One Summer Ago in the City of Angels

Since traveling this summer is an unsafe option, let me take you back to a simpler and more carefree time when I joined two of my high school friends on a trip to Los Angeles, California for a week. It was the farthest west I had ever travelled in the United States up until then, and I was excited to experience the West Coast! My friends had already booked their Airbnb, and I decided to opt for a hostel since I was joining in fairly last minute. I found one aptly named "Walk of Fame" right on Hollywood Boulevard in the middle of all the action. Hostels are great if you want something affordable and you don't plan to spend too much time in the room. It definitely caters more towards a young professionals and college student crowd. Most of the rooms contain bunk beds and each person is generally expected to put their own sheets on the bed as well as remove them at the end of the trip rather than getting regular room service the way you would in a hotel. This particular one also had a few separate rooms with regular beds available for families for a slightly higher price. 

After getting acquainted with the space and rules pertaining to it, I entered my room of 6 bunk beds to find that some of the women there already knew each other. I wasn't expecting to get to know any of them over the course of a single week in this city. However, one of the young ladies who had been staying there for some time already said hello and made an effort to get to know me. Rianne had been travelling from her home country of England around the US for a couple weeks already learning the lay of the land and meeting new people regularly. She eagerly shared stories of her travels with me both in and outside of LA. Knowing that this city was the hotspot for meeting celebrities and seeing where they lived, Rianne had done her research on where she should go to meet her favorite stars. After visiting one of the many film studios in the LA area for a tour, she shared that she had the chance to briefly meet Mandy Moore and Milo Ventimiglia who are cast members of one of her favorite shows, This Is Us. She was just gushing about them! I was also impressed with how detailed and thorough her plans were. She did not want to waste a minute of her time, and I admired that about her. 

The Walk of Fame Hostel offered free or low cost tourist trips around the city for those who were staying in the hostel, and the guide let my friends staying at another place join as well. The Griffith Observatory is a beautiful lookout point in Griffith Park in LA that also has a science museum inside the main building and a couple of old telescopes you can peek at. On the way there, we took a train and a bus, which gave us plenty of time to connect with others in the group. We started chatting with Carolina, who works in Hyatt Hotels in Argentina. My friend, Yaniza, is a native Spanish speaker, so they quickly bonded over their common language background. My friend, Kevin, had studied abroad for a month in Bueno Aires, so he was able to share his stories with her, too. My knowledge of Argentinian culture was limited to the language and dance of Argentinian Tango, which for those who are familiar with ballroom lingo, is distinctly different from International or American Tango. Over the course of that excursion, we established ourselves as acquaintances with Carolina and hoped to see her again. 

Santa Monica Pier
(Left to Right: Carolina, Rianne, Kevin, Yaniza, me)

Rianne and Carolina both joined me for breakfast (independently of each other) in the hostel the day following the Griffith Observatory trip. Yaniza, Kevin, and I had planned a beach day seeing as this is California and the summertime. I invited them both to accompany us, and they were happy to do so! We started out our walk down Hollywood Blvd. taking pictures of us next to some of our favorite stars, and after some time realized that the restaurant where we agreed to meet my friends was a short distance by car, but not on foot. We quickly hopped in a Lyft and made our way to an early lunch/brunch at a place called "Egg Sl*t." Yes, that really was the name of the place. Then we ordered another car that got us to the Santa Monica beach where the driver shared that he is from the middle east leading us to all reveal the various countries we each come from - we were an international car! At the beach, I learned from Carolina the tradition of drinking maté, a strongly caffeinated drink that is the national beverage of Argentina. We talked about our lives, our beliefs, politics, and so much more. There is something so freeing about sharing deep and meaningful conversations with acquaintances that you meet in a new place. 

Celebrating after Yaniza's show

Later that day, I let the ladies know about the main reason we came to LA in the first place. Yaniza is a singer-songwriter who was on tour, and she had a performance scheduled for that same day in a restaurant. After getting back to the hostel and changing, Rianne and Carolina accompanied me to the restaurant before the show for dinner. We then watched Yaniza's spectacular performance and Rianne was so moved that she bought Yaniza's CD that she had for sale. 

After that day, one by one we said goodbye to one another as each departed for different destinations: Yaniza and Kevin went to the next tour destination in Nashville, Tennessee; Rianne and Carolina were off to other parts of the country. Meanwhile, I flew back home to Boston. We vowed to stay in touch after the trip through WhatsApp. Here we are one year later continuing to share insights about our lives especially in the era of COVID-19, politics, language, and more. I look forward to the day where we can travel and be in each others' company again.  

Note: Real names were used with permission.

Ghana: Interview with Kankam on Pen Pal Exchanges

Kankam Mensah Felix

Now that you've heard my perspective on my exchange with the classroom in Ghana, I'd like to share that of the Ghanaian teacher, Kankam Mensah Felix. I had the opportunity to speak with him about his experience as a facilitator of global pen pal exchanges and the impact it has had on him and his students. He works at the Lillian and Abraham Memorial Academy situated in a suburb of Accra, the capital city of Ghana. The suburb is known as Mallam. His role in the school is three-fold: he is the international relations officer, librarian, and he also teaches the Ghanaian language of Asante Twi. Read on to learn more about what Kankam is doing to improve education for his students and connect with other teachers. 

Note: If you'd like to listen/watch the interview, click here: https://youtu.be/acXH9fUzoJI

Q: Can you share how English and other languages are taught at your school?

A: Thank you so much for the great question. In Ghana, English happens to be, let's say, our first language. So students in Ghana start learning English and French. But French is not mostly taught in more schools. English is taught from nursery to grade 9 and to the university level. It's treated the same way as mathematics, social studies, and science in our classrooms. So depending upon the timetables or the schedule for the day, a class can have five periods in a week. For instance, on Monday, students will always have an English teacher going into the class.

So we have the three languages: English, French, and Ghanaian languages. The Ghanaian languages are Asante Twi and Ga. Everyone is expected to learn English and French. When it comes to Asante Twi, that is for the people who are natives of the Asante Empire or Asante Kingdom. These are the people from Kumasi. The Ga’s from greater Accra speak the Ga Language. Accra happens to be a mixed culture. We happen to have people migrating to Accra, so we have different people from all parts of Ghana. So we give them these languages to select from their own choice.

Q: Have you ever done a pen pal exchange before with your students? If so, what was that experience like? If not, what made you decide to start this year?

A: Thank you so much. When I came to the school, I introduced the pen pal exchange to my students because I used to work with the British Council way back in Kumasi, and one of my motivations to establish this programming in the school was to give students the exposure to learn what was happening outside of the classroom and outside our country. I tried to search for schools around the world and we would do a collaborative project together. We joined an organization called Yo-Ghana (exchanges for transformation). With this organization, the students were able to connect with schools in Oregon, United States.Then we also tried to talk to schools in France, in the UK, in Argentina, in Uganda, in the United States. This experience tried to broaden the scope of both the teachers that were part of the project and the students to have a sense of togetherness - a sense of feeling that "OK, we are learning here in Ghana, we have something similar with what others are learning, around the world." It gave my students, myself, and the teachers on the platform the confidence level that we are not doing something wrong. We are also doing something that the whole world is doing. It boosted our students' level of writing skills, speaking skills because there were times when we would do video recordings of some presentations that had so much impact on our students.

