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|  | Cuba Trip January 2005
Allchin’s Diary of the Cuba Trip, January 6th-16th 2005 |
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| SUNDAY JANUARY 16, 2005
"We feel like on this trip we have watered a dry and thirsty land with the living waters of God's Word!"
1/6: Furious packing for Cuba, a full day of counseling, a quick trip to the bank for cash, last-minute-item packing and reassuring prayers and goodbyes to Mom (95 yrs old) filled our last day home. We've been on these trips enough to realize God is in control, and whatever comes, He will use for His glory if we trust Him. So we plan and prepare as much as possible, then give our efforts to Him to use. Adam drove us to the airport to meet Pastor Ramos who is going with us to Cuba. Patti B, who orchestrated translation of our notes into Spanish met us there with reams of copies of “Foundations in Biblical Counseling“(Spanish version), but also with the bad news that the copying was incomplete. There is little hope of copying large quantities of anything in Cuba. So we all prayed together right at O’Hare and trusted God even with the notes. So far our prayer had only been to be able to get notes into the country in such quantity. Last time they were confiscated at the airport customs. As the three of us boarded the plane for Canada, our prayer was to have the notes to take into Cuba! We had some complete copies and more incomplete sets. We arrived in Toronto about 11:30pm, opened the notes to evaluate what needed to be done and I went to the hotel business center to find one slow and expensive copy machine. There were no Kinko’s nearby, so again we prayed. The two men at the hotel desk offered to allow us the use of the hotel copier for half the cost of the business center copier. So by 4am I had enough copies for our training class and by 5am they were packed throughout our suitcases ready to go. I got a little over 2 hours of sleep, I think! Ron and Pastor Ramos got a bit more as they slept while I copied.
1/7: By 8 am, we were in the hotel lobby with suitcases ready to shuttle to the airport for our 10am flight to Havana, Cuba. We chose that itinerary because it afforded a better opportunity to get our notes into Cuba. Holguin airport is closer to the seminary, but much stricter about religious materials entering the country, even though we arrived with a religious license permitting us to teach. We prayed in Toronto and on the plane before we landed in Havana that our notes would not be confiscated as they had in Holguin. We arrived with passport and religious visa in hand, but when almost everyone else had their luggage and were moving through customs and ours had not appeared, we feared they were being inspected for some reason, but we knew God was in control. Finally they all came out, we loaded our carts and moved towards the official directing the crowd to customs inspections. By then it was down from 4 officials to 1 man who pointed us to the exits instead of to the long lines for inspection. We walked through, realizing we were free! And now glad our bags were at the end! Thank you, Jesus. I think an angel blinded his eyes— so many were praying! This was a miracle indeed! Thank you, Patti and Ramos family for praying!
Roy, head of the association of churches on the other end of the island where the seminary is, David C, head of the association of churches on the Havana end, and Ebenezer the van driver, all met us there. They are all friends of Pastor Ramos who made many trips to Cuba for ministry by Moody Church. David took us to his home for refreshment. His wife gave us delicious fresh papaya and a refreshing papaya cold drink. She also served coffee Cuban style—very strong and very sweet—served hot and black in a tiny cup. I was able to send off a short email thanking those who were praying and us, asking prayer for our long, dangerous van ride. We left around 5pm stopped at a wayside restaurant around 8pm to eat dinner. We all ordered beef (tasty but tough) served with plain rice and small bit of potato and carrots and cooked together and lettuce and tomato. Ron and I were afraid to eat so the lettuce and tomato. The Cuban men were glad to get ours. If fresh fruit and produce is not washed correctly it can spell trouble for gringo travelers. We love it, but avoid it unless we know how it was prepared for us. We have to stay healthy to teach. Ebenezer our driver was sick vomiting last night after he got to Havana to pick us up, still diarrhea today and fever tonight. I had brought along some Imodium and Tylenol which helped him make the trip home. By the time we finished eating at the restaurant electricity had gone off. We paid by flashlight and traveled on to a camp where we spent the night. At the camp 15 young men live and study 1st year seminary classes. It is about half way between Havana and the seminary monthly for classes and accountability. Some of those 4th year students will be back for the counseling training. We arrived around midnight, but Cuban hospitality had the director’s wife prepared with bread, lunchmeat (like spam) and cheese, milk & cola. The guys all ate; I opted to wash up and brush my teeth instead. Ron & I slept in a guest room that had a decent bed with 2 sheets, 2 pillows and a fan, a sink and john, plus 2 geckos to eat the mosquitoes. I was glad I had stuffed extra napkins from the plane in my pocket since there was no TP, because in Cuba you carry it with you, or else there is an attendant who doles it out for a tip in public places. We were so tired and so thankful for a bed even the geckos did not bother us! We slept hard!
