This is perhaps one of the most satisfying days as a professor that I have ever had. Even as you plan things and events you hope that they can bear the fruit of your labors, and over time you learn to be humble and grateful whatever the results because in the end you have an idea that things worked or didn’t but you don’t gloat because things are never as good or as bad as we perceive them to be, especially when you work with human beings. So as I conceived of this service learning trip to Cuba I could only hope that I could bring together two Cuban groups (one a community service collective and the other a Afro-Cuban dance and cultural group) and have my students engaged in a renovation project of the theater that the dance group now calls home. Everybody performed far beyond my expectations and at first glance the essence of service learning has come to life. We prepped the walls of the theater for painting by scrapping, chipping and cleaning the surface for plastering. Tomorrow an army of painters from all three groups will contribute to yet another step in the remaking of an abandoned 1940’s film house into something that more and more looks like a performance space. So much work remains, sound tiles, ceiling tiles, flooring, plumbing, lighting all need to be brought into the 21st century but we have already contributed to enhancing the integrity of the building today so that we can return in the future and work with our new-found Cuban collaborators to improve this space for them, their community and generations to come.
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Dr. Jonathan Benjamin-Alvarado
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