Category: Cuba

Fuzzy hair, Grumpy Frogs, New Friends

Internet quite fast today in our little apartment in the film school, Saskia playing outside with a resident film school nanny and some other children of the film school.  So ………

Rafa and I have had to stop our extended honeymoon and get back to work BIG TIME and reality has set in.  I dream of looking for things in boxes like a lunatic and lie awake at night trying to remember what I used to feed my children in other countries and then thinking ……… hmm yes …….. no strawberries, no tortillas, no Broccoli, no fish fingers, no sausages.  Maybe in time all these things will come through my door but right now I feel very uninspired and just keep serving up French bread pizzas and mangoes and yogurts, sneaking a bit of green veg into bolognese sauce.

My hair has always been a bit on the fluffy side but here in Cuba it is really getting silly.  Not quite sure how to handle it, so any beauty tips gratefully received.  I am thinking about just chucking some olive oil on it but its all about playing around with the hair/oil ratio and right now I am rather busy looking after 3 children and having a lot of people help me with everything, when all I want to do is help myself!  Sounds ungrateful I know, but I just want to be independent and not have to ask for things or be asked for things!

The boys first week at their new French school proved to be more eventful than I had anticipated!  Paulo and Nico are 14 months apart in age, and as all brothers, have extremely different personalities.  Check out who are we section of this blog for more descriptions of our family.  Anyway Paulo, my first born is certainly not lacking in the ambition and confidence department but little Nico my second, takes more after his mother and is brave but not always high on self esteem.

In Guatemala they both did evaluations when they started their new schools and to my relief they BOTH got put in the year above.  If they BOTH hadn’t been, it would have been difficult to accept the evaluation as Paulo would have been 2 years above his brother or they would have been in the same class and not been allowed to develop individually.  Anyway at the French school after their first day Paulo came waltzing out proudly saying he had been put up a year and had already met his new best friend Lorenzo who was inviting him round for a play date and had a swimming pool.  How the hell did that happen I thought?  The boy can hardly speak French!!  However the look on my little Nico´s face was devastating.  Paulo will always always be 2 years above me now Mummy he said.

Rafa and I were both a bit cross that this decision had been made without consulting us and had really knocked Nico’s self esteem.  Next morning Rafa went to the director’s office to explain.  However he was a bit grumpy and did not seem very keen on moving Nico as he said the class above was really full.  There was no way we could move Paulo down a class, especially as he had his new best friend.

By day 3 when nothing had happened and Nico was leaving school looking sadder and sadder every day, and nobody in the French school seemed particularly interested in resolving our problem, I had to take action.  So outside the school gate, I asked if any of the parents could help, in a little pathetic speech about my poor Nico that I don’t think half the people understood!  But anyway it must have made the school run a little bit more interesting that day and finally got the director to take us seriously.  He marched me off into his office like a naughty girl …….

One of the teachers had even said to Rafa that it was very difficult to have pupils that do not have French at home.  Why accept them in the first place you grumpy frogs? we thought.  Anyway by Thursday at school meeting with the parents they addressed all matters and Nico is now in the right class and doing really well and I think I have met two new friends.  And, my French friends I still remain a true francophile despite all this!

Katharina is an international German mother married to a Spaniard and they both speak fluent English.  Her children speak Spanish, English, German and French and she has been in Cuba 11 years.  She is calm and kind and interesting.  Also at the parents meeting I sat next to another Mum, Laura who has a girl in Nico’s new class.  She is half French, half English and married to a Cuban.  Also she is a scriptwriter working with a very well known Cuban film director and was very interested to meet Rafa and I.  Anyway they both liked the fact that Rafa and I fought so hard for little Nico so I think they will be future friends if I ever manage to get out of my house to socialise!

 

Telegram from Habana

I have so much to write about my new life that I have 20 blog posts in my head.  I really don’t know where to begin.

