On Friday, October 23 Vancouver Communities in Solidarity with Cuba (VCSC) hosted a report back from the 2009 Ernesto “Che” Guevara Volunteer Work Brigade. The Vancouver “Brigadistas” brought Cuba to Vancouver as over 50 people came to hear the experiences and stories from this year’s Brigade. Tamara Hansen, a co-chair of the Canadian Network on Cuba and the coordinator of VCSC and the Brigade, hosted the evening and led the guests through the feelings and the lifelong memories of the Brigade. The night got going with stories from the brigadistas themselves. Tamara welcomed the secretary of VCSC, Colleen Glynn, to walk the guests through the every day life of being on the Brigade. This included spending time in the capital Havana, and bussing to the central province of Sancti Spiritus. The next brigadista, Max Tennant, expressed his feelings on the Brigade through warm poetry. This led the way for the pictures! A wonderful slideshow to the music of the Cuban legendry singer Silvio Rodriguez showed volunteer work, hip hop shows, cultural exchanges, and a lot of time in the hot Cuban sun. The second round of stories and poetry followed the slideshow. Kerri Goodwin explained a little bit about what the volunteer work was, and how it has been done by people from ages 17 through to 67. Seonaid Lamb followed and spoke from her heart about the wonders of being in Cuba for three weeks and experiencing everything from revolutionary medicine to the hot, hot days at the beach. Aaron Mercredi continued where Seonaid left off and spoke of how the brigadistas learned about the revolutionary advances Cuba has made in health care. Janine Solanki wrapped up the stories section with anecdotes about all the youth in Cuba that the brigadistas met and the cultural exchanges that were made. Shakeel Lochan then brought the feeling of Cuba to another level with his intense rhymes of spoken word. The Brigade report back would not be complete without a little bit of culture to capture the feeling of being in Cuba. All the Vancouver brigadistas gathered at the front to sing a song they wrote dedicated to the Cuban Five political prisoners held in U.S. jails. This was followed by a lesson of Cuban salsa by brigadistas Janine and Darja. The night came to a close with a raffle draw of items that came back from Cuba. When the event ended the people stayed to hear the brigadistas share more stories and memories with each other, and those interested in travelling to Cuba picked up information on next year’s Brigade.	Report Back Che Guevara Volunteer Work Brigade Click on Photos to Enlarge!