University of Michigan groups visit Cuba after Obama eases travel restrictions

University of Michigan groups visit Cuba after Obama eases travel
restrictions
Posted: Sun, May 6, 2012 : 1:11 p.m.

Jacqueline Haber grew up hearing stories of Cuba, the communist island
her father, once a member of the Cuban military, fled nearly half a
century ago.

In April, 45-year-old Haber, a nurse for the University of Michigan
Health System, stepped foot on Cuban soil for the first time.

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She and 34 U-M alumni became a few of the first Americans to visit Cuba
since U.S. President Barack Obama eased travel restrictions in 2011. The
group was the first of three U-M contingents to tour Cuba as part of U-M
Alumni Association-backed travel expeditions. The last group, which
includes Lisa Rudgers, U-M vice president of global communications, is
touring the country now.

"It was a bag of mixed emotions," Haber says of her trip to Cuba. "My
father always wanted to take his family back to Cuba, to the country he
left behind to go to the States for freedom."

In many ways, the Cuba Haber experienced during her visit was similar to
the one her father left for America. There's been little construction in
the 50 or so years since the U.S. closed doors to Cuba. People drive
bike taxis and pre-revolutionary cars and pay to use public restrooms,
where toilet paper is rationed by the square and toilets don't have lids.

"Havana is a city frozen in time, with buildings that are just
crumbling. The infsatructure is just a mess over there," Haber said.

In other veins, however, the city has changed vitally.

"Almost all of these very large, old estates and homes that were built
by the very rich in the (1940s and 50s) have all been turned over to
renters," said U-M Alumnus David Morrison, a retired foreign service
worker who traveled to Cuba with Haber beginning March 19. "There are
huge numbers of families crowded in each of these places."

Morrison and his wife, along with other travelers, paid $3,845 each for
the eight-day trip to Cuba, during which they visited with Cuban
artists, ballet performers, economists and students and toured several
cities, including Havana, the island's capitol.

U-M Alumni Association travel coordinator Carrie Fediuk originally
planned for just one departure but response was "so overwhelming" she
decided to tack on two extra trips. Fediuk applied for an educational
travel visa to Cuba in June 2011 and received the go-ahead in November.

Travel to Cuba has been heavily restricted since the 1960s and in 2003
George W. Bush fully eliminated licenses to travel there. Obama in 2011
eased restrictions, allowing educational trips to Cuba, and the first
group of U.S. citizens landed in August. Other elite universities, such
as the University of California at Los Angeles and Harvard University,
have since led similar trips to Cuba.

"It was a very labor intensive process. The U.S. government wanted to
know everything about our program, our history, what our intentions were
to travel there," Fediuk recalled, adding that officials circled back
with her twice requesting additional information. Fediuk, who regularly
arranges trips to countries like Egypt, Machu Picchu, the Galapagos
Islands and Turkey, said she can't recall a more detailed vetting process.

The difficulty, she said, was well worth the eventual reward.

"It was uncharted territory," Fediuk said. "Cuba is a place we knew our
travelers would want to go. They're curious and they wanted to see a
place that's been closed off to U.S. travelers for many, many years."

That's not to say the expedition didn't stir up a little controversy.

"Cuba is a communist regime that not necessarily everybody approves of.
We know people have lost their lives trying to flee the country and
that's bothersome. So when we opened the trip up I knew there would be
some people who didn't agree with our decision to go," Fediuk said.
"They were concerned about our traveling there and supporting their
economy. Based on the fact that it is a dictatorship and not a free
economy."

It was the effects of the restricted economy that shocked Morrison the most.

"The irony is that you have doctors and university professors who stand
on street corners and offer guided tours to earn a decent living, which
they can't get from either being a professor or a doctor," he recalled.

For Haber, the short trip was "an eye-opener."

"Now I totally understand why my family is the way they are," she said.
"Cubans are definitely survivors. They do the most they can with the
little they have."

Fediuk says she is planning additional trips for 2013.

http://www.annarbor.com/news/university-of-michigan-group-among-first-to-visit-cuba-after-five-decades-of-restriction/