Q: What were your students’ initial reactions to starting the pen pal exchange with my class in the US?

A: They were so happy because one of the biggest challenges for us two years ago was access to computers and the internet. But with the help of the Helping Africa Foundation and the Friends of Yamoransa, we were able to get a 35-seater computer lab. But still we have challenges with internet connectivity. So what I mostly do is a paper exchange. My students would write, then I would scan them, and send them to the recipient teacher. They do the same thing, back and forth. So our experience with your students was so exciting! And then we were not lucky when COVID-19 struck, and we had to go back home. Then communicating with students became a challenge for me and them. But we are eager that when COVID-19 goes down, we will be able to continue our connection with you and your students.

M: I can imagine that this would make things much more difficult.

Q: So since this was a little different that they were recording Flipgrid videos rather than writing letters, how did you prepare them for the Flipgrid videos?

A: One of the things I always told them, especially when it comes to the video, is that the whole world is going to watch you. Whatever you are going to say should be very important. You have to stick to the instructions that the teacher or instructor gives. Don't go outside the box. Try to be perfect. Give the best answer you can give. Have the confidence, and speak and share your ideas because your voice means a lot to us in the world.

Before introducing Flipgrid to them, I shared a story of Malala with them. This is a young girl who tried to advocate for girls' education. We saw how powerful she was, how strong she was standing in front of delegates of awards and all sorts of platforms. With that video of Malala, it gave them the spirit to also pick up the phone to also share their messages on Flipgrid. [Note: Students in Kankam's class recorded their videos using his phone and later uploaded them to Flipgrid for my students to see.]

Q: How was ePals introduced to them? Especially since typing on a computer is very different from writing by hand.

A: We are moving away from the old, traditional way of learning to the new digital way. So one of the introductions was I told my class that we can't always use paper to write letters. The time has come where we have phones, computers, and tablets. So let's engage ourselves. We can't type as fast we can, but when we keep practicing, one day we will be typing so fast that we will be able to give our friends good information. 

My students also love the ePals platform because the teacher can moderate the incoming and outgoing messages unlike the normal email services that we can use. ePals happens to be one of the places my students love so much. I think that the biggest challenge for us is when they go to the house, most of them don't have access to computers. Then those who also have computers, don't have access to the internet. That is the challenge in communication for us on ePals and other things that we do. 

Q: Did you hear any feedback from students about this exchange before they left the school? If so, what did they say?

A: Yes. Most of my students loved writing and making friends and sharing ideas. Those students gave me the motivation to do the things that I do. One student even told me, "We are going to miss our friends." I said, "OK. We are going to lose them with a distance, but we are not going to lose our connection with them. So I'm going to try to build my connection with a teacher." And I know that when all things work perfect for us, we will be able to connect back to them again. 

M: Yeah, I really would like to keep the exchange going. 

Q: Were students’ families involved in helping students write the letters at all?

A: Yes. Not all of them, but a few of them whose experiences are mostly interested in what I do and they are educated, and they want their kids to get exposure. Some parents don't give so much interest. Like in the United States maybe you have to ask permission from the parents to do stuff. Over here we just do things like the normal type like bring the program to the school. The headmaster or the board agrees to it. We hardly seek the consent of parents to do anything we do here in Ghana. 

M: Yes, that's very different here in the US. If we take students on a field trip or plan to make any changes, parents always need to know. It's interesting that you don't do that there.

K: It's something that is good that I do. I try to design a template that whenever I'm doing a program, I tell the students, "Give it to your parents for them to be aware of the things we are doing in the school." It's something that I learned from my colleagues, especially my colleagues in the United States of America. 

M: That's why I think these exchanges are so useful because you take the best from different cultures in order to improve yourself and your school.

Q: Given that the pandemic cut our time in the school building short, what are you doing to keep students engaged in this exchange from home?

A: It's so sad that my school has not engaged our students during this pandemic yet. But one thing that I proposed to the administrators of our school is the use of Zoom, or Google Classroom, or Edmodo, and then Flipgrid that we can use these platforms to engage our students. But the challenge comes with the lack of the tools, that is the computers, tablet, phone, and access to the internet, so we are still trying to figure out [what to do]. There are some schools that are of higher grade like, I don't know, the graduate schools that are doing that. But in my school we are not engaging the students now.

One of the things that a few teachers, like myself, do is we call some of the parents just to check on how their kids are doing, if they are reading on their own. But to engage them on a learning platform, we are not doing that yet.

M: I wonder if it's possible that when the number of coronavirus cases goes down, if it would be possible for teachers to meet with small groups of students outside somewhere, and see each other, and you can teach them that way in smaller classes around different parts of Mallam or different parts of Accra.

K: Yes, one key thing is the government doesn't instruct us that we should go back to school. And if you start doing any sort of engagement with students, and a student gets COVID-19, we will be held responsible. So we are still waiting for the COVID-19 cases to drop down. One thing that I've designed that when we go back to the classroom, the first months I am going to introduce all of these platforms to my school. That is very important that we know how to use all of these platforms so that we can engage with them. That is one thing I believe that when we go back to the classroom, as teachers, we need to do - to introduce our students to the virtual platforms so that in case we experience any COVID again, or any pandemic again, we are familiar with the tools and we can use them. Even though we will have some little challenge with internet connectivity, even if they have the resources, the tablets or internet, how to use the platforms will be a challenge for most of them. We need to continue to give education on how to use these virtual platforms as well.

 

Q: What have you learned personally as a teacher about this process? Would you do this again? If so, how might you organize it differently? 

A: Thank you so much. I am always happy to connect with other educators around the world, and I'm always learning. I'm going to share this message with you: I met these two great educators. One in Australia called Joyce Bronwyn, who is the founder of Education Elevators. She has been so helpful to me, and she introduced me to a lot of educational platforms that I used to learn with her and her students. And then there's another educator from Tenafly, New Jersey from the United States called Mark Hyman. This teacher introduced me to what we call "global citizenship." So these are some great educators. I've met a lot of great educators for the past years. Gonzalo in Argentina, I've met Fabula in Argentina, I've met Michael in the US, and yourself! I've met you. So connecting with teachers, as I always say, I learn different tools of teaching, different methods of teaching, different skills of teaching, different approaches of teaching, and sometimes even personal issues. We sometimes share personal issues about things going on in our families as educators. So I'm always going to do this unless maybe I stop teaching, but I love teaching, so I'm not going to stop teaching. I'm going to continue this program because it helps me expand my level of connectivity with other people around the world.

