Year One in Havana: I survived!

I made it - I survived the first year in Havana. That may seem like hyperbole but living here is not a piece of cake, despite the many wonderful features of life in Cuba. The first year in any new location is always a challenge and that's before you take into consideration the new job, the frustrations of the expat existence, the greater distance in this posting that has made communication with my loved ones much harder, and the mosquitoes. Added to this slightly negative outlook is the fact that I, along with about another ten staff members, caught a nasty stomach bug that was going around about three weeks before the end of term, making the end of the school year even more challenging and depleting the reserves of resilience and patience that are required for staying sane as the humidity rises. I was sick for the better part of a month, which was super for my waistline (I dropped a dress size) but horrendous for my morale, especially getting to the end of a very busy and extremely challenging year. By the time I got on the flight home (which made me sick again) all I wanted was to lie on the sofa at mum and dad's, eating real yogurt, listening to the cricket and reading the newspaper. 

I made it back to Hope Chapel my first Sunday back in the UK, where a friend asked me how the year had been. To my response of "hmmm... challenging", he told me that he was looking forward to the summer when my answer to that question was "fantastic". The last three months of the school year were undoubtedly very difficult, a mix of the challenge of living in Cuba and the professional frustrations and challenges of adapting to a new job (and in the context of a school, the new job adapting to you). Moving into a new job is demanding whatever the context and beyond the basic fact that living in Havana makes extra demands on one's reserves of patience and humour. I came in as section Principal at the same time as a new Director took over at the school, which inevitably meant that there was a lot of change that the staff needed to manage and adapt to, as well as a lot of blundering about on my part trying to get to know the school's culture and community.

Another thing to get used to: flooding on the street outside the school following heavy rain.

Moving into a new job as Section Head is of course a two-way process and it's as much about the staff getting to know you as it is you getting to know them. One challenge has been to have one's sense of humour understood so that one doesn't cause offence; the first time I cracked a gag in a staff meeting, only two staff (both expats) got it and everyone else looked at me slightly puzzled; the first time I cracked a gag in an assembly it was the British kids in the group that got it and everyone else just rolled their eyes. Another challenge has been people getting used to your expectations about, say, what information you want to receive (there was some I was getting that I really didn't care about, whereas things that to me were extremely important were left out of the conversation), how you want to receive it, and most importantly what is/isn't reasonable to expect in terms of, say, workload or job descriptions. For example, I stopped eating lunch regularly when I became a head of school, most often eating it on my way down a corridor or at my desk (if at all); I brought this habit with me and have had to remember that lunch time is a precious break for teachers, and do my best not to drag people out of their lunch into impromptu meetings. I have stuffed up a lot in terms of communicating with the staff - either too much of the wrong stuff or not enough of the right stuff - and as my character is (I'm told) hugely different from the last Section Head they have had to adjust to someone who has a completely different leadership style. It was a shock for all concerned and since it is the curse of school leaders (or indeed all leaders) that no one tells you how well you're doing, they just point out all the stuff you do wrong, I got to the end of the year feeling like I had spent more time screwing up than getting anything right.

I've just come back from a week long course with something called the Principals' Training Center, an organisation for international schools, on 'Leadership and Team Dynamics'. The course was phenomenal and has helped me to understand my own leadership style much better, as well as realise that I didn't screw up as much as I thought. It has left me hopeful for and excited about the coming year, which is a massive step forward from where I was a month ago. It reminded me that there is a lot I really like about my new school: the staff are hugely willing, enthusiastic about what they do, keen to develop as professionals and totally committed to the students. I absolutely LOVE our leadership team, which consists of Michael (our Director), myself, Georgie (Lower School Principal) and Berrin (Curriculum Coordinator) and which is (in my humble opinion) a terrific example of a really high-functioning team: a deep layer of trust, a willingness to be vulnerable and to admit mistakes, a profound respect for each other and a lot of laughter and jokes. They have been a refuge in times of crisis - I have cried in front of all of them at different points - and a huge support throughout the year, as well as hugely experienced professionals from whom I have learned so much. I am hugely grateful for them, as indeed I am for my Phase Coordinators who have helped me through many difficult moments and guided my steps in this first year at ISH with their institutional knowledge and wicked senses of humour. No man (or woman) is an island and I am particularly poor at functioning in isolation, so to have such talented educators and caring people working alongside me is a massive relief. So, as I say, I am now looking forward to Year Two at ISH and excited about all that I will learn and experience.

