2/21/10 Behind

It has happened. I’ve gotten behind on my blogging. I guess it is a good sign that I’m quite busy and preoccupied with more than jotting down every mundane detail of my day-to-day life. Nonetheless, I shall try to catch up to date.
February 21st, we met our new FEU friends and a wonderful Italian classmate at the University. A. was about 45 minutes late. He seems to be very involved in, well, everything, so we forgive him though we hear is habitually tardy. We had proposed going to a part of the city where Santeria is practiced, but the guys suggested it wasn’t very safe and asked if we wouldn’t mind waiting to go there until they found a contact for us. As an alternative, we took the bus (not the P-1, a new bus route!) to a nice park between Vedado and Miramar (where I live). We were all starving so we walked to an Italian restaurant… where waited two hours in line. The best things in Cuba are at the end of a line. Needless to say we were starving by the time we were seated to eat. After lunch we walked back into the park and were led to a mini golf course! R. had brought a club and golf ball so we all took turns mini golfing and cheering for each other. A couple times the balls flew off course, but it seems no fountains function in this country, so we had relative ease retrieving the balls from where at one time there was probably an impressive water filled course. I am proud to say I came in a close second place. Turns out early bird doesn’t always get the worm, A. won our minigolf game, cut short by the impeding darkness of night.

We agreed to meet up again that night at Don Congrejos- We would cover the entrance fee, five dollars, seeing as they don’t make that much in a month of work. I think we all felt pretty bad about the situation by the end of the night, and let me tell you, dear readers (mom and dad), I have never felt worse about living in a hotel. L. lives about an hour away, so she decided she would come straight back with us to the hotel before we met the rest of the group at the club. As we were walking in, however, the guards whistled to her to come over. She was not allowed upstairs in our hotel even for just a second. This means we can not invite our friends over to cook dinner for them even though we have a kitchen and were planning on it originally. It was very embarrassing for everybody. L. explained that the purpose of the law is to prevent jinteras or hustlers and prostitution. Evidently the guards called after her when she left because they would have assumed she was a very flirty person. Finally the others came so we could leave the hotel lobby as a unified group. At Don Congrejo’s nearly everyone was a tourist and white. The only Cubans there were clearly better off than the majority. Regardless, we had a good talk and met up with the rest of the Italians from our Spanish class.

It was a difficult situation. Everyone was aware that each person in the club had dropped more money to dance and hang out then our friends could afford to. I don’t think it is appropriate to hide the fact that as an American student with the opportunity to travel abroad I automatically live in a different economy and am very privileged, but I also felt extremely uncomfortable that night. And this is not to mention that the embargo my country has placed on their country has cost them millions of dollars. We don’t plan to repeat that scenario again. It is also really hard because they demand that they pay for our bus fair- even as we protest. The bus is very cheap, but with a large group like ours it adds up! How does one be polite and appropriate when dealing with such huge differences in socioeconomics?

Feelings: a bit uncomfortable, lots of white guilt