Q: Let's say we continue this exchange next year, what might we do differently to make sure that the connection stays strong?

A: One thing that I'm going to do from my end is to make it a habit. Then I'm going to tell my school because it's like a "me and the students" program, but not a school program, so the children don't add more seriousness to it. But if it's a school program and it is part of the school, they are going to add more importance to it. That's what I'm going to do when we come back so that even though we have challenges of technology, they will give us access to the computer lab every week or every time that we need to write our messages so that the communication will keep back and forth so that there wouldn't be so much of a delay in replying back to you and other friends around the world. 

M: That's a good idea. I'm also doing this with my students. It's not a school program for us either, so it might be good for me to think about doing that to make it more a part of the culture of the school to do this sort of learning. Thank you so much for taking the time to talk to me. You really helped me think more about the importance of making these connections.

Note: The names you see are the real names of the teacher and school, and are used with permission.

Ghana: Beyond the Chocolate

I returned virtually to Ghana this year in the pen pal exchange I initiated with my 7th and 8th grade students. My colleague who teaches history focused on the history of chocolate at the start of the year. This opened students' eyes to the problematic labor laws that exist in the areas that are responsible for producing the world's chocolate in countries such as Mexico, the Ivory Coast, and Ghana. To accompany their study of chocolate, my students read The Bitter Side of Sweet by Tara Sullivan, a fictional story about an enslaved Malian child who works on a cacao farm in the Ivory Coast. However, I didn't want my students' takeaway about West Africa to simply be that there is a great deal of poverty and lax child labor laws that allow for slavery to occur. To expand their understanding, students participated in a culture study by looking at videos and readings written by locals and cultural experts from either Ghana, Mali, the Ivory Coast, or Burkina Faso. 

To supplement and reinforce that cultural connection, I established a relationship with a private school teacher in Ghana using the #Gridpals feature on the website Flipgrid. For those who don't know, Flipgrid is a popular teaching tool to allow for students to share their voices in a video format to respond to teacher prompts. #Gridpals is a feature of Flipgrid in which teachers can connect with each other across the world and form these virtual connections. We created a "grid," which is the equivalent of a classroom and acted as "co-pilots" of that class, which allowed my American and his Ghanaian classes to have access to the same prompt and each others' videos. The teacher from Ghana and I worked to pair our students one to one based on common interests (as much as possible), and some of my students doubled up given that our class sizes were quite different. For his roughly 30+ student class, I had 22 total (which normally is split between two classes of 11 students). 

Given that English is one of Ghana's official languages, this made the exchange of information much easier in the group. With countries like Mali or the Ivory Coast, my students would have needed to know French or one of the many African languages spoken in the region. My students were so excited to record videos of themselves sharing their interests and ask questions about their Ghanaian ePals. They got to be silly and authentic in a classroom setting in a way that they don't always get to be. Asking about the weather in Ghana seemed to be the most popular question. Do I sense a science learning opportunity here? Yes! If only I had capitalized on it sooner. I know as I continue to do more of these pen pal exchanges, I will get better at making them progressively more interdisciplinary. 

After an introductory video, students were asked to discuss what life at school is like. It's always hard to sound excited about something that is a standard routine, so I needed to encourage them to share things like their schedule, information about the projects they've been doing, and extracurricular activities. My students went into varying degrees of depth. On the Ghanaian end, students faced the challenge of needing to share a lot of information in a brief amount of time since they were all using their teacher's phone to record the video. As a result, many shared similar information, but one thing that stood out to my students is just how early the Ghanaian scholars needed to arrive at school - 6:30 in the morning. They do this to clean the school in preparation for the day. It is clear that instilling a value of respect for your space is critical in this particular school.  

After this second video, it was not long before we moved to distance learning. In the case of my school, we had a virtual learning schedule that students and teachers were expected to follow. For the Ghanaian students and teachers, the situation is much more tricky. While some students were very responsive to teacher emails to continue the connection with my school, others were harder to reach. This unprecedented response to the pandemic has hit the school hard, and their school year goes until August. We continued the exchange to a lesser degree using ePals through which students wrote letters to each other rather than sending videos. As distance learning continues to unfold, both of us as fellow educators continue to reach out to one another in an attempt to keep the connection alive.

Interview Part IV: Anara Frank on Staying Connected

The following is the final installment of Anara Frank's journey as the program coordinator of trips to Cuba. She talks here about the feedback she's received and the opportunities she's had to expand her programming to the Dominican Republic while also staying connected to Cuba in the midst of the global pandemic.

Q: What is some of the feedback you've received from both Cuban hosts and American travelers regarding your trip programing? Any that stood out to you over the years?

A: So starting with the Cuban dancers: I think that there are two really strong methodologies for dance teaching in Cuba and for dance and art programming in general. There's the line of high-level arts where people elected to be in an arts school and people who show extraordinary capability and talent, people who are being coached to develop that talent to the highest level, and that type of arts coaching is very strict and very focused on exactly how to be the best you can be. You're being given a chance to develop and represent the country at no cost, and there is a high level of expectation for your performance. Then there's also the community kind of dance and music programming, which is like "we are here for everyone." Everyone is here to have fun, everybody is here to learn. Whatever way we learn is fine, whatever way you do the steps is fine. If you look awkward it's fine, if you look beautiful it's fine, if your voice is off-key it's fine, if it's perfect it's fine, and it's all great! We're all just here loving it. It's dance! It's music! And there is a direction in that line that's all just fun and let's do it! You know? Yes, there's also the informal line, if you will, of just kind of picking things up from friends as they go along. Like a lot of people say, "I never learned salsa, I just knew how to do it. I would watch people," and they tried, you know? So I guess that would be the informal line. So there's three possible paths, but the two that are considered art because they're very divergent.