Work has certainly dominated my thoughts and feelings for much of the year. I have blogged already about the ways in which life in Cuba has required adaptation and will continue to do so, I'm sure. However, it is of course more than the challenges of the job and in particular some highlights of living in Havana thus far would include:

• learning salsa and having some thoroughly marvellous evenings out shaking my (extremely white) tail-feather. I am, technically, pretty good but I do not have, and indeed may never have, the salsa bum and hips wiggle. I look in awe at those women who do and know that for now I am unable to break out of my British reservedness, not least because I just feel a bit stupid trying to do those moves. Jenny from school, who salsas like a queen, says you have to put on your 'asshole face' in order to get over that feeling of being stupid. Maybe I will achieve this in the coming year. We'll see.
• music, music everywhere - from live salsa to fabulous classical music to local Cuban stuff that I can't quite categorise. I'm a particular fan of Ray Fernandez, a local musician from Alamar in Havana, whose lyrics I cannot yet understand but am told are marvellous, and who has a trumpeter in his ensemble who is something else altogether. I took my parents to see him play, which made Dad very happy.
• speaking of my dad, a marvellous visit from my parents in April. The weather was sadly a bit cloudy and not the best that Cuba has to offer, but it was brilliant nonetheless to show them round Havana, to introduce them to my friends and to have them see what life is like for me out there. I sent them off bird-watching for four days, managed to get them into a piano/cello recital at an ambassador's house, dragged them round Old Havana and got Dad a salsa lesson (Mum refused to participate).
• an equally marvellous visit from Tamar in February. I dragged her out dancing, we went to the beach A LOT, went on a road trip to Trinidad, spent a day in Vinales and squeezed as much fun as we could out of the time we had together. I have missed Israel so much this year that at times it has almost hurt, and most of all I have missed Tamar, so to have her with me for ten days was magic.

At the beach with T-Bear



Classic car posing in Old Havana



Trinidad

• lazy days at the beach; lazy evenings exploring Old Havana's growing restaurant scene; lazy sunsets swimming in the pool on the roof of my building with Georgie and Berrin (who I haven't really left alone since they took me in for three weeks in the great air-conditioning fail of August 2016). Life in Havana moves at a slower pace than I am used to and I am adjusting - slowly, of course. 

It would be remiss of me to write a post reviewing the year without at least a brief mention of the fact that I am now a pet owner, a leap for which I'm not entirely sure I was emotionally ready but which I was essentially talked into by Georgie. She's been trying to get me to adopt some small creature since we found a kitten in the street in Old Havana last August and cooed over it like broody hens; getting me to adopt two of the kittens that the 'building cat' in another friend's building had had in the hedge was the realisation of that dream. After a month of naming suggestions I settled on Smoky (the girl) and the Bandit (the boy), though I do tend to refer to them as 'little girl kitten' and 'little boy kitten'. The little girl kitten is a bit of a prima donna whose favourite food is anything that she can eat from my hand (an indulgence which I have tried to stop since I realised how bloody ridiculous it was that I was hand-feeding mince to my kitten) and the little boy kitten is a right little bruiser. They are undoubtedly a brilliant addition to my life, even if Georgie continues to refer to them as my 'crazy cat lady starter kit'.

It is disconcerting that they love the laundry basket so much. 

I've been on holiday for three weeks now and am finally back to whatever constitutes normal. This is a huge relief. I'm off to France for a few days with the family, followed by a trip back to Israel which I am doing mostly to tie up some loose admin ends and which I confess I'm a little nervous about - will going back just make the fact that I left harder to handle? Or will it reaffirm that I made the right decision to leave when I did? I hope it's the latter and, if nothing else, cannot wait to end some good food, go to my favourite places and, most importantly, see the people I love. It's then a flying weekend in the UK, a week in the States and back to work in the second week of August. Now that I'm rested, vaguely refreshed, in relatively good health and able to take advantage of a nearby Waitrose my spirits have lifted and I am able to see the positive side (as per the list above) of living in Cuba. It really is a once-in-a-lifetime experience and once that I intend to exploit to the full in the coming year. I'm hoping that next year's 'end of year review' will be titled Year Two: it all came together. Hasta luego, mi amors.