...to all of you who have been involved with Michael's trip to Cuba.....

I thought you might want to read this. thanks for all your support and concern, Barbara

Hi to everyone. I'm writing this email to let everyone in on the Cuba trip I took with the Marcus Jewish Community Center of Atlanta. I'd like to take you through a day by day recount of what happened, but all of the days blended together….On Friday, we caught a plane for Havana, Cuba. After getting through the airport (and all the places we had to show our passport), we got on a nice tour bus where we met Manuel, our tour guide. We then went to the Havana Libre, … checked in and then went to the Patronato, a synagogue in Havana. We had Shabbat services with the congregation. What struck me immediately was how passionate they are. What I mean by passionate is not that they are orthodox, but that they care greatly for Judaism. Everyone knew all of the prayers. Another thing that amazed me is that a lot of our tunes are the same as their tunes. After services, we ate downstairs with them. The food wasn't great, but it was certainly edible. After dinner, many of the younger Cubans (maybe from 5-25) began to do Israeli dances. Most of us just watched. At dinner, I sat next to a 23-year-old Cuban named Jeoria (I believe that's how you spell it). However, since many people had trouble pronouncing his name, we just called him John. He was virtually fluent in English, so communicating with him was not a problem. We then went back to the hotel. …the Jewish Cubans met us at a beach.[the next day] Many of the kids on the trip (including me) and many of the Cubans began to play beach football. However, after about three plays, the game quickly became what I have named fugby. You could throw the ball forwards or backwards and you had to get to the other side of the field. However, if you were two-hand-touched, the other team took the ball from the spot. We played this for a while. Then, after a little break, we played soccer, which was so much fun. The teams were intermixed, and what I love about sports is that it doesn't matter who is on your team; the goal is to play well, which made the connection a lot easier. When the game ended, a group of about three or four other people and me began to talk to a Cuban named David (all of the Cubans I refer to will be Jewish--except for Manuel--unless I note differently). Trying to communicate with David was one of the best parts of the trip. I think he was 20, and his English was okay (I think my Spanish may have been better than his English). I would help translate something when I could, or we would draw words in the sand when he couldn't understand us, etc.). We then had Havdalah services on the beach. One of our chaperones played his guitar, and we sang songs. Again,
I was amazed at how similar our tunes were. We were at the beach for probably 7-8 hours, which was a long time. However, when I asked Miriam Saul (the person who sets all of this up and was born in Cuba) why we were there so long, she said it was because last year, when she had told the Cubans the Atlanta Jews would only be there until 8:30, the Cubans would always ask, "How long until 8:30?" Because they don't get to go to the beach a lot, it was important that we were there for a long time. We had pizza for dinner with them at the beach (I thought it was okay, but many people didn't like it)…

We went to Hebrew School at the Patronato. We played with the kids and handed out stuffed animals, toys, and candy. I got attacked by three little kids (Pablo, 3 or 4; Moises, 4 or 5; and some other kid, 1 or 2). Some of it is on video camera, and it is really funny (there are also some pictures). Afterwards, we went back to the pool and about 15 Cubans joined us …

We took a walk to an ice cream place that is absolutely amazing. There are two lines: one for people with American money and one for people with Cuban money. The Cuban line is extremely long, but the one for people with American money took no time. On Monday, we went to a cemetery that has the oldest Holocaust memorial in the Western Hemisphere. … We visited a statue of Jesus, and we went to John Lennon Square. We also went to a place where Castro makes a lot of his speeches. There was a military guard, and I asked him what a building was (in Spanish). He said that it is the defense building …

Tuesday, we went to this forest and planted some trees (although we didn't do a lot of the work). We then took aid to the Jewish Pharmacy next to the Patronato (although it is a Jewish pharmacy, they give medicine to everyone, and Jews will not get medicine before non-Jews based solely on religion. If a person is sick and the pharmacy has the medicine, they will give it to the person. I had one of the bags of aid and when the people with bags took the medicine to the pharmacy, it was amazing to see the pharmacists' reactions.

We brought a lot of children's vitamins the day that the pharmacy ran out of them. We then played with some of the kids at the Patronato. Moises didn't feel well (he had surgery for a hernia), but I played with Pablo. Again, he beat me up. Wednesday, we left for Santa Clara (it was 3.5 hours away). We went to a place where Che Guevara, a famous Revolutionary figure, is buried. We went to a cemetery in Santa Clara where we helped lay stones from the Warsaw Ghetto that helps make up a path to the Holocaust Memorial. We had a mini-service there, which was very moving. We then went to a hotel where we were going to stay for the night. It was really cool: their rooms were bungalows. The next day (Thursday), we went back to Havana...On Friday morning, we took a walk to La Universidad de Havana (Havana University). It was beautiful. It was really amazing how similar it is to colleges here (there were quads, a bookstore, etc.). We then left for the airport. When we got there, we all made it through checking in and paying our exit fee. We bought some rum (one bottle allowed by American law for our parents).

The problems started when a storm came and knocked out the power (there were generators, but our flight was delayed until 4:30). I had a window seat on the flight and while we were in the air, I looked down at the coastline of Cuba. It was amazing because I could actually see where the island ends and could see the coastline curving back around. We arrived in Miami with about an hour until our flight to Atlanta. There was virtually no one at customs and our bags came out quickly. Checking in took no time and we got to the gate with 30 minutes to spare. As for my final thoughts of Cuba, I had an amazing, rewarding time. Also, I learned many things that I never knew. For example, I didn't know that Cuba actually elects its leader in a Republican way. I saw the poverty at a market when people were begging, but I also saw the happiness and patriotism of the Cuban people. I saw propaganda signs, but I also saw that people don't hate Castro or the government as much as they hate their economic status. I was one of about three people who went into a lady's house when we dropped off some aid. The other two people were amazed at the poor condition of the house. I didn't think it was horrible. Yes, the kitchen was tiny, and no, it was nothing like my house, but I see houses like that everyday in College Park, GA, on my way to school. So my final thought is that yes, people are not very well off, but they don't know that. They have adjusted to their life and make the best out of it. They believe in Cuba and so should we.

Hope you enjoyed my story as much as I enjoyed my trip, Michael