Havana: Miguel and la Casa Madre

Havana, CUBA: Feb 2nd (morning excerpt)

Supposed to meet Miguel @ 10am. Still not sure of the exact time here even. Sometimes its 2 hora different then my iPhone, now I guess its only 1 hora ahead. It feels like this place plays by its own rules… its weird. (its actually 3 hours different)
Anyways I kept checking the window for signs of him…but nothing…due to the time confusion I’ve been having.
Finally I spot him. I’ve decided no more walking (I've averaged around 20 miles a day, or so my feet would complain)…plus I think he wants me to be blessed/converted by/to his “afrocubano” religious leaders- so I grab a shirt and some shorts to give to him. This is the last time I will be seeing him. I pick out a matte black long sleeve striped shirt & those hideous cut off jeans shorts (they'll think they're nice in cuba) + 40 pesos (I finally found out the money thing! 25 cuban pesos = $1 cuc but they look similar… its truly bizarre) he seemed happy to get the stuff. Plus the money was big time to him. I wish I could have given him more.
Returning to mi casa, the casa madre wasn’t happy w/ me giving stuff to him (she must have seen me do it) she said a lot of things… I understood peligro (danger) & cuidado (careful) I nodded and tried to explain he’s my amigo & he’s showed me around a lot.
Anyways, I’m not sure I like this woman she acts like a pissed off mom & wears too much make up & perfume (if that’s what you would call it, more like "Glade" bathroom spray to me) she gave me hot milk & café and some hard as a rock white bread & butter for breakfast. Shizz! I’m hungry! I haven't been spending more then $8 a day the past 2 days, so I may be able to get another good meal and a souvenir to take home w/me. The university kids want to make me dinner too! So that’s slick! I’m meeting up with them @ 12 noon.
I need to eat something and maybe go workout until then.

Catch you later!

-S™




Miguel in his room.

Afrocubano
(A little freaky if your coming to me for answers)

This is a little example of how we communicated the first day.

Keep in mind, these are excerpts from my recent trip journal... if you want to read more, you'll have to go back in my blog posts... if this is confusing... awesome! US citizens aren't confused enough...so this might be new to you.