The Joys of Being a Global Volunteer in Cuba

by Frank Baudino

I’m so glad I went on this Global Volunteers mission. I lucked out in many ways–one of which being on the painting team. I love painting and the time we spent in peoples’ houses was time spent to form relationships. The residents of the houses we painted were so very appreciative of our efforts. And we transformed their houses from dim little rooms to bright cheerful rooms.

I also enjoyed very much the English tutoring we did in the evenings. William and I were placed at the children’s table because we had the best Spanish skills. The kids were middle school age and so very bright! In many ways they were far more advanced than same aged kids in the U.S. They had enormous enthusiasm and their baseline knowledge of English was quite good. What they lacked was conversational skills–putting subjects and verbs together–along with pronunciation.