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HELP YOURSELF
HELP OTHERS
NEW TEEN SUMMER PROGRAM
Summer 2015 marked Cuba Travel Adventures Group's inaugural season for youth travel and community service in Cuba. CTA put together a pair of immensely successful programs for 27 teenagers and four group leaders in Matanzas Province in July and August 2015 that had small groups of American teens from throughout the U.S. rotating between four great service projects.
After each morning of community service projects and a delicious lunch, our American high-schoolers enjoyed afternoons in the azure waters and on the white sand beaches of the Caribbean near the tourist mecca of Varadero. Our teens then traveled to Havana for a fitting reward for their 10 days of contribution and giving-back in Matanzas (balanced with wonderful group bonding with each other and the Cuban people) and enjoyed a special trip to Havana where CTA planned a rich fun cultural programs including salsa lessons, a classic American convertible ride, museum tours, visits to artists' homes, special private restaurants and Cuba's historic treasures among the highlights in Havana's capital city. A final reward before U.S. flights home as a cap on two outstanding weeks for these inaugural groups of American teen summer travelers on CTA's in-country programs.
BUILD HOUSING
Perhaps the teens greatest satisfaction emotionally and in terms of completing a job well-done was building a bedroom for Leo, a disabled 15-year old, onto his tiny (by American standards) family home where he lives with his mother, father and younger sister.
DELIVER FOOD
The teen teams loved delivering food to rural families more or less confined to their homes due to age and various disabilities. Delivery was the old-fashioned way in America but very common in poor, rural Cuba: by horse and buggy!
TEACH ENGLISH
Teaching English to Cubans: Americans are traveling throughout Cuba in ever-increasing numbers and the Cuban government wisely began encouraging more individual entrepreneurship tied to tourism. As a result, more and more Cubans are able to raise their extended families' living standards through tourism. The key to a better life for millions of Cubans is the ability to speak English. Our teens spent hours in teams working on rudimentary but necessary English vocabulary, numbers and phrases with Cuban teens over several sessions (and learned quite a bit of Spanish in the process).
PAINT HOUSES
Teens beautified Matanzas homes in beautiful new colors to the delight of homeowners & neighborhoods.