Aventura en la Gran Habana

So here we are, after an unfashionably long wait, the second part of my Cuba story is here!


For those of you who know me, you may know two pieces of important trivia about me: I don't like flying because I get ill and I have a very particular palate (a very polite way of saying I'm a bit of a fussy eater). Naturally, travelling thousands of miles in a plane to Cuba, a completely forgein culture was going to be a bit of a challenge for me.

I met up with my 7 other teammates at Gatwick Airport, and before going to check-in we took some time to shift about and balance out our luggage; spanish bibles, first aid kits, a clown outfit, crayon face paints- y'know, the essentials. After a lengthy wait at check-in and a quick dash to the gate it wasn't too long until we were on the plane and waiting to take off. This took longer than anticipated and we soon found out the reason when a noisy latin american family made their way onto the plane about half an hour after the expected take off time. This was to set the trend for much of our experience in Cuba.

We arrived in hot and humid Cuba some time later and after waiting around for a bit for the immigration staff to find our visas and discovering that half of us were apparently Irish on them, we met up with our Latin Link supervisor and the church's pastor and hopped onto a comfortable, air-conditioned minibus. This, we were told, was to be our most comfortable journey while in Cuba.
 

 Shortly, we were at Getsemaní Baptist Church in Regla, a small urban community very close to Havana. We were welcomed very warmly and had a "merienda" or small snack before being shown to our rooms. The six of us girls were staying in the bedroom of one of the pastor's daughters, Esther, and we were greeted by beautifully decorated pink walls, 3 bunkbeds with a welcome note and folded towel swan on each bed. Meanwhile the guys were in a small room downstairs.  After having some time to unpack, get settled and freshen up a little bit we had dinner and met some more people in the church.
The next few days were spent purely at the church; we had a small orientation with our LL supervisor and the pastor, who told us about the local area and the kind of work that the church were involved with, which included a four week program which constituted of getting to know a group of people in one street or small area of Regla, letting them know about the church and eventually spreading the gospel with them. It was the church's goal to do this for the whole of Regla in a year. We also had a great bible study looking at 1 Corinthians and the importance of working together, not only as a team, but as a group of believers and brothers and sisters in Christ so that we could faithfully serve God and the people in Cuba faithfully. Had some fun getting to know some of the young people while playing some football in the upper hall of the church (where I managed to bag myself the nickname "fútbolista"!) and at a special youth service on the Saturday night. This included having to help organise the music which, between language differences and so on, took a lot of effort. Everyone we met was just so happy to meet us and treated us as if we were old buddies.
  Regla is only a five minute ride away from Havana by a special boat called the lanchita. One evening we took a small trip with a group from the church to go over to Havana's side of the water to the malecón which
is basically a promenade beside the water. We took guitars and some little drums with us and had a jam as we waited on the lanchita and then headed across on the little boat. I began speaking to a couple of guys which was really encouraging because this was the first conversation I'd had in spanish with someone by myself and, even though many gestures and help were needed, I was able to communicate which felt really great.
On the Sunday, we learned that the main church service is in the evening and a small service + bible study/sunday school is held in the morning for the children and young people, both of which we participated in.

  Early on Monday we hopped on a mini bus with the pastor and one other girl to Yumurí, a youth camp out in the country in a region called Las Mantanzas. We would be here until Friday morning, helping out the camp director with various tasks, helping in the kitchen, supervising the prayer room, organising any games and sports and just taking part alongside the kids. The week we were there, we were working with approx. 150 kids aged 12 or 13. The camp itself is beautiful and has existed from before the revolution, which is amazing. The days were long and very, very hot and sticky but we had lots of fun and it was amazing to witness how enthusiastic the kids were, not just about God's Word, but in pretty much everything they did. No one went in a huff about something they didn't want to take part in or complain- for many of the kids, this short time is the only holiday they get and it is the highlight of their year. One of the young men from our church who was there as a leader, told us his testimony here and about the special place it holds in his heart because it's where he came to know Jesus as his Lord and Saviour. The enthusiasm of the kids wasn't the only thing that was impressive; the leaders and organisers were just as, if not more, enthusiastic! So much effort was put into everything and their creativity and love for these kids was overwhelming. My stand-out memories include playing water balloon volleyball which was great fun (even when the sandy ground got wet and splattered all up your legs!) and trying to set up a water slide on our last afternoon.