So what I would, as a dance instructor in the United States, who was bringing my students, had to look for how to develop [was] another type of instruction because I knew that most of my travelers were not coming to be the Olympic champion of Cuban salsa. But at the same time, they weren't coming to play and be like "Everything's wonderful! Whatever you're doing is wonderful, everything's great!" No, they wanted to learn. So figuring out how to create that space where you could be in the middle, where you could have fun but also be advancing and learning at the same time I think was surprising to the artists we were working with because they had come from one line or the other. We had both, but there was this strange place in the middle where people were learning a lot, but not being made to feel bad, I guess. It was like trying to find that little balance. So I think that was really surprising. I also know there is a lot of competition in Cuba amongst artists because there are only so many spots and everyone has good education in the arts. So we were looking for how to work as a collective that was non-competitive. No one was trying to take your role in the show, right? In Cuba, there are only a few spots for teachers, only a few spots for top performers, and so many amazing artists that it's really a fight to have your spot. With us, it was like we're building a collective, we're building a family. There's no fight for your spot, let's just keep having more students, and we all have a spot, we all work together. So I think those two things were very surprising and also some of the things that made them happiest. They had over time become such skilled instructors for people who weren't coming out of the Cuban system; [it] was something really important to them. They learned how to work with people from around the world and how to give feedback in such a way that their students, who were not Cuban, were developing. There was a saying, when I was going there, when I was younger, "Don't worry about it, you're not Cuban! You're never gonna dance like us, it's not in your blood." But then what do you do with that? Why do you even bother? So that's not useful instruction. So getting over that and getting to the point where we believed that it was actually possible to teach someone how to do something, and to teach them to do it very well, with positive energy, and helping them feel reinforced, and also that it was possible for us to be such a strong group that we didn't have to compete against each other, that there was something for everybody. So I feel like those are the two best feedback items that I think everyone has felt and that it has been very moving to watch as the group becomes more and more united based on those things. Those are the best things for me from the Cuban side, and then possibly what we were talking about earlier, that overcoming of prejudices, that what people imagined versus seeing the great diversity of what Americans actually are, and the ability for Americans and Cubans to build really beautiful relationships instead of the challenged relationships we tended to have. So I think those are the strong feedback items from the Cuban side.

From the side of the travelers: and I say travelers because not all travelers have been American. There have been many from all parts of the world. Some have been living in the United States with greencards, but also travelers from other countries who come with us on the trips, or who are born to other naturalized citizens. So there has been plenty of diversity of travelers. And I think some of the best feedback is, something that unites what I said earlier, the bonds that were able to be created in such a short period of time; the incredible experience of being totally surrounded by dance, music, and art in a way that you're not necessarily used to experiencing in our daily lives; being surrounded by a feeling of love and acceptance and appreciation regardless of what level you were at, regardless of how you looked that maybe people don't have in their daily lives, but many people were getting as part of being in our group when they were on the trip. A lot of love, support, and acceptance.

And I think the best part is what those things have meant for someone coming back afterwards. Like a lot of people have had the trip be kind of the spark for some other life changes. The spark for changing their physical health situation; the spark for making the decision to change into a different career path; the spark for being ready to take on relationship situations. So something about that leaving daily life and being in this environment of love, respect, acceptance, dance, music, art 24/7 kind of gives you a new outlook, maybe? A new way to look at things, and then be able to bring that back into your daily life and say, "OK, here is a change I want to make. I would like to change my daily life by bringing more positive energy, love, and acceptance to the people around me." Maybe they hadn't known how to do that before. Or I would like to change my daily life by figuring out how to have dance, music, and art around me every day, and maybe I hadn't done that before. And maybe I want to change my daily life by wondering and seeing what other types of career paths are available to me that have more meaning for me than the thing I'm doing right now that pays the bills. So I think those types of experiences create a spark for whatever is going to happen next. And so I think the best feedback that I am able to receive is the impact the trip made on my life is something really special. For me that's the best type of feedback that I could get.

Q: Given the restricted movement policies due to COVID-19, how are you maintaining that connection with your Cuban colleagues?

A: Actually, we kind of surprised ourselves! The start of COVID-19 was on the tails of extreme additional restrictions presented by the Trump administration for Cuba, many of which didn't hit the top of the news, but were being felt in drastic ways by my friends and family on the island. And so it was like we were already moving into a crisis. In the first few days of March, I think I got home on the 3rd from the Dominican Republic, and in the Dominican Republic I did not have a lot of contact with my friends and family in Cuba, and when I got home, we started to talk, and I was starting to realize the full impact of what was happening and how it was impacting them. Then, it was like the virus came, and then the realization that everything we did to earn money was being shut down. Not only were the people I really cared about were in crisis, but now I didn't even have a tool to help. I couldn't bring travelers, I couldn't even teach classes the way I normally would. There was a feeling that you know the people you love are suffering and the tools for how to help were being taken away. So there was a lot of internal struggle around that, and I felt really fortunate to be part a team that got good at solutioning [laughs] through all the years of challenges! And we said, "Wait! There is something we can do about this." Actually, for the past two weeks, we have been really actively working together to build what we had been working towards for the future, which is an online school and online learning community. It doesn't just provide instructional videos, but also virtual tours and experiences that people can connect to the feelings they had in Cuba but even from the United States. And that the artists are able to stay in touch with people even though [they] might not be able to see each other physically, we can be together in some way. And so we were developing this vision for this website, this online platform, and we had so many hours of videos and photos ready for it, and such a layout, and a plan, and a strategy for how to do it, but we had been going at baby steps as we did the trips, which is actually what's important.

We didn't think that the website would be a tool to support us for many years. We said we'll work on this slowly for the future. And, well, it's been the only thing we could do [laughs]! So very quickly the artists in all of the countries, in the Dominican Republic and Cuba, here in the United States and we also have partners in Canada that work with us, so the North American region, we have been working around the clock at taking all of the footage we have, editing it, getting it ready as instructional videos and other types of learning materials, and working on building the platform so that our supporters can have access to dance and music as much as they would like to access it from their own homes, and that they're able to support the artists financially that are creating all of these materials. And that everybody, by being able to stay connected, can have their spirits lifted. It's already started, and we haven't even launched the site yet. We should actually launch, hopefully tonight or tomorrow [April 1st or 2nd], it's very exciting. There have been so many technical issues. You know when you're working step by step you have specialists that help you work through the technical issues, but when you're just throwing stuff together overnight, you run into them and you don't always have help to get through to the other side. So you wait for it or you wait for someone to fix the problem that's not working, so that's the phase that we're in. But just the connection between us and the artists, I mean all of us are noticing the difference. We talk about how we've been feeling two weeks ago compared to how we feel now, and how we have a glimmer of hope in how we've been able to stay connected, and now we feel like there's a reason. Because you know we're all artists and when we're depressed, we're not necessarily dancing up a storm [laughs]. If we're creating instructional videos, and learning experiences, we are dancing. We are dancing a lot and we're sharing with someone who could really use it.

And so to be able to imagine that we have past travelers and students and people who have participated in our events who are going to feel better exercising with us and dancing with us and staying in touch with us, that's amazing and motivational! These people can help us make sure that the artists in the two countries we work with that don't necessarily have enough of a support system to assume that they'll be able to have food on the table have a weekly stipend. And so we can ensure that every week they have at least enough to buy food, at least enough to be able to make it to the next day, and for us that's hugely important. Figuring out that there's a way that we can do that using the internet while we're here in our homes has been incredible! We are actually giving thanks every day for the fact that we have this capability, that we have the technology, we have the internet service, that everything is possible. So I think, do we have a way to stay connected? Yes, more than ever, and we're working on making it better and better so that all of the people who've participated with us can feel that same thing that we're feeling about the joy of being reconnected again after so much time.

Q: As you continue to develop your programming for trips to DR, what have you learned from your experience building connections in Cuba that you can apply to this new adventure? And what might you do differently?

