Search for the Big Ball of Yarn

April 23, 2016

This was a walking day all over Camaguey, hot and humid. We went to several artists’ studios, one made all his art from goat leather, one painted pictures and we saw a ballet school for children.

The Artist with our local guide

Another artist and his work. He made beautiful leather art.

Only a few children are chose for this “elite” school. The young girls live at the school. These girls are “more equal”. Oh, let’s explain that. In Cuba, everyone has the same things so they consider themselves “equal”. That makes them feel better. But when we asked about what was obviously a vicinity of “upper class” Cubans it was explained to us that they were “more equal”. So by that standard, everyone is equal, some are just more equal.

The ballet girls were so cute and a pleasure to meet. We sang “You are my sunshine” to them.

Then we went to an improvisational, vs classical ballet. As we started up the stairs we were enveloped by a kind of fog, finding out in short order it wasn’t part of the ballet; it was the building being fumigated, yeeeech! We have no idea what we were breathing but it is standard for all of Cuba so who knows. I stood on the balcony and watched some amazing and beautiful dancing.

As we were leaving the building an elderly woman stopped to speak to me. I have a kinship with older people. They make my heart melt. (They and toddlers!) Luckily Rene was standing with us and translated. Hermania wanted to know where I was from and was so pleased to meet me. I asked her about living in Cuba and she said she likes it. She told me that she doesn’t know how old she is, just that she was born in January! I hugged her and it was so sweet. If I could explain the best part of this trip it was meeting the people. Ordinary, regular people just like us. Hermania is in my heart forever.

Off to more dancers. This time it was a troop of Flamenco dancers. That was truly amazing but our feet still hurt and we only watched. A great feature of this tour is when the performance is done we get to mingle with the artists and discuss their work, dance and lives. Many of these people were given State paid training and as a result have to work for 2 years to pay for their education so many have full time jobs in the field they were educated in and have side jobs like dance, art, etc to make extra money. They hope to be able to show the state that their art is worthwhile and can support them so that they can do their art full time instead of their regular state job.