway.  I catch a glimpse behind it and see a small space with a double bed taking up most of the room.  I know that the cooking takes place in there, but I cannot see where.  As we are talking, the conversation turns to coffee and they explain that the best Cuban coffee is exported and that the locals only get the poor quality.  I tell them that in the US , Café Cubano is wonderful and is the best part of going to a Cuban restaurant!  Merlin’s mom makes me a cup and it is perfect…heavy, dark and sweet.  I have to learn to do that at home. J

As the evening wears on, Merlin comes and goes, as does his father.  Conversation is at its best when Merlin is here because he speaks pretty good English and can translate.  However, when his father is in the room, most communication shuts down.  It seems like his dad is very, very upset at him for having…ahem….such a good time last night, and is not speaking to him.  I try to keep the conversation going, laughing and saying silly things but it pretty much is going over like a lead balloon. J Oh well,…..

When his mom finishes dinner, we take it to his apartment to eat.  She carries part of it and sets the table before leaving.  I ask if she will stay and eat but she says no, she will eat with the rest of the family.  I am feeling awkward.  I ask Merlin why we are eating at his house, not his families, and he explains that where they eat is very, very small and that there is not room for one more person.  I take that at face value and sit to enjoy the meal.

You know how I have talked about several ‘firsts’ when I travel?  The first moment I know my adventure begins and the moment when I relax and start feeling more at home?  Well, there is another ‘first’….it is the moment when you realize that your best laid plans for keeping your body, more importantly, your digestive system, healthy are coming to a screeching halt.  You can do your best…buy bottled water, brush your teeth with it, not eat fresh fruits and veggies that you can’t peel…..but there is always that moment that washes all of your good intentions down the drain.  It actually happened last night, but then happened again tonight.  Merlin plopped down a glass of cold water from the tap….in a glass that has also just been rinsed off in the tap.  He looked at me expectantly and said, “It is ok…the water here is very good….it will not make you sick”.  Hmmmmmmmmmm……………  I am sorry, I know that a savvy world traveler would have kindly said, “No, thank you”, and left it at that.  But as I looked up into the face of this young Cuban man who was trying so, so hard to be a great host to me, I just couldn’t.  I couldn’t say ‘no’ last night, and I couldn’t say ‘no’ tonight.  I may pay for it later but some things are more important.  As I ate the cooked pork and rice his mom made, I felt very lucky to be welcomed into this family.  I ate the un-peeled fresh tomatoes and cucumbers, knowing that this kindness was worth all of the traveler’s stomach discomfort in the world.  J  I will double up on all of the immune system stuff that Ann gave me and get on with life.

After dinner, Merlin showed me his collection of double bass music, and before I knew it, he was taking off to get his bass.  On a bicycle.  In the rain.  J  His mom came and sat with me and we talked for 45 minutes, her thinking I know a whole lot more Spanish than I do!  She has no English at all, but we made do. With a lot of laughter and a little help from the worthless Spanish/English dictionary I have, we covered topics like marriage, tennis shoes, music, Salsa, her daughter and the reason she wasn’t playing cello anymore.  At least, I think those were the topics we covered.  J  There is so much I want to know about her…how she met her husband, what she does for a living, and what she thinks about her life.  But for now I will have to be content with shared smiles, laughter and a rough idea of what our shoe sizes are. J

Merlin finally arrived with the bass, which he had indeed carried on a bicycle in the rain.  He wiped it off and we proceeded to play a bit.  When he took off to see if a friend of his had his iPod, I continued to play softly while his mother cleaned up from dinner.  “Muey linda……muey linda…” she said softly as the rain continued to fall outside.  I played all of the pretty things I could find, doing my best to make it as beautiful as possible, knowing that tonight, this was the only way that I could say thank you for the kindness she has shown me.   When she walks me home later, I thank her for being my “Cuban mama” and she just laughs and hugs me.  Really, how did I get so lucky?

Buenos Noches,

Anna