1/8: At 7:30am horns were blowing and dogs were barking and we had to get up and continue our trip to Holguin, where we will stay the weekend for Ron to preach at the Baptist church Ernesto pastors. Again the director’s wife had rolls, lunchmeat & cheese, hot milk and Cuban coffee prepared for us. Our driver had a good night and is feeling almost normal again! We prayed for our journey and left, giving another pastor a lift to his destination along our route. We also bought fresh ripe papayas at a roadside stand in a small town where our driver bought himself a sandwich—sure sign he feels better. But Ron and I don’t want to be sick so we got nothing prepared in such conditions. We knew Victoria would have food prepared when we arrived and it was worth waiting for—fried plantain, rice and beans, fresh sliced tomatoes, cooked cucumbers and bread. We settled in at Ernesto & Victoria’s after picking up a few groceries at the town square, specifically TP (so each could carry his own roll!) bottled water (necessary for us gringos) and some snacks and protein (canned sardines was about the only option). We rested some, the men planned expenditures, the youth were practicing beautiful worship music for the evening’s youth meeting (church and parsonage are connected, open air, so music in the sanctuary fills the home and surrounding houses for a couple of blocks!) I read some and the women chatted over tea. There was a couple translating some lessons on Bible studies that had not yet been translated. The evening came quickly and we were tired!
1/9: Pastor Ramos taught a marriage Sunday School class but we didn’t go because there were no interpreters available. Ron studied some for his evening message (the main service), and I read. The couple was back again to translate notes for class. After S.S. we had our noon meal together—more rice and beans, mashed plantain, bread and delicious papayas. Ron and I walked up to the town square after lunch but many of the places were closed on Sunday. We drank bottled juices, got a few groceries and walked back with a beggar following us all the way back to the church. Someone at the church talked to her in Spanish and I helped her—we did not have a clue what she had been saying to us the whole walk back. We rested some, then Ron and the translator got together to plan for the evening message which Ron preached. There were about 500 or 600 at the evening service and Ron and the translator worked well together to preach a good message. It felt like we shook 300 hands at the end of the service and about half of those kissed my cheek, customary in most Latin countries. It’s actually a “cheek to cheek, kiss the air” greeting to ladies. After church we ate and finished at 11pm. The helpers were still collating materials and getting them packed for the trip to Santiago. To bed late, up early.
1/10: We were up early to get dressed and packed for our trip to the seminary. Ron and Miguel (assistant pastor) went to the bank to get the rest of the money changed to Cuban currency. Last November, Castro changed Cuba’s economic policy to no longer allow US dollars without a penalty in exchange, so all Cubans gave up their dollars. Cuba printed a new currency (CUC) that must be exchanged for US dollars, so nothing can be bought now in Cuba with US dollars, and the bank charges a 10% penalty for exchange. Therefore we had exchanged US for Canadian, which must now be exchanged for CUC. Remind you of Mt. 21:12 in some ways? Each exchange loses value. Less money we had to help our Cuban brothers and others. By the time they returned, the other men had the van loaded, a 12 passenger van filled with 13 people, suitcases, notes and notebooks and food and water. We were tight! On the way we picked up yet another. He sat on his suitcase. It is about a 3 hour trip, so we arrived around noon. I read most of the trip because Ron was the only other one who spoke English. There was much chatter and laughter going on around us—Cubans are very social. We communicated in our broken Spanish and their broken English occasionally, mostly words and signs—like charades. Lunch (rice and beans) was ready soon after we arrived and found our rooms in a little guest house on campus. At 2pm we began our first class with Ron teaching and Ricardo translating. Students kept arriving through the afternoon and evening— many traveled far and transportation is unpredictable. It is mostly hitch-hiking. We see lots of horses and carts, a few motorcycles and a lot of really old vintage model cars. Every vehicle just keeps being reinvented to make it run one more year. There may be a few newer cars in Havana, but none on this end of the island. Dozens of people pile in the back of trucks that look like big army trucks and ride packed like sardines standing up. This is for a small fee. There are no predictable bus routes. The seminary hires a van driver when it needs transportation for speakers, leaders etc. Very few people own cars. They start walking and hope some merciful person will pick them up. This explains why students arrive when they can and get where they can. For some of the last ones coming in, we had no more materials. (We were never given a final count since no one really knew how many would be there.) We brought all we could, but needed maybe 10 more complete sets. They only got partial sets, so had to hand copy many notes. This, too is a common practice in Cuba as there are no ways to reproduce large quantities of materials. The students just seem to accept it as normal. They were just thankful for whatever they received. To buy a copier requires government permission and they are granting none right now to any of the churches. We hope to help the seminary get a copier as the one they had died last year when we were here and still sits dead in the office with no hope of resurrection. It’s too old to get the drum it needs. The seminary would have precedence over a church to get permission. Pray that one could be found. They are few and very expensive and always used. Most who have them use them until they die. We had an afternoon break for volleyball, then showers, a Cuban custom – after the heat of the day, shower before dinner. After a dinner that was the same as lunch but with a piece of canned ham added, we continued class from 7:30pm – 10pm. The Greek class is running the same schedule—that is because classes are for one week a month and students are out serving in churches the rest of the time. First year students only have continuous classes, mostly in modules like the one we are teaching. The Greek class lasts a full month each semester. Then another teacher comes and teaches another subject. Many of the teachers are the older area pastors. The students are amazing in their adaptability to circumstances and conditions we would call unacceptable. Our first night’s sleep went well after the dog finally stopped barking.
