Jill Will Go...

It is blazing hot today. Even the Cubans think it is hot, it is that hot. We start the day with a long walk through Havana to a neighborhood project called Convento de Nuestra Señora de Belen. This is a senior activity and rehabilitation center - along with being a preschool. This place takes care of the young and the old. We got a tour of the facility and the medical equipment, then the seniors sang a song for us. They can come here during the day while their family is at work for company, physical therapy, and singing. Because there is music everywhere. We continued our walk and on the way to the elementary school, we stopped at a ration store. There was one man behind a counter, and the "store" was cordoned off with a large tarp. There was nothing there, except behind the tarp. Rice, beans and sugar. We got to see a ration book, and he asked us if we could give him anything - like pencils or pens. One of our group had some spare pencil...

Our second day in Cuba and we got out of Havana. We went to visit  Las Terrazas in the Pinar del Rio Province.  Las Terrazas is part of UNESCO's Biosphere Reserve. Most of it is deforested coffee plantations. They deforested using terracing practices. Hence the name. The community of Las Terrazas was formed when the government gave the people living in the park a choice. They could move out, stay on their land, or move closer together to try to improve the community with steady housing, a school and medical services. We were there on a Saturday, so school was out, but some of the schoolchildren were enlisted to come and sing for us, the teachers and one doctor came to answer questions about the community. We dropped off the school supplies we had brought from them and also met an artist who reuses the paper from the village to make prints and cards. The endeavor benefits the community as a whole. We had a delicious lunch and were treated to...

"I come from everywhere And I am going toward everywhere; Among the arts, I am art In the mountains, I am a mountain." -  Jose Marti (1853-1895) : the most revered figure in Cuban history. A friend once asked me if I intended to go to every country an American shouldn't. More specifically, he asked if I knew what the Axis of Evil was. This was, of course, on the heels of my Iran trip and when I was considering trips to Cuba, Myanmar, and some Middle East destinations. I conceded that I am interested in places where I "shouldn't" go.  So where should we not go? Who determines that? I respect rules, I play by them, I understand that laws are the key to a civilized society. But I also realize that some rules are bunk. Especially rules that tell me where I shouldn't go. So I went to Iran and then I went to Cuba. The day began in Miami and ended in Havana. At check in, there were many Cuban-Americans flying ba...