Teaching, Gardening, Building and Crafting in Cuba

Both the gardening and maintenance teams set out for their work locations at 8:00AM, and the English teaching volunteers were off by 9:30AM for the Community Center.

Sandy and Bill hoisted buckets of sand, gravel and concrete by means of a rope to the rooftop of the Church  – where their project manager applied a second layer of concrete to the walls enclosing the water tank and heater.

Outside town, the gardening group pulled weeds and had great fun laughing with local farmers. They worked on two gardens and surprised local people by telling them they voluntarily wanted to get their hands dirty and work alongside them in the gardens!

The women’s group at our Cuban host’s church has a sewing/knitting group on Tuesday mornings.   The women gather together to work on hand-made items to sell.   So, five volunteers became “crafters” to help the women produce their products.

Upon arriving at the Community Center, the teaching team found faithful students eagerly waiting to speak and learn English. By the end of the session at least 14 students had joined them. During the day, sounds of singing and guitar flowed out from one of the back rooms where Randy strummed his guitar to teach English through song. One of the other tables in the front room filled with students could’ve passed for a currency exchange table – the team members were using US Dollar bills and coins as language props. A newcomer student today was Lizzy, who’s husband currently works in Houston, TX.  Meanwhile, Lou and Gail had a great lesson with Alejandro – whom they expect to someday live in Germany, to play on his favorite soccer team.  – Gail and Jabeh