Cuba Pt. 1

Hello all!

I'm back!! I survived the plane rides and the heat and came back! This trip was off the chain! I couldn't stop buzzing. My mom must be like "ugh! Stop already!"

But *flails* ok let's start at the beginning.  My parents woke me up at 5AM to get to the airport. I didn't have to be there till 7AM. The kicker? We didn't get to leave the house until 6AM--we were supposed to leave at 5:30AM.  We finally found each other and went into the line to check in.  Then one of our leaders, Shawn started passing out hats and tshirts.  The conversation in this line was all over the place but eventually we got through checking in, sat around for a little bit before boarding.  The flight there was okay, not too much turbulance until the ending of the actual flight. Getting through customs in Cuba was so fast, I think I still have whiplash. But we got through and then Ron, our wonderful guide from The Urban Famer, was right there with us, coralling us, making sure we got to our magic Yellow School Bus and that no one was left at the airport.

The drive to our place of stay was slow but I enjoyed every minute of it.  Most of it was along the ocean so who cared, right?  Anyways, we drove from the airport and pulled up in front of The CERESE house.   The locals call it Casa Del Carino. It was amazing! The house is beautiful outside and the people inside are even better. 

This is a picture of the guys in the house, including Ron and our driver Yoel

Whenever we left our rooms to leave for the day or go partying or for a length of time, even though they have security, when we come back the doors are all locked to our rooms.  But not only is the door locked, but our rooms are cleaned, beds changed, towels folded into swans--it was like a hotel but better. We had ladies in our kitchen who understood we spoke no Spanish, well I do speak some Spanish but I haven't been the most confident with it and they respected that. Sure they giggle when I asked for scissors in Spanish and Yoel, our driver, had to repeat it just the way they say it down there. Which then led to me blushing and hanging my head saying, "that's what I said!" lol


Now, this post is going to have some of the bad things that happen--which weren't many because I was on cloud nine the whole time I was there. The first thing is was this one girl who tried her best to irritate me the whole time. I was quite proud of myself because I didn't freak and lay a smack down on her. I have no idea what her issue was, or who peed in her coffee but this chick was just irritating as all hell. 

The second bad thing was I develop a heat rash on my neck and in the crook of both my arms, along my shoulders and shoulders.  I freaked out, went tearing for Donald, flailing. "Donald!!!!!" He looked at me and go "now what's wrong sweetheart?" I couldn't speak, I simply point with one hand and flailed with the other hand.  He looked at it, disappeared into his room and came back with a bottle of aloe. He told me not to worry because it was just from the heat and my skin is no longer used to being in such heat.  I was not prepared to get heat rashes. I mean, shit I was born in Jamaica! Hell, I don't get even get this crap when I go back to Jamaica! So every day, I wake up praying it would go away because I know what was going to happen once they started drying up. They would turn white, flake, peel, start itching and then scar. That's just what I needed, more scars. The ones on my neck are almost gone without any much flaking or peeling. The ones on my arms are not so merciful. They are itching, flaking, peeling and going away Slllllooooowwwwlllyyy...ugh.


Hugs,
Kato