A Day With Our Adopted Cuban Family
Saturday, March 14, 2020
The morning started hilariously cramped. We were going to be spending the day with our adopted family and, Roberto (who was taking us to the airport Sunday morning), would be picking us up to spend the day at his house. Our ride arrived and it was a tiny two-door 1980 Fiat 126. Roberto brought one of his young sons with him as well. Natalie climbed into the backseat, sitting sideways with her legs in the center of the vehicle because there’s zero legroom in the backseat and then holding her 30L Nomatic backpack to sit on her lap. Now, Kevin is 6’4”, and even getting into the front seat was a challenge. His camera backpack was placed on the floor between his legs, while his 40L Nomatic backpack went on his lap. His knees were touching the dashboard and the backpack was partially on top of the dashboard as well. The gear shift was against his left leg, so anytime Roberto needed to shift, Kevin had to try to move his leg out of the way. We didn’t know how far away from Havana we were going, and it turned out to be a 45 minute drive to just outside of the town of Managua. I don’t think Kevin had ever been happier to stretch his legs after exiting a vehicle in his life! When we greeted the family and they saw how tall Kevin was, they were shocked that he even fit in the car and we all had a good laugh over it. Yes, we were basically the clowns in a clown car!
Front Row: Roberto’s boys, nephew, and sweet Carolina
The day was going to be spent with around 20 or so people in a joint birthday celebration for Natalie and Roberto. They had gotten a cake for each of them and we were going to be treated to a day of traditional Cuban cooking and dancing. We tried to communicate the best we could, but most of the people didn’t speak much English and Natalie understands more Spanish than she can speak. What a fun day of charades we were about to have! Cooking began just before we arrived and the plantains Roly had cut off on Tuesday were being used. Yeny (Roberto’s wife) and Odalis began peeling and cutting them to make tostones. Natalie loves to be in the kitchen and learned from an old roommate how to make tostones, so she asked if she could help out. They were surprised the white American girl knew how to make them, and once they saw she knew her stuff, she was entrusted with finishing the job.
Lunch was tostones, salad, fish, rice, and traditional black beans. Yeny makes the best black beans (even Kevin enjoyed them and he doesn’t like black beans)! It was all so good! After lunch (and pretty much the rest of day and night), cerveza and rum were consumed and the dancing began. The party only stopped when some sort of argument or fighting arose between two of the kids, which caused the fun to come to a halt, so we quietly sat on the couch. Sweet little Carolina came over and sat between us, trying to have a conversation, but Natalie kept saying “no entiendo.” She smiled and we finally understood “me gustas.” She melted our hearts and was the perfect distraction from the awkwardness during the argument, which we never did get the story on. But then, all was forgiven and the dancing and partying resumed.
Dinner consisted of a half roasted pork, tamales, salad and yucca. We’re pescatarians, so we had to politely decline the pig, which wasn’t as easy as it sounds. It took about 20 minutes of Odalis walking with her hand in the air down the driveway, in the yard, and finally receiving a signal on the main dirt road, to contact her husband Roly (who understands and speaks English) in order to understand that we don’t eat meat and relay it to the others. They were all insistent that we needed to try it, as it’s a traditional dish, and to just have a little. But we haven’t stayed away from meat for almost a year to give it up now, regardless of the circumstances! There was some fish leftover from lunch so we had some more of that with the delicious yucca and mojo sauce. The birthday cakes were brought out and happy birthday was sung in English and Spanish to both Natalie and Roberto. Wishes were made and candles were successfully blown out. Dancing resumed and the party continued for a little while longer before goodbyes were said. Roberto and his wife Yeny generously gave up their room for us to sleep, while they slept in a bedroom with their kids. To sleep in air conditioning again was a glorious end to the day.
