1. Life is not meant to be lived looking at your phone. One of my favorite parts about the week was being phone free. Yes, there were a lot of people checking their phones at internet parks, but they just know how to live life without a screen in their face. So many of the streets we would walk down people would be standing in the doorway, people watching, or having an intimate, casual, or funny conversation with their neighbors and family. They were also very interested in interacting with tourists. So many of the kids we saw were running around together outside, literally playing "kick the can," and lying kites. When I compare this to Mexico or back home in the States, it's drastically different because so much of the population cannot have a conversation without checking their phone during family or friend time as least one person is sitting around with the phone sitting on their lap or table. One of my favorite evenings was simple, but we were all just sitting around the table at our AirBnB and we had a casual conversation for a few hours, without any phones.
2. Family is the most important thing in life. Whenever we asked people if they want to immigrate or move across the country to find better work, all but one said no because family is so crucial to the Cuban culture. I found it so warming to hear how well they take care of their family. One man told us that after his father retired he moved in with his dad to help because his father couldn't afford to live on the government social security. He said it was like a role reversal- his dad took care of him growing up, now he takes care of his dad growing up. Another man told us he gave up his job of working for the government where he was able to travel the world (which is really rare for a Cuban to be able to travel out of the country) to take care of his sick father and the farm. We were told that young people weren't moving around the country, like many other you people in different countries around the world, they stuck around with their family. Finally, parents worked hard their entire lives so that they could provide for their children well into adulthood. Family is crucial.
3. You don't have to be rich in money to be rich in life. I don't know why Cuba isn't ranked as one of the happiest countries in the world, but all the people we talked to mentioned how poor the people were, but they were all so happy! I don't know what their secret is, but I want to be let in on it. Maybe it's because they are so trusting (it's an incredibly safe country, because they are very family oriented, or because they are actually interacting with each other. All I can say is after spending a week with them, their happiness rubbed off on me.
I only spent a week in Cuba, but I feel like I came back with so much knowledge. I have never had a trip like that, where it was so focused on learned the culture and interacting with the people. While the trip, like any other trip, had a few problems, but it was all worth it to live a trip like we did.
First photo on the left: chess in the park in Trinidad
Second photo on the right: mojitos in La Habana
Third photo: La Habana
Fourth photo on left: View of the mountains in Trinidad from the Ex-Convent of St. Francis of Assisi (Ex-Convento de San Francisco de Asís)
Fifth photo on the right: El Malecón- a famous walk way in La Habana
Sixth photo on the left: The farmer in Viñales who makes Puros (Cuban Cigars) teaching us how he makes them
Seventh photo on the right: coffee with a view in La Habana
Eighth photo on the left: teaching a little girl in Kindergarten in Trinidad how to count to ten in English
Ninth photo on the right: all of us in an American classic car on our way to Bahía de Cochinos (Bay of Pigs)
Tenth photo: Snorkling in the Bay of Pigs- photo credit: Olga Perez
Eleventh photo: La Habana skyline- photo credit: Olga Perez
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