Christ Church Bronxville Travels to Cuba - An Adult Perspective

Christ Church’s EYC (Episcopal Youth Community) has returned from its fourth mission trip to Cuba, and as always it proved to be a unique learning and cultural exchange experience. This year, we were joined by Claudia, Steve and Zip Malley of Bronxville, representing their recently-formed non-profit, Béisbol Across Cuba. EYC helped carry 15 large duffel bags (weighing a total of over 600 pounds) of baseball equipment to the youth in the villages of Itabo and Favorito, in Matanzas Province, east of Havana. After distributing the equipment, which included bats, balls, milts, bases, clothing and cleats, a friendly game of baseball was played, with a very jovial and energized crowd of supporters from the community looking on.

This year, EYC contingent was again accompanied by our indispensible friend, The Rev. Yamily Bass-Choate, Missioner for Latino and Hispanic Ministry in the Diocese of New York and Vicar of San Andres Episcopal Church in Yonkers, and the delightful McKenzie Burton, Christ Church’s new Youth Minister and Outreach Coordinator.

Over the years, we have been fortunate to come to know the country and the people, and have developed ongoing friendships. We also have noticed positive changes occurring, even during in our relatively short acquaintance with the country. This most recent trip, for instance, was the first during which we did not lose electricity in Itabo for an hour or two each day (thanks to the shiny new Canadian-built power plant which was completed adjacent to the not-so-shiny Russian-built power plant). In Old Havana, the streets are being dug up for installation of new water mains, many buildings are covered in scaffolding and undergoing renovations, from the National Capitol Building to the Great Theatre of Havana.

We all look forward to continuing to build our relationships with the people of the Episcopal Diocese of Cuba and of Itabo and Favorito. We are discussing the possibility of organizing an outreach trip for adults during the winter, so stay tuned for updates!

Written by Michael Pollack, Christ Church Bronxville parishioner