AFTER

BEFORE

We used this huge tank of water on two wheels which was positioned at the top of a hill with a plastic sheet put in place. Unfortunately, the stand on the tank was removed at a rather unwise time and it got stuck leaning to one side (photos will explain). A lot of time was spent attempting to rectify this problem. Eventually we succeeded though, and much fun was had as we all got terrifically muddy sliding down the make-shift water slide.

  However, I think my most precious memory of our time at  Yumurí was on the Thursday night, the last night of camp. These kids had been hearing all week about the gospel of Jesus Christ, who he was and why he came; tonight they were asked what their response to him would be, to reject and forget everything they had been told or to accept Jesus into their hearts and lives and his free gift of eternal life. They were asked to stand up if this was what they wanted. There was a pause, and then one boy bravely stood up. Slowly, one by one, more began to join him until the whole room was on its feet. The music started up and we sang in joyful praise to God for the work he had done in these young people's lives. We then headed outside, and the biggest bonfire in the world (I exaggerate slightly...) was set up and we sang and prayed as we stood around it. It was a truly, breathtaking experience. In situations like that, it's impossible to know who really has made a genuine committment to Christ, and who stood up because everyone else was doing it, but that is between them and God and I pray sincerely that all of the young folks who stood up that night hold firm to their faith in God.


   On Friday morning, we headed off for our team holiday! It had been a tiring week so we were all glad for the break, but even if it hadn't been, how can you not appreciate a beautiful beach and the crystal blue caribbean water? We were in a hotel in a resort called Varadero, and it was really lovely. After a week of camp food, it was so great to have something that wasn't some variation on rice and beans- I don't think I've ever appreciated a burger more in my life. Parts of us did turn slightly pink/red which made for a couple of painful days, but it didn't spoil the lovely time we had as a team having devotions on the beach and sharing our testimonies, as well as our night time dips in the sea which were lots of fun.

We arrived back in Regla on Sunday afternoon and it was lovely to be welcomed back to the church so warmly; even though my home was thousands of miles away, it felt so amazing to know that I had been welcomed into this one. The next five days we helped the church run a holiday club, very similar to ones that I have been involved in helping out at here- except at the ones here, I'd never been up, learning dance routines at 8am in ~33°C heat. The kids arrived, excited and ready to have fun and we spent time singing and dancing before splitting into three age groups who then went off to different activities: games, crafts and bible lesson. Everyone in the team had a turn of helping out at a different activity, but 3/5 I was on games which was great fun, if not a little stressful at times! Cubans, in general, aren't very good at playing by the rules, so taking that into consideration with a big group of Cuban kids and you can imagine the fun we had! We brought out some of the classics; Cat & Mouse, What's the Time Mr.Wolf?, Simon Says and Broken Windows to name a few. After doing all three activities, we gathered back in the church to sing some more, watch a mini puppet show, and then the kids trooped off home, while we had lunch and took what time we had to recover!

  Throughout the week, we had the afternoons to organise what was needed for the next day and to rest, but often we had extra activities for the youth. One afternoon, we had "water activities" in the upstairs of the church building (the room in the picture of the kids with their crafts), as you can see the floor is polished so all they did was get some water and soap on the floor and the games began! However, while preparing the water balloons we found a box of some that had been prepared earlier; except these weren't exactly the expandable rubbers that we had been expecting; our ever resourceful friends had found some condoms to use for balloons instead. Let's just say, it was a little bit of a shock, but a laugh-out-loud moment nonetheless. On another afternoon, we had our first church outing to the beach. We grabbed a set of goal posts and some other sports equiptment and all jumped onto the this truck-bus-hybrid. We had a great time messing about with the other young people, snorkeling, swimming, playing volleyball and having spitting contests with the seeds from some funky kind of starburst-tasting fruit. Much banter was had.
  One of the afternoons that week we had our first experience of a tropical rain storm. The heavens opened and the rain just poured down, bouncing off the streets. It was amazing to witness. That evening we had an outing to a local fort, where a canon is set off every night at 9pm. The most interesting part of all of this was that they charged a lot more money for foreigners, so all 8 of us had to make as much of an effort as possible to fit in with the Cubans, linking arms, wearing caps, adopting Cuban names for the evening- you name it. Aboslutely great fun.