I am realising that my inability to write or get on line is more to do with the fact that I am on my own with 3 children trying to unpack and find things and find out where to buy the basics  …….. than the fact that I have slow dial up internet.

So this is a bit of an incoherent ramble, I promise I will try to organise my writing a little better in future posts.  Too much to say and not much time to get it all down.

My husband says I have blossomed in Cuba.  He says everything about me is more relaxed and happy and beautiful.  Viva Cuba! just for that mega compliment I say ….

A lot of handsome streetwise men arrived to bring our shipment of things last week so we are now fully installed.  I never thought a move in could be so much fun.  Lots of jokes and banter.  Rafa and I were exhausted but happy when we went to bed that night.  In our bed, with our sheets and our pillows, our towels, etc etc.

The new nanny failed to be the right one because she did absolutely nothing!!!!  In fact she was quite brilliant at doing nothing.  I began to feel as though I was working for her as I served her another lunch at the table and I ran around picking up toys, getting the boys to wash hands, Saskia wrapped around me!  Plan B Nanny is a little bit bling bling but is turbo charged and a lot more sparky.  I gave her a test run by inviting her to come round and clean my disgusting oven.  She spent 3 hours up to her knees and elbows in grease removing a one inch crusty layer, all of this with a big smile on her face.

The tiles in my downstairs loo at first glance look quite ordinary and bland but you can spend a long time finding faces and animals in the patterns.  It really is trippy and very clever.  I certainly have not been near any psychedelic drugs lately, maybe a little bit too much red wine, as I have been partying quite a lot with Rafa.  I showed the children one afternoon and they thought it was amazing and even Rafa had to admit he could see a lot of things!  It is quite addictive once you start to see things you can´t stop and every day I see something new.  I want to find out more about these trippy tiles.

The boys start school on Monday (in French) yippee!  Saskia has been enrolled in a local nursery which I went to visit last week.  They were a bit low on colours and toys but my main concern was that the directora, a woman, had a beard!  I kid you not, no 5 o’clock shadow or a bit of stubble it really was what could only be described as an established beard.  I know I should be open minded and not prejudiced etc etc. but a bit scary for me, never mind my 17 month old girl.  I was just relieved that neither of the boys, who accompanied me on the visit, made some really inappropriate comment.

Also this week 6 men arrived from the film school to help me sort out everything that needs to be updated in the house …..mosquito screens, checking all electricity points, painting the guest room, tuning the TV, sanding the doors so they shut properly.  Mania is the Film School representative in Habana, she is a sassy 48 year old who looks 10 years younger and is helping me out with anything and everything.  She arrived to help me order the men around.  I was very impressed!  Cuban men are famous machistas but watching this woman you would think the opposite.  I feel she may turn into a future friend.  She also told me that she loves to dance!

Rafa is absolutely loving his role as director of the Film school.  I have never seen him so stimulated and full of ideas and confidence.  It is as though he was made for the job and vice versa.

We watch the sun go down chatting and chatting about all his ideas and all the characters that work with him.  He has a lot to do, but in Cuba you feel as though miracles are possible.

In Limbo in Habana

Havana, Habana, Guatemala, amateur, Guatemala, marriage, role, Thai Chi, Juventud, Cuba, Chrysler Voyager, traffic, cook, nanny, international school, French International school Havana, rugby in Cuba, French, France, baguettes in Havana, mac external modem

My life has begun here in Havana but I still feel a little bit in limbo, mainly because the school term hasn’t begun for Rafa or the children …….. but after a few amateur mistakes, things are falling into place faster than I ever imagined.

Most importantly, we are all happy and relaxed as we never were in Guatemala and I haven´t even made any friends yet!  But I feel so optimistic and happy for Rafa and I and our family life for the next 4 years.  The energy here has let us all unravel.  Rafa seems to be relishing his new role, and is getting up earlier than any of us every morning to swim in the sea and do Thai Chi.  The children have hardly had their clothes on, especially Saskia, whose fat little bottom I am getting used to seeing waddling around the garden or sitting in her paddling pool.  Her hair has also gone wildly curly and she looks prettier than ever!  The boys spend more time swimming, chasing crabs, sailing off in their pretend boat to the island of Juventud ……. than fighting, as they had been during the last few weeks of uncertainty and stressful travelling.

