Official White House photograph of President Barack Obama. Students from the Academy for Positive Learning in Lake Worth went to Cuba to observe the President's visit. Read more about that below: |
"Cuba’s most curious visitors this week did not arrive aboard Air Force One. They did not command the attention of the foreign press, make headlines in Miami or draw the cheers of the Cuban people.
Not unless you count the schoolchildren who greeted the group of middle school students visiting from a Palm Beach County charter school.
The small group of students from the Academy for Positive Learning in Lake Worth traveled to the island five days before President Barack Obama and his family made their historic trip to Havana.
Accompanied by their principal, Renatta Adan-Espinoza, the kids arrived with suitcases filled with school supplies for the Cuban children – markers, colored pencils, glue, the things that are difficult to find in the impoverished, Communist-ruled country. [emphasis added]"
[and. . .]
"The principal’s daughter, 11th grader Victoria Espinoza, took a video of the plane on the tarmac. They all craned for a look, but could not see Obama and his family. They cheered, nevertheless.
'When President Obama landed I couldn’t believe I was in a two-mile radius of the President of the United States,' said [Christina] Paszkiewicz, the eighth grader. 'It was a crazy thought that the man who runs our country was just on the other side of a wall.'
Another kind of thrill awaited in Miami once they landed, recalled the principal.
'The kids were screaming, ‘Oh my gosh, toilet paper!' "
Thank you for the wonderful article, Liz Balmaseda!
Never thought I'd see these words on TV: 'Air Force 1 approaches Havana.' Hope POTUS' trip is eye-opening, and beneficial for the Cuban ppl— Liz Balmaseda (@LizBalmaseda) March 20, 2016