Tower School eighth graders spent their spring break on a cultural and humanitarian trip to Cuba. Their Spanish teacher, Victoria Dosch of Marblehead, grew up on the island.
“We traveled to the island with more than 30 suitcases of medical supplies and educational necessities,” Dosch said in a press release. “Staying with such welcoming Cuban families and visiting with school children, cancer patients and farmers, it was the least we could do to bring items that are impossible to find on the island. We left with empty bags and incredibly full hearts and deeper perspectives on a land so few get to visit.”
Dosch and fellow teacher Jaclyne Ainlay led 16 Tower students on the trip, which included connecting with local youth via school and sports; riding horseback through the beautiful valley of Viñales and learning firsthand from farmers how cigars, rum, coffee and honey are made.
The Tower group was also invited to the British ambassador’s house for a round-table reception, visited a former sugar factory (now an immersive artistic haven in Havana), snorkeled in a deep cenote cave, took in a Cuban baseball playoff game and participated in an “Amazing Race”-style photo scavenger hunt through the capital.
The students ate rice and beans for the week, packed their own toilet paper, adapted to life with little electricity and no cell service, and spoke in Spanish.
“Not many students would choose to spend their vacation time with their teachers doing something so far removed from their own reality, and something that is not easy. We give this group and their parents all the credit,” Dosch said.
According to Tower, these experiences provided students with exposure to the beauty of the island as well as the difficulties of life under Communist rule: little freedom and an embargo that creates extreme scarcity for essentials such as water, food, gasoline and electricity for the approximately 11 million residents.
“This trip was eye-opening for me, to be able to understand life from a different perspective and learn to be grateful for the things that we have,” Tower student Evie Becker said. “Cubans are wonderful and welcoming people, and it was so special to be able to interact with them and learn so much. I will never forget the lessons I have learned and the things I experienced.”
Since leaving Cuba 20 years ago, Dosch has accompanied almost that many groups on trips to the island.
“I don’t think I will ever tire of it,” she said. “Nor will I stop dreaming of a Cuba Libre, a free Cuba. Until then, we will keep doing these small things, with great love, and I know the lessons we’ve learned will continue to ripple out far further than the 90 miles of choppy waters between our two countries.”
