Bronze medals: 3
Christians on the edge: ~300
One-armed interpreter for deaf people on Easter Sunday: 1
From now on, I will no longer be Sara la fresa, but “Sara la fresa mariposa leonesa.”
(If I ever decide to do Lucha Libre when I’m in Mexico, I got my luchadora name covered).
You’re probably asking…
Why fresa? Why Mariposa? Why Leonesa?
1. Fresa- Refer to earlier blog entries.
2. Mariposa- I swam butterfly this past weekend in “los juegos del caribe” for el departamento filosofía (the philosophy department…the one I take classes in) and I won three bronze medals! (Not just for mariposa…the other two were for relays).
3. Leonesa- I have huge hair. Refer to 5th grade growth spurt.
It was probably the MOST fun swim meet of my life (next to making the finals for butterfly when I was 14). Everyone cheered just as hard for first place as last place, and the team genuinely appreciated that I even showed up. They were even more excited that I knew how to swim!
This mentality was WAY different than the one I’ve been used to of constantly competing against those damn kids in my age group that always broke 30 seconds on every 50 M they ever did…and you know who you are...
Although I had little to no faith in the meet moving quickly (I’m still in Cuba!), I was shocked to swim, hop out, swim again, hop out, swim again, etc… I was going to take a break and not swim backstroke (a.k.a. espalda), but the president of philosophy didn’t understand why I wouldn’t swim it if I knew how. And that makes sense. So I did.
It was worth wearing my body out for those three lovely spray-painted medallions I will treasure for the rest of my life. I’ve never felt so refreshed! YAY CUBA!
After my day of victory, I ventured to La Iglesia Metodista Sunday morning for el día de Pasqua (Easter).
And just when I thought I had experienced crazy in Cuba, Cuba proved it had a little more crazy up its sleeve.
Church was nuts! First off, I was put up front with the deaf people. Secondly, the deaf people had a one-armed interpreter who lost his shoulder in an electrical accident. Thirdly, I was not impressed with the pastor praying for a woman with a deformed face.
No offence, praying for God to fix a face of someone you’re making out to be a circus freak (people were grabbing their cameras to take pictures!) is not OK. It’s also not OK for this woman to cry so hard she faints and leave her on the ground because oh lawd! God is going to fix her face.
No, gracias!
It left a bad taste in my mouth.
So, claro, I went to eat icecream at Coppelia and get cornbread. And it made everything better.
yaay cuba!
la reina de mariposa,
Sara la fresa mariposa leonesa
Dear la fresa mariposa leonesa, Congratulations on your medals, in a philosophical, spray painted sort of way. It certainly does not take away from your brilliance. Your new title is quite lengthy if we need to engrave it on any thing. It does, however, sound like a great book title.
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