morning run

pair of glasses, CD, key, roadkill, syringe, frog, mini-bottles, cans...

pa la calle!

Cartas de Cuba, 1: Pennsylvania pre-trip

George School's logo is a tree, which is fitting, since there are a ton of them spread out over their expansive campus.

There's a large garden, horse stables, an Alternative Energy Center...

and the new LEED certified library (below), which opens in the fall.

The pre-trip workshops were well organized and packed with information, so it was a nice change of pace to start the second day with some cheery team-building exercises...

Behold our fearless leader!

I talked a little bit w/ Rafaela (above, left) from Nicaragua re: the possibility of bringing some of my students to visit her school.

And here is our happy crew outside the meeting house, eager to get on with our aventuras cubanas!

Last two days @ George School in Newtown, PA doing pre-trip workshops. Tomorrow fly to Miami, then on to Holguin, Cuba on Thurs. High hopes + minimal expectations. Peace, - RJ

Do you know the way to Holguín?

(photo by Felip1)

Well, first you have to apply for the special license, then wait for months for it to come, and meanwhile work on a "plan B" since the license may not arrive in time, then just when your "absolute last deadline" has come & gone with no license, you hear that it really might still happen, that the license may indeed be on the way, but who knows if & when it comes if there will then be enough time to book a group on one of the limited flights to the island from Miami? Alas...

(1) Luckily for me, other people have been doing all of the above planning, and even more importantly...
(2) I'm realizing a dream next week & going to Cuba!!

I'll be in Holguín for 2.5 weeks, helping to repair a church that was damaged last year by Hurricane Ike. No Havana (as originally planned), but we will get to visit Santiago de Cuba & Gibara. Stay tuned for at least some reports from the road...

And in the meantime, here's an interesting and award-winning blog to check out, written "from the island, about the island": Generación Y (English version), as well as two audio programs put out by Afropop Worldwide re: "The Golden Age of Cuban Music": (part 1)+(part 2)