a welcome essence of warmth on this absolutely frigid day

2 things I added to my posts:

about the farmer:

he has his phd in agriculture
but on returning to cuba
he realized that what was missing in his education was...
farming!!!

he started with building a well,
just him and the 78 year old well digger in the village
7 months later,
using only pick axes, shovels and buckets,
14 meters down
they struck gold
he tells this story
as a metaphor for not only building the farm
but for creating a life
every day,
in the face of this impossible struggle,
the well digger
(who had divined the spot)
greeted him with a smile
and said "today we dig"
transformative!


and about the drag show:

i should have put this in the caption:

it was not like any other drag show i have been to
it was in a house,
on the outskirts of Havana,
it was mostly working guys
(though there were a couple of women
and i have heard, often families come)
no one in the audience was in anyway "dressed"
it was like they were at the local pub
and while the costumes were elaborate
and the performances were dramatic
it was very earnest,
not campy, not like a caricature
there was none of the "oh girlfriend" attitude
people were respectfully watching a performance...