A: That's a great question. I'll start from the beginning. When people were travelling in Cuba with me who were from the DR asked me to do programs in the DR, my first reaction was, "How could I do a program in the DR?" The only reason I could do a program in Cuba is because of so much of my life [was] spent in Cuba. How would I possibly be able to do that in the DR? So as we would talk about it and they told me how important it was to them, how important they felt it would be for artists in the DR, how important it would be for overcoming prejudices that people had of the DR, I could see that there were experiences that I had lived through in building the programs with the artists in the community in Cuba that could be really useful to have it at least be as a starting model. I think it would be a big mistake to imagine that we can take a program from one country and plop it down in another. But we can say, let's use the model and see what we can develop that's working for the other. That's where we need to be. It's actually something that's gone both ways. It's really been special over the past, it's now, 3 years that artists from both sides have met each other and danced together and were able to exchange that way, but also they've been able to exchange music, dance steps, things like that, and also we have program tools from each country that are actually helping the other. So some system, some activity, some documentation chart invented in Cuba helps the DR program. And then the DR program invents a new type of system, program, or chart, or tool that then we take and it helps the Cuba program. So I feel like it's really been a great back and forth of how we can support each other to create best practices as quickly as possible by being able to compare with someone else. I think kind of like we do naturally here like as a teacher, I talk to other teachers and I say, "What are you doing? What's working? How can we exchange?" So I'm seeing that same type of thing as a program designer, we can utilize things we've learned from both, but without assuming that their two countries that speak the same language, that are islands in the same sea, that the programs are going to be the same.

The programs are very different in a lot of ways based on what's special and unique about each country that the artists would like to show the world, but they're very similar in that we are all on the same page, all of the artists from North America, Cuba, and the Dominican Republic about wanting to create a space where music and dance can connect us and bring a type of joy that we might not always be experiencing in our daily lives, but by creating that space we can. By creating that space and having that experience, we might actually be able to improve our daily lives, I think for everyone -- for the hosts and for the travelers. And so I think that that's the most important thing for all of us that we maintain throughout all of the trips is that there's really special connections, really deep cultural exchange, really deep conversations about reality in each country in order to help us overcome prejudices of being able to see the beauty in what is there, acknowledging what's negative that maybe people want to change, maybe learning also on how to withhold our own strong opinions about how another country should be, or how another person should choose to live, and being able to just learn, and be curious, and be accepting that maybe different cultures have different best practices. So sharing our best practices when possible, but not trying to impose what's good for us on someone else. I think that's been really important as we've begun building between the two countries, and I would say without a doubt, that whatever I have first built here in the United States, it was absolutely essential to have something as a model of the work I did building up a dance program here in order to be able to do what I did in Cuba. But it was equally important what Cuba was giving me and nourishing in me to be able to build the dance program. And I would say the same thing with me and what the United States programming has given me to be able to do in the DR, but also then adding Cuba into the mix. And then all three regions being able to help each other and support each other has just been incredible to be a part of it.

M: Thank you so so much for taking the time to tell me all about this. It will be really cool to see what feedback I get on what you say in terms of just the importance of having those kinds of global connections especially in a time when people might feel really isolated. So thank you, thank you so much. I really appreciate that you took the time.

A: You're welcome!

Interview Part III: Anara Frank on Cuban Impact

The following is a continuation of my interview with Anara Frank. Here she speaks about the way the Cuban culture of arts and dance became a necessary part of her life in the US and the ways she has grown from orchestrating the trips to Cuba. You can find the first two parts of this interview in previous blog posts if you want to get caught up on the bold and adventurous life of Anara Frank.

Q: What are some of the ways that you've brought Cuban dance culture back to the US?

A: I think I've had two main ways in life that I felt I could participate in being part of cultural exchange. The first phase happened when I came back from living there. I had experienced things from being part of a culture that is really passionate about social dancing and the way that social dancing was happening -- like the type of joy that it brought, the fact that you could dance with anyone of all ages, that it wasn't a romantic thing necessarily, you could dance with your uncle, you could dance with your neighbor -- it was just all about how humans connect. That feeling I didn't really know how to access in the United States. As a young person, it had become essential in the way that I lived and felt happy. There are aspects of dance culture, not necessarily salsa dance culture, but all the arts, every type of dance, music, and theater, were readily accessible in Cuba that it becomes an essential part of daily life that for me, who had not been as connected to the arts prior to living there, it felt like it became part of my necessity, my breathing. I had to have it around me. I hadn't realized that I had a lack of access until experiencing it 360. So the feeling of: everyone is welcome, free classes open to everyone, everyone has a place to sing, everyone has a place to dance, no matter how good you are you should just do it because it's so fun and so rewarding for you as an individual, and it's so spiritually uplifting, there should be art all the time everywhere around you, murals and walking down the street, music, and just everything, that I wanted to figure out a way to make a small part of that possible where I lived. And so the first piece for me was the welcoming and the accessibility for people who didn't think arts were for them or who didn't previously have access to the arts.

So my first company, non-profit organization, provided arts programming, both instructional and entertainment, for masses of people. We usually had about 2,000 students a year in ongoing classes, many many more if you count one-time events where we do a residency at a school. We might count 10,000 a year with that. And audiences regularly measured over 100,000 because we were always looking for places where lots of people would go who might not have that type of interaction and accessibility -- like festivals and parades. We didn't want to just be in a parade and be there by ourselves in our costumes. We were always looking for ways to get everyone around us to dance with us and join us. So that aspect of the accessibility and joy, that music and dance were part of everyday life at all times, is something I brought back with me almost as if it had become a part of me. I don't even know that I could say as a teenager that I was fully aware of how much Cuba had given me in that respect. All I knew was that I had been told it was my responsibility to be a cultural ambassador and it was my responsibility to find ways that people in the United States, young people in particular, could access music [and] dance.

For me, one of my arts was acrobatics, so some people don't consider that dance, but for me that was what I had done. [I was] a part of making that possible for as many young people as possible and eventually as many adults as possible, as many communities as possible. So I feel like that's the first piece of my connection [that] would have happened without the underlying ideas behind it. Did we do some Cuban styles of dance? Sure! But I didn't actually, at that time, feel safe or comfortable developing a program that was very Cuban-art-oriented. It was art oriented; it was community art oriented; it was social art oriented; it was community building. Dances that were popular with young people at the time [were] being put on a stage. It was making everything that we loved about social dancing to be art, and everything that we loved about art able to be social community building. I felt like that was my first goal. I didn't usually speak the word "Cuba" in connection with it. I do think that is a part of Cuban dance culture, but we were doing dances that mostly weren't Cuban. I led that organization for 15 years. I actually stopped because I had a tumor. I wasn't able to healthfully participate; I had it on my leg, so it had gotten worse and worse to the point where I got it removed, but I couldn't walk for a long time. So it didn't seem smart for me to stay in that type of leadership role in an organization that needed someone really strong and ready to go. So I stayed with that organization emotionally, but I left [physically].