On Saturday we took a trip into Havana with the Pastor, Yan and Meyli and Ruslan. We walked around Old Havana and visited some big tourist spots as well as the oldest cathedral in Cuba. It was really interesting to go in and see firsthand what a hodgepodge of religion there is in Cuba- at a glance it looked like any other catholic catherdral but at a closer look- and with a cuban friend to explain- it was a big mix of catholicism and naturistic religions brought over from East Africa; this religion is called Santaría and it is very popular in the area we were in. That night there was a social night at the church which, we learned that afternoon, that we had to dress up for. We consisted of a mix of Scottish "national dress", a pirate, 2 self-made Cubans, a bunch of grapes, a zebra and a Nigerian. We played some games and watched a video that had been made of the week we had just had at the holiday club. In the evenings, we also had the opportunity to learn more about the Regla community by visiting family of people in the church at their homes and by taking part in their home groups. It was a wonderful thing to be able to put language and cultrual barriers aside to just gather around God's Word and share fellowship with one another.
The days were flying by and, just as I had known from the start, I didn't want to leave.
 On the Monday, we had another outing to the beach except this time it was further away with more people crammed onto another truck-bus-hybrid. I think we counted about 80 people, sitting down on the two rows of benches lining the sides and then the rest standing and fitting the spaces in between. Safe to say we were all pretty friendly by then. The beach was great fun and we were there all day, playing Uno in the shade, swimming, sitting on the beach soaking up the sun before heading back to rainy Britain and learning to play a new game. It consisted of a group of people standing in a circle with one person kneeling in the middle. The people on the outside passed the ball around in a volleyball-like fashion and anyone who missed the ball or hit a bum shot had to join the person in the middle. To add to the fun, as well as passing to the people around the circle, you were also allowed (and encouraged!) to take a spike at the people sitting in the centre. However, if you didn't hit anyone you had to join them. If someone in the centre catches the ball, then they can all go back to the outside of the circle and the person who caused the ball to get caught starts a new group in the middle. I wish it was more acceptable to play this kind of game in Health-and-Safety-obsessed-Britain, genuinely laughed so much and had an amazing time.
  Our last couple of days were spent organising bible sessions in the mornings for any church members who wanted to come and preparing ourselves for going home. It was in these last couple of days that I really began to appreciate the relationships that had formed between us and the members of the church. Being the music coordinator, I had to take time to sit and go through the music that had been chosen for the small services we were organising and, it was while doing this, that I had great fellowship with Yan and Meyli, the youth pastor and his wife. We spent time flicking through their hymn book to try and find songs that we all knew, and it turned into an amazing time of worship spent together- we even got onto Christmas songs! It felt wonderful to know that, it didn't matter if I understood all the words that I was singing; my God did and we were enjoying praising His Holy Name.
 On our last night we had a service of remembrence and praise. Lots of the young people came and it was so lovely to think that we'd had an impact on their lives. We sang, had a quiz, watched a video that the Cubans had made for us of our time with them, and prayed together.
 I didn't want to go to bed that night because I knew then that the morning would come; when I woke up it would be time to go home and leave my wonderful brothers and sisters in Christ. I wasn't ready to say goodbye yet. However, I did have to go to bed and the next day did come. We packed up all of our things, spent some time thanking our amazing hosts and giving out gifts.
 Leaving on that minibus with all of our luggage felt like leaving a second home and a second family, however, I know that I have the hope of Christ and that, whether it's in this life or the next, we will be reunited and it is going to be incredible.

Since coming back from Cuba I am more certain than ever of God's calling on my life to go and serve Him long-term in Central America. I don't know where exactly and I don't know when, but I am sure of one thing; my God is going to lead me there and He will provide me with everything I need.