1/11: Classes continue to go well. Students did well on their quiz. Morning, afternoon, and evening class. Ron taught them all and was bushed by 10pm when it ended. The food was more of the same, but with a piece of pressed ham for dinner. They eat protein in the evening, what little they eat. They are actually getting more than usual now because our trip expense account contributed to the meal they are providing for the students. A Canadian lady visited Mirna to sit in on our class and then sent us some cans of Pacific salmon her husband caught and canned and some crackers to eat with it. We are eating it for breakfast since we primarily eat eggs and meat at home, but have only bread and coffee here and I can’t eat wheat. A plain pasta (no sauce) was served for one of the dinners, so a couple of the students were happy to eat mine. The students think we eat so light. They don’t know we are supplementing it with more protein since they eat mostly carbs. We eat in with them for the fellowship, not the food!
1/12: Class from 8:30 -noon included a quiz and 2 lectures with a break. Students received a glass of something to drink. We stick totally to bottled water or juice or pop. They usually cannot afford juice or pop, so drink flavored sugar water. We do enjoy their coffee though, in small doses! When we stir it, the spoon stands straight up and dances! So would we after very much! Ron prefers plain water; I prefer gaseoso, or as I call it, “fizzy water.” It is so hot we must drink a lot. Lunch was rice and beans, sliced tomatoes, and a type of plantain mashed. There was lettuce available from their garden but we are afraid to eat it. The students get excited to see fresh vegetables on the plate. Of course there was no salad dressing, most don’t even know it exists. Lettuce and tomatoes are luxury enough!
After the afternoon classes when students had their break and dinner, Ron and I took Mirna, our female translator and a driver for an excursion into Santiago. We found a blender for the camp director’s wife and some chicken soup for Alfredo, whose stomach is still not quite back to normal. We could not find any AA batteries though. The camera store was out, and the store he sent us to would not sell us the batteries because he said they would not work in a camera, too weak. They cost 50 cents each, very expensive for the average Cuban. We stopped in a housetop restaurant to eat dinner and the prices seemed very reasonable to us, $4 for fried chicken or grilled chicken with vegetables (yummy). Our driver said it was such a feast. Then he told us he could never come to such a nice place because he earns $8 a month as a worker/driver at the seminary. His dinner alone was more than he makes in two weeks! He and his young pregnant wife live with her parents and have little hope of saving enough money anytime soon to build their home on the top of her parent’s home (add a 3rd level). He said he would have to buy the materials illegally, and when he had 75% of the materials gathered could then apply for a permit to build, which requires proof of money or materials for the project to even apply. But he cannot buy the materials—they are not available even if he had the money. So he will collect a few boards here and there, a bag of cement here and there for years until he can have enough to get a permit. This is the plight of the majority of Cubans. As the population is growing, there are not enough houses to go around. Children grow up and bring their spouses into already crowded houses which may hold 4 generations. They pool their money to survive. We tipped our driver but we know it is just a drop in the bucket for his needs. I wish we could give him a house. But he is only one of thousands who have such great need!
We arrived back at the seminary for evening class, and halfway through my lecture on anger the lights went out and it was total blackness—they all joked about my opportunity to express anger. Someone got a flashlight so I could read my notes and that helped. By the end, the lights came back on, but Ron and I decided to go to bed quickly in case they went off again. But it was really our fan, we prayed would continue—it blows away the mosquitoes!
1/13: Another pretty routine day, classes morning, afternoon and evening. Ron and I are sharing the teaching so I had a heavy load Wednesday and today, but he taught this evening as we moved into the family segment, and the last hour, students paired up to practice counseling one another. They were challenged to honestly deal with themselves before God and their student counselor. It was really neat to look around the room and see students crying and praying together and going to the Word about the issue they chose to present in their practice time of application of what they are learning. We had many good comments afterwards about how helpful this had been and how God had paired together those who understood and could help one another. This is biblical counseling at work. Ron and I took a short walk around campus before we settled in for the night. Students all around campus were sitting in clusters studying together. A few of the students did not have the last half of the notes so they studied with someone who did. The students are amazing in how they look out for one another. True brothers and sisters in Christ, freely and openly affectionate with one another. Maybe Americans could learn something from our Latin brothers and sisters. We went to bed praying for our students as they take their exam tomorrow, and feeling good as tomorrow brings our classes to a close. We have covered an amazing amount of materials considering the obstacles— too few materials and every sentence spoken in two languages.
