May Day — Students arrive in Cuba

May 1 is "Labor Day" in Cuba, and in many countries of the world, but ironically, not in the United States where the Hay Market riots took place, which the day commemorates; the Hay Market Riots occurred in the beginning of May 1886, when violence erupted at McCormick Reaper Works during an assembly of strikers, and a group of socialist organizers attempted to respond the following day with a rally. Ironically, this is not Labor Day in the U.S., where the events took place. Cuba has schools and streets named for los mártires de Chicago.

Cars with speakers passed through central Havana at 5:00 am reminding everyone to come to the Plaza, and folks from further out set out much earlier to the Plaza de la Revolución for the rally which is the centerpiece of the day in Havana. Friends tell us that May 1 is often a big parade, but this year there were many more speeches than usual.

The invited guest from the United States was the Rev. Lucius Walker, head of "Pastors for Peace". He denounced the U.S. economic blockade of Cuba, but also challenged Castro to do away with the death penalty.

Students arrive

We headed out to the airport as the rally was breaking up, and were swept out of the city center along with hundreds of buses and trucks which had brought people from all over Havana province to the Plaza. (more photos: 1, 2 )

All fifteen Goshen College students arrived on time, without a hitch, very close to noon. In the photo, Gustavo from the Centro is helping Beth and Lisa load their luggage. We all piled into a bus for the trip back to downtown Havana. The bus was contributed by the Pastors for Peace to the William Carey Baptist Church and Center (our sponsoring organization in Cuba). We thought that students would want to rest after spending the night before on the road, but many used the afternoon to look around, and walk down to the Malecón.

May 2 — a surprise holiday

The government was so pleased with the May 1 turnout—they estimated a turnout of 1 million: half of the population of the city of Havana—that it was decided to declare May 2 a holiday. This was not expected, and many folks had children ready to go to school before they heard the news.

Students took part in orientation activities in the morning. We split into groups to walk around the neighborhood of the Centro (Lisa Brandon and Deb are shown in the photos). Paul and Katia pointed out places to eat, farmers' markets, places to change money and eat ice cream, and public transportation (including this Russian-made stretch Lada. They also stopped by Kathy and Paul's apartment and enjoyed the view.

In the afternoon we took a wide-ranging bus trip around Havana, and stopped in the Plaza de la Revolución ourselves. The group is pictured in front of the famous portrait in iron of Che Guevara on the Interior Ministry building.

But the centerpiece of the Plaza is the monument to José Martí. Martí was a poet who died in 1894 soon after he joined the fight for Cuban independence from Spain. Cubans of all political pursuasions love Martí! The monument was an unforeseen "joint venture" between the dictator Batista, who began it in 1953, and Fidel Castro, who overthrew Batista, and then finished the monument in 1961. We spent a bit of time getting acquainted with Habana Vieja, the old, colonial part of the city, and watched the sun set from a restaurant overlooking old Havana.

Families

Students in Cuba are living together at the Centro, rather than lodging with families as they do in some SST locations. But the Centro has arranged for the students to spend Saturdays with families from the church. This Saturday morning was the first "family day", as one or more family members came to take the students home for the day. Kyle is not pictured with a family because his family had transportation problems and he was taken to the home by another family.

Anna, Ann, Mark & Pete N.	Brandon, Neil & Jamin	Lisa & Peter M.
Andrew	Deb & Beth	Kyle
Simon		Alisa