Amazing hospitality

My first day was full of mixed feelings, especially retrospectively.  The other people in the group who had visited Cuba before kept exclaiming on how amazing and "5-star" the camp was, but with my inexperienced American eyes, I would not have described it in that way.  It was carefully cared for, but was aging and worn.  Despite this sense of tiredness of the facilities, the staff were the opposite, full of sparkle and welcome.  After moving our luggage into our rooms for us, they welcomed us with sangrias and a small Christmas gifts (handcrafted gnomes from pinecones).  It was a nice way to wind down the day.

This is Alec.  He owns a hair salon and serves at the camp on the side.  He was Mr. Style.  A different outfit for every meal and carefully waxed mustaches.   His smile was 100 watts.  On the last night there was some classic Cuban music playing and he danced as he cleared the tables.  I wished I knew more of his story. 

Before dinner we entered the meeting space which was darkened except for this lantern and flag.  There was a brief advent devotional linked with being the light to others.  Despite the flag, it was not political.  

We waited on the patio outside before being invited into the darkened dining space.  As we came in, the cooking and serving staff were lined up to welcome us and they set off a Christmas popper to celebrate our arrival. (They had told us - we have a surprise for you for dinner!). It was a festive kickoff. 

The tables were set beautifully each meal, with pretty green and red ribbons around the silverware.  These were the simple, pretty touches that made the camp 'sparkle' despite its age. 

The chef took pride in his food and we ate well.  Each lunch and dinner he baked one of these amazing looking cakes.  It tasted ok (I'm not a huge cake fan).  I much preferred the gelled guava paste with cheese that we had one night.  The chef also had a shirt that he wore at lunch that said "Yo Soy El Chef" (I am the chef - lol).  I learned later on the trip that he had owned a restaurant next door to where the pastor/director lives and they got to know each other.  The pastor and his wife recognized the restaurant owner's skills and invited him to come on staff at the camp instead.  

Our various lunches and dinners included rice, a rich broth with noodles, grilled chicken, ham slices, fresh cucumbers, tomatoes, green beans, green peppers, cabbage, onions, baby bananas, papaya and guava.  We had some seafood one night too.  

Alec, Anier, and Julie 

(Director/pastor and his wife)

On our first morning, the serving table was spread with fruit and yogurt (imported from Spain I noticed), bread, and coco crispies.  I grabbed some fruit, yogurt and bread and sat down, then this plate full of food was put in front of me from the kitchen!  I had more than enough food.  I didn't want to be wasteful, so I ate it all, but whew.  The next morning I was prepared and did not fill up my plate before the eggs, spam, cheese and fried what-sits arrived from the kitchen.  The fixings with the eggs came from the on site garden.  Very good. 

An interesting side note:  We did not get any fresh baked bread. Each meal had these packed dinner rolls for people to eat.  They were fresh and tasted good, but surprised me.  I learned later that many kitchens do not have stoves, so baking bread or cookies is not really a thing.  Someone told me these rolls were part of the regular food ration that people can get, but I'm not sure if that is the case or not.

El chef 

The whole island had experienced a several day power blackout just before we arrived.  The country's largest power plant is aging and the island has trouble getting fuel oil for it to run.  I came prepared with several power 'bricks' for my phone, including one that had a solar charger.  I never needed to use them though (mostly because there was no internet connection and I just used my phone to take photos and nothing else).  

We experienced our first blackout one night during dinner.  Suddenly without any warning the lights went out.  It was weird.  Normally at home, the power goes out with a storm and often a lightning strike and a blown transformer, so there is a loud noise before the lights go out.  This was totally silent.  Within a minute or two, the staff brought out solar charged lanterns to each table.  The power came back on within about 5 minutes.  This happened about 6-7 times during our visit.

The camp director is full of ideas and plans and shared that they would like to eventually get a grant to build a sizeable solar farm on the property (the camp is only using about 20% of the current property that they own).  This would allow them to be off the national grid for the most part, and even to be able to sell some power back to the national grid.

On the last night they plugged in a speaker and played classic Cuban music that was great to dance to - everyone got into it.  This was immediately after dinner. 

Then we had a second surprise - two local musicians who played 1970's folk songs.  One just played the guitar, but the other guy had two maracas in his shoes, a cow bell with a foot pedal, a beat box with some kind of metal pronged tuning fork in it and a harmonica on a stand.  They sounded like a whole band with just the two of them.  

As entertaining as they were, watching our Cuban hosts sing and dance long to all the tunes was even more fun.  I have a lot of videos, but the website does not seem to want to let me load them.   This celebration went on for and hour and half.  I was drained just watching it.  It was so much fun!

On our last night at the CANIP camp, we got to enjoy a bonfire and reflections on the shared church work that we had learned about throughout the past few days.  There was a young man who was always around the camp helping where needed - he took great delight in pouring gas on the wood and then lighting it.