Cuba : During Part I

The 10 days that I spent in Cuba passed by faster than I ever wanted, yet they remain 10 of the most important days of my life. In Cuba, I was able to interact with members of my group but more importantly with the Cubans themselves. We did many activities together during those days, all of which have stuck with me for one reason or another. Certainly the history nerd in me was thrilled beyond belief to tour the famous Teatro Sauto, which is the theatrical epicenter of Cuba. They were refurbishing the theater, and the only thing that eclipsed the perfect acoustics and the tone of the grand hall was the circa 19th century system of gears in the basement that are still to this day able to raise the floor of the theater over 1 meter into the air, thus turning the theater into a ballroom. It simply blew my mind. We did one or two other touristy things in Cuba, like visiting the higher-end beaches on the island and swimming in natural caves. Those events were phenomenal in that they let me appreciate the incredible natural beauty of the island. But as pleasant as those beaches were, those are not the most significant moments of the trip for me.
The activities that meant the most to me were simply getting to know the city of Matanzas and it's inhabitants on a personal level. These were the smaller moments, the things we did more frequently, like going down to the tienda on the square to buy mango juice cartons and ice cream (which is strangely enough monopolized by Nestle). The smaller moments were staying up during the mid afternoon siesta everyday to walk around the Cairo Center (which was a small building attached to the church where my group stayed), speaking my imperfect Spanish to the endearingly patient friends I made about everything from Al Capone to the formation of mountain ranges, sitting out on the stoop of the Cairo Center to watch the setting sun filter though the telephone wires that laced the street, and of course the constant hum of hospitality that warmed the air just as much as the Caribbean sun. These smaller moments, these snapshots are the memories that I treasure above all else, the things that have and will continue to sustain me until I can once again return to that beloved place  =^. .^=