Havana, Habana, Guatemala, amateur, Guatemala, marriage, role, Thai Chi, Juventud, Cuba, Chrysler Voyager, traffic, cook, nanny, international school, French International school Havana, rugby in Cuba, French, France, baguettes in Havana, mac external modem

Cuba loves children and everywhere we go my three are running around making friends.  I feel so relaxed that I don’t have to worry about kidnapping or guns or narcos or just plain old uptight rich people judging us.  Everyone has been so friendly ………..

I will always love Guatemala but living in that ridiculously unequal, repressed and violent society was not good for me.  I feel things too much, even the things you don´t see.  I wrote about Antigua life in this blog and will always love my friends but I can’t wait for them all to visit me here to see me in this new world.

When I think about the uptight rich Guatemalans and arrogant Americans who had never visited Cuba, but were so quick to tell me that it was a disaster.  I will tell them, take a good look at yourselves before you criticise others.  Cuba ain’t perfect but there is something intangibly special here.

So here goes my little update on life …….

We arrived to find out that both our cars were off the road.  But now we have two cars outside our house.  Mine is a big Chrysler Voyager with 3 rows of seats.  Yikes!  But there is no traffic in Cuba.  Imagine 1950s England.  After Guatemala and a month in UK this is driving paradise.

I had to deal with the cook, who introduced herself to me in February (our first visit) saying that she was in charge of the house.  That is going to change, I thought to myself all those months ago.  I didn’t like her from the beginning.  Just her very presence in a room irritated me even before she opened her mouth and she would follow me around like a nurse in a mental institute.

The house had been empty for 8 years apart from the odd event or dinner and she had been ruling the roost.  I couldn’t even go into my kitchen and get a glass of water without her breathing down my neck ……. literally.   After 5 days Rafa came home to find me holed up in my bedroom like a depressed teenager on a school exchange.  So she had to go!  Her food was rubbish anyway and she hadn’t helped me find any of the things I had asked her.  She wanted to be in control.  Also there was a suspiciously large amount of food coming into the house that we certainly weren’t eating.

I think we have also found a nanny.  I am not sure anyone can replace our beloved Juju but I have a really good feeling about this woman who is a friend of one of the ex-employees from the house and is a kind and gentle woman from the country.  She is a teacher and a mother in her fifties looking for something less stressful and close to home (she lives in the first block of flats next to our house about 200 yards away).

Next the school issue.  We were expecting to send the boys to the International School but after a quick visit to discuss payments we were blown away by the fees.  The Film School had offered to pay for one of the boys but still we could not ask them to pay what they were demanding ……. a price expensive for anywhere in the world never mind Cuba.  It was a bit of blow but sometimes things happen for a reason.  We discovered the French international school was just 5 minutes from our house, a quick phone call and we found ourselves in the headmasters office filling out forms and laughing about how the French school was bringing rugby to Cuba.  I have a feeling my little Nico will be good at rugby just like his grandfather and uncles …….. vamos a ver.  I liked the headmaster, he had a little sparkle in his eyes like a good Santa.

So the boys will have another language, their third.  They even offer French classes to parents which I will be taking ……… its 20 years since my days in France and I love the language.  On top of that we have a very good French bakery round the corner with baguettes, croissant and pain au chocolat.

The food issue has not been such a big deal as I imagined and I have only been here just over a week.  We are lucky as all our basics come from the Film School.  I won’t have to shop for vegetables, rice, beans, meat, chicken, cheese, milk, yoghurt, flowers, water, beer, wine, cola, juice boxes, coffee, chocolates, serviettes ………. and a whole lot more.  What we have already found is supplies of fish and prawns, Serrano ham and Olive Oil, Malta, tomatoes, bananas, onions, cream cheese and a bread that you could just about call wholemeal.  All at cheaper prices than we paid in Guatemala.

