Dr. Eric Conway writes:
Day 4 in Santa Clara
After
a full day of travel and exploring the villa of Trinidad, we arrived to
our Santa Clara hotel, exhausted and ready for a good night’s sleep.
As stated earlier, this hotel was on a preserve-type property that
everyone in the group did not immediately embrace, however, once to bed,
with doors closed most enjoyed a good night’s sleep. One concern that
many expressed was that fact that probably because of the animals, there
were many more mosquitos in the air. As great as my slumber was last
evening, it was awakened by the cockadoodle-doo of a rooster, not at
sunrise but an hour or so before sunrise at 4 a.m. At breakfast, most
were surprised that the accommodations were better than originally
believed, as most still had smiles on their faces at breakfasts. After
breakfast, I discover even more animals that I did not see yesterday
like huge rabbits and monkeys in cages.
We
travelled to the city-center of Santa Maria, (our hotel was about 3
miles out) for our cultural activity with the Santa Clara choir. The
cultural exchange was held on the 2nd floor of the site of our concert:
Teatro La Caridad. Our cultural exchange events, although desirable
when touring a foreign country, was mandatory supporting the type of
visa given to the choir. This exchange was much freer than the previous
stop. The local choir performed many local songs for us. The Morgan
choir of course reciprocated by singing some songs from our repertoire.
We closed out the rehearsal by singing the Cuban song Dulce Embelso
together, and with me teaching the other choir: Oh Happy Day as a
finale! After O Happy Day, the local choir began playing some stirring
rhythms with their percussion instruments, and everyone started moving
their bodies feverishly! The Morgan choir knows how to dance! So
beyond just exchanging music, we also exchanged dance; yet another way
to experience each other’s culture. See snippet attached in mov.
format.
After the
workshop we travelled to Remedios, a town one hour away for lunch. We
had a very nice meal in a town constructed in the 18th century. Similar
to many European cities, many Cuban towns have a town-square where
their major churches are erected. Always, we have noticed the best
restaurants are on this square with a great view during the meal. We
quickly returned to our hotel to rest before out 9 p.m. concert this
evening.
We left at
7:15 p.m. for our group dinner, again at a Cuban buffet-style
restaurant, immediately behind the Cuban theatre for our concert.
Everyone has commented on the consistent quality of all our Cuban
meals. Given that this is still a communist state, we were certain,
these were not meals that the locals could or would ever enjoy. Despite
this apparent caste system between the local Cubans and the visiting
tourists, all of Cubans treated all of us with so much kindness and
care, one would never know how economically disadvantaged that they were
by the way we were treated.
The
theaters where we performed during our first night in Cienfuegos,
tonight in Santa Clara, and on Sunday evening in Mantanzas are among the
top concert venues in Cuba! One might not immediately think that this
was the case upon viewing the buildings compared to our American
standard, but despite that there have not been consistent resources to
tend to the upkeep of these buildings in decades, one could still feel
the history in the walls and on the stages.
Tonight’s
concert again was a great success. The concert was well attended. As
the opening Cuban group began to sing Gospel music in their set, it only
seemed appropriate that on the fly, we change our program somewhat to
balance the Cuban's vision for the program through their programing.
Additionally, after having been drenched after Wednesday’s concert with
no air-conditioning or ventilation in the hall, we decided to wear our
cooler uniforms: white tee-shirts and khaki pants, which made a huge
difference in energy expended and recovery after the concert. At the
end of the concert the Santa Clara choir gave each of the MSU choir
members photos from our afternoon exchange. Earlier in the evening I
gave some Morgan momentos including a tee-shirt to the director, MSU
pens, wristbands, choir CDs and DVDs to members of the Santa Clara
choir.
This concert was another small step for Cuban and American relations!
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