We took a maquina downtown. I’m starting to get the hang of this system a little more. You stick out your hand with just a finger wagging and then if you’re going straight, you signal with your hand, as if you were shaking hands with someone. If you’re staying within the main part of Havana, each person pays 10 pesos. If you go over the bridge or through the tunnel, you pay 20 pesos. After that, it’s just a matter of figuring out the maquina routes.
O drove us around while she dropped some papers off at different ministerios to try and get an exit visa for J, our project coordinator. O brought in a package of printing paper as a present for one of her “friends” to help make the process easier.
After the running around was done, we drove with her to the Instituto de Investigaciones Agroforestales so that we could meet the rest of the team that we’ll be working with. The Instituto is so far! It was a thirty-minute drive in her car. I can’t imagine how long the bus ride will be. Hopefully we won’t have to go out there very much. The work that I have to do in Havana is mostly just reading and learning about everything that I have to do out in Gtmo.
We met the team, and discussed our workplans in more detail and got some great advice from them. I was told again about a tree called Moringa whose seeds can be macerated and used to purify water. The fruit and the flowers are edible and the roots are medicinal. If this works, it could be grown in the viveros (nurseries) on the farms and marketed by the finqueros. Exciting stuff!
Talking with the team took all of my focus and concentration. It takes me about five minutes to switch my brain over to the Cuban accent and then I can understand almost everything. I miss a few of the subtleties, but I’m feeling confident that my Spanish will improve quickly. One of my personal goals while I’m here is to not be too hard on myself when I don’t understand the language or the culture right away.
After our meeting, we were given a tour of the grounds and learned about a few trees that were planted there by the staff. Blackberry, Breadfruit, Noni, Mango, Moringa, Eucalyptus, Olive and others that I don’t remember.
Brains frieds from the heat and having to focus extra hard on spanish comprehension, we headed back to the centre to check emails and then headed back to the casa to heat up leftovers of beans and rice and added some aguacates to the mix. I’m still surprised by how easy it has been to find fresh produce, compared to what we were warned about by the project coordinator. After dinner, the boys and I headed out to a little club called Fresa y Chocolate where there was a DJ playing house and electro music. The club was pretty empty when we got there at 10 and filled up to way over capacity by 11:30. The music was great and the crowd was completely different than what we had seen at the discoteca on the weekend. This crowd was young, had money to burn, dressed to the nines and a majoritarily gay crowd. We stayed until just before close and walked back and discussed life and love. It was a great conversation to have just before bed.
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