What I foresee as the consumer issues are getting hold of good cheap clothes for the children and Rafa and good sunscreen and toiletries.  But Rafa will be travelling and friends will be visiting ……. we shall survive outside the consumerist world I think.

Now to the technical issues.  Rafa was so proud that he had sorted out my almost impossible to get hold of mac external modem and got me connected to internet in the house in a matter of days, only then to have a storm burn our modem 4 days later!  He has just interrupted me to tell me that a Cuban Mexican friend from the school has already found us another modem in Mexico and is arriving in a matter of days to come to my internet rescue.  She is also bringing Rafa a new MacBook which the school will pay for.  We’ll be having a few mojitos with her watching the sunset when she arrives …….. my internet saviour!

We have also been told that all our things have got the green light from customs and we should have them by Monday.  Oh my bed, my pillows, my kitchen stuff, Saskia’s toys, the boys Lego and bicycles we shall soon all be reunited!

So in a couple of weeks the children will be back at school, Saskia will start in her Cuban nursery, I will have a nanny, I will be online, we will all have the food we need, I will have time to write again ………. and maybe, just maybe, Rafa and I can get out for a night and go dancing.

We are coming up to a period of shooting stars apparently.  As we sat outside last night looking at the stars I was wondering out loud to Rafa that maybe I felt happy here as I come from a little island off a big continent and here I am again on my island.

 

 

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Arrived in Cuba and dialing up my internet!

I bet you have all forgotten what that sounds like.  I have to admit to feeling very nostalgic when I heard that old familiar noise.

Sorry for my absence from the blogsphere but the last few weeks have been a rollercoaster and I feel I have dragged my children all over England to family and friends for way too long with the usual highlights and low points that it always entails.

Now arrived in Cuba and just spent a wonderful day eating delicious food and tropical juices and swimming in the sea and most importantly getting my family back to normal.

So far loving the relaxed rhythm of Habana and the chatty friendly Cubans.  My children seem so happy and at home and Rafa and I feel as though we are having the honeymoon we never had, holding hands and being wistful.  Lets enjoy it while we can …….

Just watched the sun set over the sea and all my children are asleep in their own bedrooms albeit not in their own beds.  Got all that to come … getting our stuff.

Will blog soon about jumping back into British society during a tense and sad summer of a mix of death (Amy Winehouse) and disappointment (the looting of new trainer and plasma screen riots).

My wonderful girlfriends that I left in Guatemala and London.

And first days in Cuba …………

 

 

 

Global Mum

We finally moved out of Guatemala, and are on our way to Cuba via the UK.  So much has happened in the last few days that I don´t know how to coherently write it all down but feel I must blog something.

Leaving Guatemala was harder and more emotional than I had even imagined.  I am not so great at goodbyes and in the end I was emotionally drained and the logistics of packing were tough.  We left in the shuttle though the streets of Antigua that held so many memories for all of us.  We were all quiet and reflective, even the boys!

After many rainy grey days the sun was shining as we left so we got to say goodbye to those beautiful volcanoes.  The country that give me my wonderful husband and three beautiful little hybrids and so many great friends is now officially a chapter of my life that is over.  We will visit of course but we are on our next chapter now, a page has turned ……

The Casa Comal leaving party was amazing.  Grown men were holding back tears and so many hugs and goodbyes all from the heart.  Thanks to everyone for such an amazing night, and yes we danced a lot!

Leaving Juju who his second mother to all of us was tearful and traumatic.

We arrived in Habana and one of our 5 suitcases was stopped by the famous customs and I was imagining hours and hours of complications but in the end it was the two children’s lunchboxes that I had filled with English tea and Indian spices that were causing the problem and a quick check to prove that they weren’t hard drugs meant that we left the airport pretty soon and got to our future home without too much of a problem.