Once I got better, the company decided that I should continue, myself, the aspect of Latin dance because it was less strenuous than all the other things we did at that company. We had a feeling in that company that it was a mix of hip hop, Latin dance, and gymnastics. Those were kind of our three pillars, and then many other styles of dance around that as many people came in and out and wanted to share that. It was all about sharing a cultural dance or a dance form that you were passionate about. The Latin dance program was the only one that didn't involve a very high level of physical intensity, and it was all that I could do; I could barely walk. It was determined that I could keep running a Latin dance program and see if I could get better while the instructor, who was then running the company, could continue doing gymnastics, hip hop, Capoeira, and all those other styles of dance that they had. That's how my second company was born, MetaMovements, as you know, with just focusing on the Latin dance aspect. It was basically the concept of what could I do walking or from a chair [laughs], and that's how I started. At that point, the political issues between Cuba and the US were not as intense as they had been before, also salsa was a lot more well-known. So I started focusing on being able to talk about Cuba because as a salsa instructor I really should be talking about Cuba. Cuba is the root that we need to study. Son and Rumba and many other styles gave birth to the salsa that we do today, so it became a more focal point of my instruction to talk about Cuba and Cuban influence in the history and dances we were doing because the dance were doing was salsa. I think that has stayed with me to the present day -- the really big focus of looking at the roots and history and how it led to the salsa we do and how we can connect the salsa we do to the way they do it in Cuba.

Cuba inspired me to build things like Salsa in the Park that I'm sure you have participated in. The community-based feel that I knew as reality there was what I was aching to bring into my reality here. And as travelers would go with me to Cuba, they would help me build what today is Salsa in the Park into something really strong. That was definitely, definitely inspired by my experiences in Cuba. We brought the concept of Timba lines where people were lining up and doing follow the leader in salsa parties, which was not something that was done here at all. Again, this is something that comes from Cuba that brought us so much joy and connection by being in the whole group and moving our bodies together, and really not minding looking silly because we were all in a big line just doing it for fun. Like all of those community-type-building-feeling I am thankful to Cuba in my life, and I keep trying to make it available, let's say, in other people's lives.

Q: Has anything about the trip surprised you?

A: I do think that there are always surprises in everything we do [laughs]. You know, especially in a place like Cuba that has a lot of challenges and shortages, there have been times when a program has been set up for months and then the light goes out or the water goes out in the place we were supposed to go, then we have to invent something else on the spot. We got used to saying for every program that we have a plan A, B, C, and D for every activity so it would move fluidly. So I think now, looking back, it has given me a capacity to solution, to think outside the box, be ready to improvise, be ready to try different things. So I think one of the most surprising things that came out of the trips is pushing me a lot as an individual to have personal growth in those areas and just to be ready to come up with some positive way to handle the challenge in front of me.

I think the other most surprising thing is the deepness of the relationships that have been built in a short period of time -- sometimes 4 days, sometimes a week -- but so much connection to the point where there were many many tears usually shed upon departure, and real hugs and friendships that mean the world to people occurring in such a short period of time that we wouldn't think usually of that being the way to develop a relationship. It's been beautiful to be a part of creating a space where that's possible where for this small moment in time we are no longer political adversaries, we are no longer people who the other is against, just creating this tiny space and hole in our existence to find each other through joy, through dancing, through music and all of a sudden something opens. We are able to connect in a way we couldn't before, we are able to interact in a way we couldn't before. There's almost no way to maintain strong prejudices when your prejudices are being challenged to that level that everything that you expected is different. I feel like those things have been surprising for me and also really motivational to keep doing this type of work.

M: I would say that was something I felt too from having gone on the trip is how quickly everyone connected and the fact we're still in touch almost a year later. It's really amazing.

SEE PREVIOUS POSTS FOR PARTS I AND II OF THIS INTERVIEW.
STAY TUNED FOR PART IV.

Interview Part II: Anara Frank on Changes

In the following segment of my interview with Anara Frank, she describes the main changes that have occurred over the course of time alongside the trips to Cuba she has organized and, in some cases, because of those trips.

Q: How have you seen aspects of Cuban life change since you've started these trips?

A: I guess I want to start by saying a lot of aspects of everyone's lives have changed since 2002. If we think about American life in 2002, it was really different than American life now. The world is changing so fast, particularly in the changes in technology that change the way we communicate, that change the way we do business, that change even the way we think, and the way we move around in the world. So first of all, I would say that there is there huge overarching change when you think about the number of years that we've been having programs (just the years that spans in human development). I mean, sometimes I think five years ago the United States didn't look the same.

I just want to start out with that overview that so many things have changed that it's hard to pick out just a few, but I thought of a few examples right off the top of my head. The first example I have is the difference that it makes to have access to internet and cell phones. So cell phone and internet use is still very expensive for every day Cubans. There are still a lot of challenges with connectivity. We go back the embargo. The majority of the fiber optic cables in the Caribbean surrounding Cuba are owned by the United States, which means that Cuba should not be using them for communication. I heard all sorts of different stories from different sources over the years about how Cuba has been able to access the internet and telecommunications, and they've ranged from satellites and ships in China, [also] Venezuela gave some fiber optic cable through some trade deal with Cuba. Little by little they've built the ability to have access. Under Obama, there were opportunities for US companies to get involved with Cuba being able to have access. But nothing can compare, in my memory, with the level of connectivity they have right now. Particularly in the big cities, but there has also been an effort in the country to bring more and more communication through cell phones and internet to rural areas as well.

For me personally, this type of difference has been specifically marked in the past few weeks. For most of my life, wherever I am between Cuba and the United States, I could only communicate with people there. It's been a challenge for me because there are times when I spent so much time communicating daily with them there and then I disappear when I leave the country. And it's been strange for people, especially here in the US, when they think we'll be able to stay connected through internet or telephone. But it has proven many times almost impossible from Cuba. When I think back, I remember I had a card that I wrote for my cousin when the laws changed in 2003 and people could no longer visit their families and no longer do the types of programs that had been happening previously. For me it had been visiting my family but also "People-to-People" programs in which professional research programs had been happening. And I wrote my cousin this very heartfelt letter about how I didn't know if we would ever see each other again. I didn't know if we would ever be able to be in touch. I wanted her to know how much I loved her. I think about it now, and I wasn't in touch with her for years! There were years that we really couldn't have communication! Then when the trips started, obviously things were better, but it was still a big black hole. When I was here I was here, and maybe there could be a few extremely expensive phone calls, maybe a few very challenging-to-get emails, but that's there when I was there. And then I was a black hole for the people who were here, so this has been an interesting feeling over the years.