1/14: Campus was buzzing early as students went for breakfast and crammed last minute for the exam. Ron finished up the lecture 8:30-10:30. After refreshment break the final exam began at 11am. By noon the students began bringing us their completed exams. Each received an envelope with a gift to help them with travel expenses. We had 61 students total, and each got $15 for travel and expenses, which is more than a month’s salary for them. They were very appreciative. Then lunch was served and students were off on their trips home. They had the best lunch yet, a piece chicken each with tostonies (mashed fried plantain), rice, sliced tomatoes. Most will not eat again until they reach home. For some that may be 1 ½ days, and then many will preach on Sunday. They are used to these ways. Life in Cuba is hard, and food and transportation and medicine are at the top. On our trip home Alfredo needed some pepto bismol. The pharmacy had none. We have a prescription our driver needs but cannot get in Cuba. We will take it home and get it to send back to him, next time someone comes for the US. On our trip home we were already 13 in a 12 passenger van and passed 2 of our students who had already hitched two rides, one was in that big army truck packed like sardines. They were hot and sweaty but we packed them in with us. At least we had air conditioning. They are headed to Holguin where they work at a sister church there. One is from a distant town and sees his wife and child only one weekend a month. She lives with her parents until he is assigned his own mission church as a 4th yr. student. We stopped at a roadside stand to get bananas but they were all green plantain and had no guineos (yellow bananas) so we got mandarins which are in season. A dozen were on a reed-like string for 40 cents Cuban money. Two reeds of mandarins went quickly in the van. I haven’t had a ripe banana in Cuba yet, though I keep seeing them growing everywhere. The ones growing on campus were still small and green, but they are supposedly always in season. So why are there no bananas in Cuba when they are so nutritious? Are they all exported and few left for the Cubans? After we got back to the parsonage at Holguin, Ron and I took a walk up to the town square while dinner was being prepared, but the store had already closed. Victoria wanted some soap and toothpaste. Ron and Miguel went back looking for good bread and could find none, but Miguel’s mom bought 3 soft rolls so Ron could try the “good pan.” It was better than the crusty loaves they most often have. We had fried chicken, tostonies, balls of starch, rice, soup and sliced tomatoes. It was a “coming home or going away feast” that 2 church ladies had prepared for all of us in Victoria’s kitchen. After dinner there was a steady stream of visitors, including the couple that had done much of the last minute translation work for us. Danny and Elizabeth will be doing all of the translation for the next course right there is Cuba to avoid some of the problems we had this time. Our translators at the seminary had to re-translate some sentences to make them understood by Cubans. After the visitors left, Victoria and Ernesto, Ron and I, Alfredo and Miguel spent time talking about how the week went, what could have been better, but mostly about the blessings of what God is doing in Cuba through Biblical Counseling. We are all excited about the next three classes and working towards certification in biblical counseling for the Cuban students. We hope to see the kind of impact we’ve seen in Ethiopia, and even greater. We prayed together and went to bed with hope for the future of the Cuban churches.
1/15: Up early to begin our trek home! Victoria had made fresh papaya juice and coffee and fried some hot dogs thinking we would need protein. We ate a little bit but left most of it for them for lunch. We took a taxi to the airport – the taxi driver said he works 50-60 hours per week for $12 or $!3. He was early fifties and has nothing to show for years of hard work. Alfredo had a great opportunity to witness to him about eternal riches and his need for salvation. He promised to visit Ernesto’s church soon. We arrived in Havana before noon, and was met by David Coltier, who took us to his home again. His wife fried a thin beef steak (which must have been obtained on the black market). We did not ask. She also served french fries and cabbage, and no rice! It was almost an American meal. The delicious, perfectly ripe papaya was definitely Cuban, as was the after dinner coffee. He gave us some Cuban coffee to bring home to share with our friends. We paid him for the religious visas he had bought for us there in Havana through his association of churches, figuring out the exchange rate of US dollars vs Cuban CUC dollars, which are not really valuable outside Cuba, and will ultimately hurt the Cuban economy even more. How sad. There are signs all over Cuba promoting socialism and praising the government leaders. But one good look the economics and moral condition of the country declares it a disaster. David took us back to the international airport where our flight was slightly delayed, but we left around 4:45pm. Gave us time to look around the duty free shop and to sit down and read, but mostly we wanted on that plane to head home! Yes, it was a great trip (We feel like on this trip we have watered a dry and thirsty land with the living waters of God’s Word!) and we’d do it again in a heartbeat (and plan to next October or November), but there’s no place quite like home! |
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