Spinning fire at the Guantanamera Festival
With the dance company that we befriended, we put on a street performance in front of a massive crowd and the theme was FUEGO, with me closing the act.
All four of us Guantanadienses played a part. E and M opened the show with a discourse on fire in English, French and Spanish. PV played the accordion for the five dancers and then I poi’d! With fire! I had come up with a small two-minute routine that I could do to the beat of the African drums that accompanied my “dance”. When soaked with lamp oil and lit on fire, those babies are HEAAAVYYYYYY. At the end of two minutes, my arms get tired and that is when I finish off with my grand finale move and spin around my head in a move called the windmill. It all went really well, the drums gave me a great beat and the crowd broke out into applause halfway through my routine. The only hiccup was that my finale was supposed to be a clean extinction of the fire into a bowl of water. Unfortunately, I couldn’t get the poi into the bowl properly and it took me a while to put out the flames. Oh well, I guess a few mistakes are to be expected for my first public performance! What a rush!
Getting the groundwork done to organize ongoing water testing of the river
This seems straightforward, but this being Cuba, everything is more complicated. Every little victory with the bureaucrazy here feels like a massive achievement. This simple process involved two weeks of ministry visits, appointments and paperwork. As of yet, the testing still has yet to actually be done, but I have faith that in Cuba time, it will happen.
A workshop for children
We wrote a puppet show with an environmental protection theme and I ran one of my activities for the kids from the community of Cecilia. In the activity, the children took on the role of rivers and transported “water” from one “lake” to another. The objective was to show children how the water cycle works, how their watershed functions, how water can be contaminated, the vectors of contamination and how to protect their local environment. The workshop went really well and it was amazing to work with children again. After the “educational” part, we played together on the farm, running around, taking pictures and videos. I lent my camera to my little sister from farm 1 and she used her budding photography skills to take some lovely pictures of her friends. While the children were playing, I took the opportunity to talk with the teachers from the community and gave them the print outs of the activities that I had created in Havana. They were excited to have some new educational activities to add to their toolbox and with that, I accomplished my workplan goals.
Having so many lovely friends to bid ¡Adiós! and ¡Hasta Luego! to in Guantánamo
For having been there for such a short time, it’s amazing to have gotten so close to such great people. Both in the city and on the farms. I had a lovely despedida (goodbye) dinner the night before I took the bus back to Havana with some of my close friends from the dance company.
The Seed Festival on December 11th
We pushed the farmers to organize a second annual Seed Festival for themselves and it was a smashing success. The best part was that they planned it themselves, without needing outside help. This was the idea behind all of our efforts. Since the project is finishing, we focused on the sustainability of the project goals and made an effort to involve the farmers to have a transition from having a project and interns to not having any outside support when the project finishes. The seed festival was their first self-organized event. I showed up a little late and saw the end of the seed and seedling exchange between the community and the farmers. I knew it was going to be one of those days when I got off my bike and was immediately handed a glass of rum by one of the farmers.
It was “coincidentally” the head farmer’s birthday. After the official part of the day, the beer truck showed up and the bottles of rum were brought out into view. My cariño from finca four spent the morning roasting a pig over a pit, which we devoured in the afternoon, along with a salad of lettuce and moringa from their garden and rice and beans. Like all good Cuban fiestas, this one featured an intense reggaeton dance party. I’m still too Canadian not to be shocked when I see some of the dance moves that are busted out on the dance floor. For some reason, our Cuban friends insist on teaching us the “very complicated” dance moves. Again, I’m too Canadian to bust out these moves in public.
Here is how to dance to Cuban Reggaeton if you’re a girl
Step 1: Find a chair
Step 2: Face the back of the chair
Step 3: Place hands on the back of the chair
Step 4: Bend over at the waist, maintaining your ass in an upright and locked position
Step 5: Rock it back and forth, up and down to the beat of the music
Step 6: As you are doing this, grind your pelvic floor into the pelvis of whatever male approaches you from behind, regardless of age, sexual orientation or relationship
*If there is no chair available, start at Step 4
*If the male doesn’t appeal to you, start over at a different location on the dance floor
A variation of this move is to move into a position that looks quite similar to the yoga posture of Downward Dog.
Important to note: Do not be alarmed if another male approaches you from a different direction. This is entirely normal. In this event, the second male will generally approach you from the front and it is entirely accepted to end up on all fours on the ground. It is actually quite the feat of athleticism. One male assumes a crab-like position on the ground, facing upwards. The woman then positions herself over him and if there is another male invoved, he positions himself however he is able to.
This is how to dance to Cuban Reggaeton if you’re a guy
Step 1: Scan the room for women and choose target, regardless of age or relationship to you (mothers, aunts, sisters and neighbours are perfectly accepted).
Step 2: Approach the target
Step 3: If the target has not yet assumed the position, turn her around and bend her over, keeping your hands around her waist
Step 4: Grind your pelvis into the target’s exposed pelvic floor, keeping with the beat of the music
And that my friends, is how to dance reggaeton.
