September 11

September 11. Cuba.

Banging on the door at 7am……
Housemate Nui misread his flight details and after a sleepless night in order to adjust his body clock, he missed his flight. He thought it left havana at 7am, but it actually arrived in mexico at 7am…whoops, another day in Havana for him. Not much sleep though, I have a flute lesson at 10am, and at 9am somebody in an adjoining apartment decided to do some repairs and maintainence with a hammer .

Great flute class today.

Learnt about the rhythms in Danson.
Showed Evelyn some basic in flute beat boxing (she was keen to learn). Her boyfriend is the drummer in the famous Cuban band “Havana D’Primera”.

Torrential downpour of rain at lunchtime. Had to grab shelter at a bus stop until it subsided.

Met a guy from Italy in the street yesterday. When he asked where I was from I said “Cuba”, then I asked him if he needed a taxi or a cigar? Best joke he’d heard all day.

My flute teacher Evelyn said she would join me to see a few local gigs. I find it hilarious that whilst her boyfriend is in Australia on tour she’s showing an Aussie the ropes here in Havana.

Helped our Cuban friend Juglio with his English at 1am by picking out words from the lonely Planet guide book that were relevant.

Ate the most amazing Guava tart at dinner. Apparently it most homemade by the neighbour. Delicious!

Observations:

– watched a guy push start a CubaTaxi 🙂
– 50c for a taxi for about 3-4km.
– just noticing there are lots of peanut vendors around….just like the song “El Manisero”.
– my Spanish, although reasonably poor, gets me through most days without a hitch. Even manage to get a laugh out of most people, and tell a few broken Spanish stories.
– I get a lot of mileage out of telling locals that my friend is “Changuito” the legend. I often show them a photo. Makes me a little less of a foreigner. After telling one local Cuban my story for being here and my past connections with Cuban dance and music I said “Soy medio Cubano”….”I’m half Cuban” 🙂