We hardly left the house the two days we were there and I spent too much time fighting back tears whenever I thought about all the good people that I will miss so much in the next few months.  The boys were delighted to spend the two days swimming in the Caribbean and eating way too much icecream.

The flight to England alone with the 3 little ones was relatively painless compared to previous trips.  Although I think I will be ordering a children’s meal on Virgin next time I fly as their food was much more yummy!  I only had the energy to eat comfort food pasta and suck apricot puree from a tube.

My noble sister had got up at 6 to get to Gatwick and meet us and got caught in bad traffic on the M25 but was there within minutes of us passing through the gate.  I was slightly annoyed that with my 3 children and 3 suitcases I was supposed to magically have a pound coin for the luggage trolleys.  Gatwick Gatwick you really need to get better, no wonder Richard Branson has been fighting to get more slots into Heathrow.

Now we are installed in a little village in the Cotswolds that seems to have worse communications than Cuba (my mobile (cell) phone does not work in my house nor the USB internet connection that I had ordered) but the flowers and gardens are picture postcard beautiful and we are settling in nicely!

Moving into an unknown house with jetlag and trying to work out all the appliances was trickier than you imagine.   I had forgotten the stress of recycling.  It seems you have to wash and file all your rubbish.  I know this is all good but surely the responsibility lies with the big companies who insist on so much packaging and pollution.

The children are delighted to see their British family but seem to have forgotten that they need to listen to me sometimes ……….  Their exotic transatlantic accents aare already sounding more English but they are still speaking Spanish to each other.  We spent the first morning at their cousin’s sports day in the village school in summer drizzle.  Saskia is very chatty and will learn a lot of English words in the next month before she hits her Habana nursery in a few weeks.

I just feel happy that I am holding it together.  An old friend is arriving tomorrow to visit and my cousin will visit the day after.  Rafa is meanwhile still in Cuba evaluating students finals and will arrive next week.

Thank God for British TV, it still leaves the rest behind especially when you have the scandal of the Murdoch case going on amongst other things.

Jetlag please leave right now!

 

On the run, safe house and processions …….

safe house, processions, on the run, Guatemala, Cuba, UK, Calle Camposeco, Antigua,
Calle Camposeco ......... of course!

Our possessions have all disappeared and are due to mysteriously arrive in another country where I am sure we will spend an eternity fighting with the customs  …… but we are ready for it.

What if the ship sinks?  I forgot to take the negatives out of my old pre-digital precious photos.  No time for that kind of neuroticism, now we are officially on the run with all that we can carry, but we have been kindly lent a safe house in Antigua by Rafa´s sister to hide out in our last rainy days in Guatemala.  I have to say it feels a bit weird ……. halfway between tourist and fugitive!

Calle Camposeco is a lively little street not far from the beautiful Merced Church. However, the day that we arrived it was extra lively.  It happened to be their Catholic street party and THE procession event of their whole year.

So, shattered, after moving all day, or nervously watching the ants of Caniz dismantle my home at a frightening pace, we arrived to the pre procession party which in this neck of the woods means loudspeakers outside your window blasting out Mexican ranchera music.  Not a genre that I am too fond of, and not one that I associate with religious festivals, no! far from it ……… generally fat ugly men being lovingly stroked by hot young babes on Bandamax videos.

They packed up at 11pm but were hard at it again at 4.30am the next morning whilst they made their flower alfombras, we had a brief interlude of marimba music before the ranchera music was back to terrorise us ……..

Love the carpets but why the awful very uncatholic music?
View from our window
Our temporary neighbours

 

By the end of the morning Paulo was playing football with the neighbours (the ones of the elaborate shrine) and the procession had passed …….and quite nice it was too in the end to watch it all from our little window.

 

Look at those pious faces passing right by our house ....