Participant Blogs

Our time in Cuba was almost like a time warp going back to the early 1950’s, vintage cars, horse carriages, music on every comer, no internet and street vendors everywhere. What an experience and privilege to have had a month in Cuba. We faced the language barrier with body gestures and our Spanish booklets. Embraced every moment and laughed a lot with those first country giggles when you still in shock that you’ve left South Africa. In Cuba we slept our first night on the airport in true global challenge style and then slept a night in Havana. The following...

Santiago, a bustling city filled with motorbikes, trucks, horse carriages, musicians, street dancers, stray dogs, food trollies, markets and anything in between. There's no room for a misplaced foot . You can delight in a local delicacy about every 50m and the cheap ice-cream brought out that ice-cream-loving-kid in all of us. Our host church was right in the centre of Santiago. The youth members of the church, who received us, are living examples of God's love in them for other people. Cuba was the first country on our year journey and everyone struggled with missing loved ones back in home....

One month in Cuba... The realization that we would be in a communist country for a month dawned on me like a cold shower on a winter's morning. To be perfectly honest, I had a multitude of preconceived ideas before coming to Cuba. Prejudices birthed out of ignorance and lack of knowledge. Biases that could turn one month in a foreign country into a month of turmoil and negativity.