April 04, 2001. Chicago
Tribune
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. A group of Central High School students will leave Wednesday
for a weeklong tour of Cuba.
The itinerary for the trip includes visits to historic sights, museums and a
cigar factory. The group also will visit a grade school, high school and a
hospital in the communist nation that has been isolated from the United States
for 40 years.
"It is certainly one of the great adventures that they'll go on. It's
like going to the moon," said John Gilderbloom, who will act as the group's
guide.
The group will be able to spend some time on the beach, and some of the
students are looking forward to salsa dancing in nightclubs.
Twenty-three people will be going from Champaign Central--seven students and
the rest faculty and spouses.
Principal Don Hansen said the students see themselves as ambassadors.
"On Cuban national television they regularly repeat the Columbine
footage," Hansen said. "They probably have an image of American
students as being hostile or violent."
The Central students say they have nothing against the Cuban people and
don't really understand the animosity between the two countries.
"It's not really our fight," junior Madison Mullady said. "It's
the generation before us." | 