Right now, it feels totally different, and it's building towards this place. But I am so thankful that at this start of what we have as a worldwide shutdown, where we're all in our houses, and we can't travel, and we can't be connected in so many ways, I've never felt more connected to my artists in Cuba. We are in a group chat where we can talk and share every day! Never has this been possible before! My cousin leaves me messages many times a day. It is almost like it's been working its way into reality. But because we didn't need it, and because we had the habit of not being in touch, we just weren't. But because we are working on a project together, it's just amazing! And the feeling that we have of connectedness, we're all still so surprised! We're surprised when a message shows up in our phone from the other person, so I feel that is a hugely dramatic change. Although, I know it didn't happen overnight. It has felt that way for me. I think it has had a longer existence. Had you traveled more, you probably would have felt it sooner. But when you only travel there once a year, you've used the communication systems so much and the ease has grown and grown and grown over the years that you've felt good probably about the past several years worth of communication. Whereas for me, since we were so in the habit, and I was going back and forth so much, I think we didn't lean into how much we could communicate until right now, and it's just been incredible.

Another really interesting change that I've watched a lot over the years and has been very impactful for me is how family, friends and families of friends that have stayed with me, and just every-day Cubans' life and well-being has been. It's been so different in different eras, and experiencing those changes has been very impactful for me. It's been impactful for me to see the struggle to get through daily life right now compared to what daily life looked like five years ago. It was an era hope. People in Cuba were really inspired that Cubans and Americans could have relationships again, [and] there were a lot of positive changes in the opinions of people on both sides of the straits. It was an incredible time to be visiting back and forth and to feel like a cultural ambassador. Watching this evolution happen before my eyes of that people who had negative opinions of each other opened the door to the possibility of first a civil relationship and then a real friendship. Though, along with that, came the ability for every-day Cubans, at least some of them, to earn a little more, and usually in families, for example, in the city where more money was needed to live, there could be in many families someone who was able to do work in tourism, or a mixed venture (which would be a venture that involved another country along with Cuba), maybe it was a restaurant, maybe some kind of hotel, but it was some place where they had access to earning hard currency, and the the whole living situation was much better for many people. I won't ever say that there is a situation where you can see an entire population without challenges. Definitely, it was a marked difference from what I am experiencing now. It's so interesting for me to mark the difference at different times in my life and notice these ups and downs in the relationship to how the majority of the population is living. Now is a really, really, really hard time for Cubans every day. I am grateful that we can be in touch, I am thankful that we are finding ways that we can be of support, but it's really stressful and challenging to see how much struggle they have after you could see the positive results of what happened under our last president.

Q: Do you feel that travelers' perceptions of Cuba have changed from going on these trips?

A: I think any time you have an experience in a place you've only heard about, whether on the news, or in books, or from other people, I always think there is this moment of shift when you're starting to experience the real thing. I think it's been very interesting with Cuba over the years that there have been in the United States access to very negative opinions about Cuba and we have access to very positive opinions about Cuba. So travelers are often predisposed, depending on where they live and who they've been in touch with, to have one or the other side. Coming to Cuba with an impression of how horrible it is, I've heard things like everything's gray, everyone's depressed, everyone is starving. Lots of, kind of, absolutes on that end. I've also heard a lot of absolutes on the other end by people who have pictured what's been achieved in Cuba that's been hard to achieve in the US as part of being like a utopia. "They have the most amazing public health system, they have the most amazing free education system, the most amazing ability to access arts and culture." But then the picture is so high that it might miss some of the challenges that are really there.

Back to: they're living under an embargo. It's the most extreme economic sanctions over the longest period of time for anyone in the world. It's been interesting on both sides, and I feel like the real thing is that no place is perfect. Every place has some really special unique qualities, and every place has challenges and things they need to improve. I would say that about my own country. There are so many things I love about my country, so many things that make me so proud to be from this country, so many things that make me want to be here and living here in this country in this moment in time, but also so many things that hurt me to the core. So many things that I think in our country are really wrong and unjust. There are things that I find to be somewhere in the middle like this keeps changing and I'm kind of neutral about this or others that I think are silly, and I think it's going to be like that for other places as well. The situation between Cubans and Americans is so politicized that people come in strongly believing a caricature in some way, shape, or form. I would like to open a space for them where they can have enough information from whatever's different from what they think that they can let themselves have a real experience. So for people who think that Cuba is a living hell, I want them to see some of the positives so that they can have a real experience. For those that think it is living in heaven, I want them to see some of the negatives so that they can have a real experience. So my goal is that people can experience a lot for their own selves. It's just helping us get out of black and white. There are amazing things happening there that we need to learn from, and there are other amazing things happening here that they can learn from. That type of exchange is really going to help everybody in both countries. I've had many many travelers tell me how surprised, how shocked they are about something. There's always something! Because everyone comes with a preconceived notion about Cuba compared to almost anywhere else.

I actually would say that it has happened in the other direction as well. A lot of Cubans who have participated in our program have really changed their impressions of Americans as well. Now the difference is that most Cubans change their impressions within the first few experiences with us. Because it's so repeated, now that expectation is there. The expectation is that Americans do come in different shapes, sizes, colors, economic backgrounds, and ways of life. If you experience that several times, you start to believe it even though that's not what you thought. If you thought that people in America looked like people on a sitcom the way you saw on TV, and only certain sitcoms, and only certain movies, more like a soap opera, then of course the first few are clashing with your opinion and reality, but then it becomes normal. So I think that every artist or every person who worked in a restaurant or in a casa particular [Spanish for private house, which could be a homestay or bed and breakfast] that we built a relationship with that we continue to work with, every organization changed their perceptions of Americans within the first few trips. Because of the amazing exchange and contact that we had in each trip, it would then last and continue to others where each new trip, especially because there'd be repeating members, our hosts were already so ready to receive us because of the experience they had before. So I think it felt like more of a revelation on the part of each American because it was their one experience as opposed to Cuban people who were working with us, it was like they were having repeated experiences. I've had many American travelers who had come with us on multiple trips, three trips, four trips. And then the same type of thing starts to happen that this becomes real, this becomes the reality they know is there. Then there's not as many changes of opinion.

SEE PREVIOUS POST FOR PART I OF THIS INTERVIEW.
STAY TUNED FOR PARTS III AND IV.

Interview Part I: Anara Frank on Cuban Travel

A year after traveling to Cuba last April, I've continued to stay in touch with the organizer, Anara Frank. As an American gymnast and dancer with strong familial and friend ties to Cuba, she blended all of her passions and her identity into creating these phenomenal trips. I had the pleasure of interviewing her to get a glimpse into the behind-the-scenes work of putting together not just an ordinary trip or vacation, but an unforgettable experience that stays with you and shapes your life thereafter. Here are her responses to my questions:

Q: How did the MetaMovements trip to Cuba come into being?

