For today
being the first day of our service learning, it went extremely smooth. Today, I
went to a place called Muraleando, which was a community art center. Looking at
the mosaic art work was probably the most intriguing part of the whole
experience. I learned how the community took some of the most prominent people
and made art out of them. For example, an old woman named Elena used to sit on
one bench everyday waiting for a bus that would never come. One day some
community members asked her why she kept sitting there and she said was waiting
for the lover her life. She later passed away and the community dedicated that
bench to her so she could always keep an eye out for the love of her life.
After looking around at the art center the rest of the students and I went look
at the rest of the center. We were given a task, we had to pick axes and shovel
a dirt wall to make it level with the fence. At first I did not think the task
would be that hard, until I started to use the mini pick axe that just had one
end. I then realized that digging out a wall is an extremely difficult process
that requires strategic planning and people willing to put in the work.
Handling a pick axe is not my strength, so I’ll probably leave that to the people
who are more experienced. After a day of hard work and a fulfilling lunch,
everyone meet at a cute bookstore called Cuba Libro. There we met the owner,
Connor, and she talked to us about why she moved to Cuba, her purpose in creating the bookstore, her goals in life, and just some basic information about
herself. One thing I loved about Cuba Libro is that all the books there are
donations, and can be either bought or lent out to the Cubans in the area. I
also, enjoyed the reason why Connor made the space. She said she made the space
to give everyday Cubans a place to relax that’s not home, school, work, or
whatever they are just trying to get their space from. She also created it as a
safe space for anyone to come and talk, read, drink coffee and just enjoy, and
lastly, Connor wanted to make a space for foreigners to come, relax, and talk
to Cubans about what it is like to live in Cuba. So, after a long day of hard
work, and lots of sweat to come to a relaxing and welcoming environment was
beyond a pleasure.
The first mural that was at the opening of Muraleando.
Me struggling to pick axe the ground.
Me reading a book, while Jess (left) and Anthony (right), and some other students play card
games.
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