By Associated Press, 2/1/2001 03:48.
Boston Globe
FALMOUTH, Mass. (AP) Glenway Fripp is just one of those people who will
spend $1,200 to go to Cuba in the middle of February to tune and fix pianos.
''I'd rather not vacation as a tourist,'' Fripp, who lives in this Cape Cod
community, told the Cape Cod Times. ''I'd rather work where I go, because
working puts you in touch with the culture and the people.''
Fripp will travel to the Caribbean island nation as part of Send a Piana to
Havana, a not-for-profit organization that has been sending pianos, piano tuners
and technicians to Cuba since 1995.
Fripp got the idea of the Cuban trip from David Stanwood of Martha's
Vineyard, a fellow piano technician. Stanwood made the trip with Send a Piana to
Havana in 1997.
''Most of the pianos in Cuba were in terrible shape,'' Stanwood said. ''The
Cuban people didn't have the knowledge, technology or tools to fix them. They
treated us like royalty, and couldn't have been more accommodating.''
The founder of the project, Benjamin Treuhaft, first visited Cuba in 1993,
and fell in love with the country.
''I went crazy for the place,'' Treuhaft said. ''It's so beautiful. The
people are so beautiful.''
When Treuhaft began sending pianos to Cuba in 1995, he contacted the U.S.
Commerce Department, which said pianos were not on the list of items that the
U.S. government would allow into Cuba. He was referred to the Office of Nuclear
and missile Technology, which eventually gave him permission to send pianos to
Cuba with the condition that they not be used for ''torture or human-rights
abuse.''
Since its inception, Send a Piana to Havana has shipped more than 140 of the
instruments to Cuba.
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