A: That's a great question! It kind of appeared organically, but to go back in time, when I was living in Cuba as a teenager, I lived in my sister city where I was a tour guide sometimes and I assisted a little bit. And in 2002, there was a request from members of the sister city that I assist with coordinating travelers between our sister cities. At the time, Cambridge and the city of Cienfuegos were sister cities. My responsibility was to develop meaningful programming from arts to education to local political involvement and learning how people from each country in those cities were able to interact in their daily lives when they were brought together. I was able to support the sister city program for two trips before President Bush cancelled our ability to travel. Because it was kind of floating out in the wilderness that it had happened and people had positive experiences on the trip, the agency that supported the travel for the sister city programs contacted me in 2009 after Obama became president. They asked if I could support people who were in my line of work to be able to travel to Cuba legally in the intersection of arts, education, and public health. This had been the areas that my non-profit organization had touched and delved into during the sister city program. So they were looking for people like myself who had connections with Cuba, had experience there, able to translate, and were in a line of work that allowed professionals to travel, and that gave people a really positive feeling about the opportunities for useful and meaningful exchange between Americans and Cubans in a certain line of work. So specifically, it was under a professional research license that I was able to help everyone from therapists who were using arts as a tool in their practice to school teachers, primarily people who were language teachers, social studies teachers, Caribbean studies teachers, to dancers, musicians and artists. I had that opportunity to be a guide and a link between all these different groups of people. I was asked to be a Contracted Program Consultant. That was the title at the time: to consult on programming for meaningful exchange between professionals from the areas that I focused on.

And when Obama opened "People-to-People" exchanges, it was open for everyone to be able to travel. So for the first few years, it was just for people who fit the "Professional Research" category of the time, and following that it opened for "People-to-People" for anyone who wanted to travel. At that point, MetaMovements qualified for a "People-to-People" license, and we were able to bring people on a fairly regular basis. The cost of getting the license had to be considered: all of the legal costs, all of the administrative costs, and so in order to be able to support that license, we made it a very regular ongoing program as opposed to before we were doing it upon interest of travelers. At that time, we started to do outreach and let people know about the trip so that we would be able to help people go on an ongoing basis. Between 2009 and the changes that Obama made and (I believe it was) 2014, during that period of time only professionals could travel, and so we helped professionals travel a few times a year. It was a great connection to the regular program we did. I did work with a lot of professionals in those fields and it was the type of thing where I could help people who were interested in that type of exchange to participate in a meaningful way and get to know our Cuban counterparts. When we made the change to "People-to-People," the ability to have this license was very much cost prohibitive for almost everyone. For that reason, only some of us decided that we were going to take the plunge and say, "OK, we're going to take a lot of trips to Cuba," because it would be the only way to cover the cost of being able to have that type of legal support and being able to purchase the license. This is what allowed people to regularly travel to Cuba and have the kind of cultural experience that you had!

The important underlying feature is that ever since I lived there, as a young person, and built relationships with friends and family there. I felt that there was always this feeling that there were very few people that had the ability to have a foot, let's say, in each country, who were able to make it possible to go back and forth. I'll never use the word easy. There were many times when it has been very very challenging, but I had the ability to, and I have been thankful for that for my whole life because many people in my family and that I know don't have the ability to, visit back and forth. I was told by many people that I had kind of a responsibility on my shoulders. If I was given this privilege, that I was able to get to know both countries so well, and have positive experiences in both countries, that I had this responsibility to serve as something like a cultural ambassador. Both sides were spreading a lot of stories in a form that we often refer to as propaganda. I don't know if everything was propaganda because sometimes people telling their true version of the story they'll feel like that is the truth, but they might be missing so many other pieces of the story that what comes out to us is an image that might not actually be what we would see if we were there in the other place. I would get asked questions from the Cuban side about what was happening here and from the Americans about what was happening there were so interesting for me because the vision that each had of the other country and the people of the other country was so formed by the media as opposed to personal experience or people talking to them, like family or friends, but not always family or friends who were living a complete or full experience. Most people who had family in the US who were Cuban had family living in a small area, let's say Miami, specifically, or maybe Union City in West New York, but mostly living in very Cuban communities and not having a lot of knowledge of what life in the US was like for non-Cuban immigrants and many American citizens. I did feel the weight of that and always tried my best to share music and dance between the two countries, to share differing opinions between the two countries, to help each country remember that the picture that they have been painted may not contain the full truth, it may contain a part of the truth, and that there might be more that they want to learn. So opening that door to communication has always been really important to me. So whenever the opportunity arose when someone asked for my support to do that, I was ready. Whether it was helping with American travelers or groups of Cubans coming to perform for a cultural exchange in the US, my goal was to always be able to assist with helping people from the different cultures view each other at least with an open mind to get started so that a relationship could be built. I think that one of the challenges is when you hear so many negative things about the other side or exaggerated positive things about the other side, how do you find the truth and decide that for yourself? As a person in the middle, I try to help people see the many versions of the story, and as a person who helped people travel in both directions, I try to help people see as broad a view possible that might not have matched with what they heard previously. That was always my goal. How can I help people see that there might be another part of the story? And I think that's why I always answered that call to support people in either direction trying to organize some type of exchange so that I can see how by being in the middle, I might make it be able to be a little more fruitful, a little more supportive to people having eye-opening experiences getting to know each other.

Q: What obstacles did you face when putting together and maintaining programming for this trip?

A: Almost everything is always clouded by what many call the blockade or the embargo. It's not exactly one thing. It's a whole series of laws that put together affect travel, exchange, sharing of information, to such an extent that everything can be traced back to that. Are there are other obstacles that come up along the way? Sure! But when you peel back the layers, it usually goes back to these specific situations that we find ourselves in based on a series of laws dating back to the 1960s, primarily, that maintained us apart for so many years.

So we may say that the finances are a challenge. But when you peel back the layers, you'll see that the finances are a challenge because they are related to this series of laws. If we could say that flights have been a challenge at many points in time, but when you peel back the layers, the issues of flights are related to this series of laws. So each time that you say what is a challenge you face, when you peel back the layers, you come to that at the bottom. So it's not to say that there aren't a lot of challenges that we are working on solutioning [sic] every day, it's just something that we have to do because this is something that hasn't moved since the 1950s and some pieces of it since the '80s. So we are solutioning around it, but I do feel that the root cause is this and that without the blockade, I believe we would still have had challenges as you have challenges in anything, but they would all be very different challenges. I would have to say that this is the root cause with helping people travel legally to Cuba is that there is an issue with traveling legally to Cuba. All of the ramifications -- the political issues, the financial issues, the freedom of speech issues -- that come into play with this series of laws.

STAY TUNED FOR PARTS II-IV OF THE INTERVIEW.

Edit: Previously, the following errors, which have now been corrected, were made:
- Anara was incorrectly identified as Cuban-American as opposed to American with Cuban connections.
- The request to start the programming was from members of the sister city, not her sister.
- The name of the sister city is not San Fuegos, but Cienfuegos.