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Where Art Thou?
Public art is ubiquitous in Havana and it’s interesting. There was even an entire street, Callejon de Hamel, displaying folk art pieces inspired by adherents to Afro-Cuban religion of Santaria. Check this out… There was other public art that caught my eye in the city: This piece, called Primavera, stopped me in my tracks as
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Broken and beautiful
Architecture in Cuba is diverse. This island has seen many waves of development over the centuries with the Spanish, French, Americans and even the Soviets influencing the design of buildings around this country. In Havana, the buildings show off a long-gone wealth and extravagance this country once enjoyed, one built on sugar cane, casinos and
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What took me so long?
Cuba has been wide open for Canadians to visit since shortly after the fall of the Soviet Union and even before then, some adventurous folks made it here. So what took me so long? I feel like I’m the last Canadian to have ever visited here. And maybe that’s what it came down to. When
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The not-so-bleak mid-winter
While most of my fellow Canadians have been whining incessantly about the intensity of this winter, I’ve been revelling in it. Truth is, it’s my second favourite season after summer. And, given the chance, I don’t think I’d trade away the experience of a good bracing winter for the opportunity to live in a warmer
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Hump day
Today is Wednesday and the two days of heavy work so far was just to get us ready for what would be in store for us today. Now that the re-bar has been installed, the plan for today is to complete the foundation by filling in the trenches to grade with concrete. We get to
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The Big Dig
It’s the second day, and the enthusiasm with which we greet the day is tempered only slightly with some aches and pains. The heat of the day is hard at our heels as we arrive at the job site but it doesn’t deter us from getting right at it. The men resume digging the latrine
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Haz algo concreto
Day 1 The title of this post is the slogan for Habitat for Humanity in El Salvador. It means “Do something concrete”. It’s Monday and we volunteers arrive at the work site ready to do just that. Unlike other builds I’ve been on, the entire team’s efforts will be devoted to working on one house
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Welcome to the land of the Saviour
As the plane makes its descent the high cumulus clouds give way to a lush green landscape below. Farmland, interspersed with hilly forest and several large rather menacing volcanoes, stops abruptly as the plane circles over the shimmering Pacific coastline to make the final approach into San Salvador, the capital and largest city. I read
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Where does the time go?
How could a place that occupied so much of my mindspace from my mid-20s to my early 30s – Cape Breton – suddenly become part of a distant past? Was the break from this part of my life precipitated by some sort of premature mid-life crisis? True, 2002 was a bit of a turmultuous time
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Cusco
Cusco is a picture postcard city of 350,000 perched up in the Andes at a breathtaking 3,400m. Disembarking the plane, sea level dwellers like myself notice the thinness of the air right away. It was at this point I realized I hadn’t started taking my altitude sickness pill the night before as I was supposed
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sedativegunk 