Letters from abroad

Yesterday, a note arrived from Leonel Quesada, who guided me so entertainingly through La Habana, proudly attaching this photo of his niece, Avril Llevara Quesada, performing in Costa Rica.  Avril is a young student star with the world famous Cuban National Ballet School in Havana...I think I may have mentioned in a former post that she had won an international competition earlier this year.

The photograph was so enticing that I wrote her mother, Leysis Quesada vera, whose own photographs are so romantically, spiritually Cuba, to ask if I could share it here.  Leysis agreed, and explained that Avril had been invited by the Ballet Nacional of Costa Rica to dance in Aladdin; she played Jazmin with fellow dancer Yasiel Hodelin Bello, also pictured.

I love hearing from Leonel and Leysis about their lives and work and family, and am delighted that Leonel especially keeps in touch.  I think of all the places I have yet to visit there, and know that our connections are a big part of the draw back.

Coincidentally, I'd also corresponded the same day with Janicke Lemiere, who drove us so cheerfully around Provence last month and to whom I introduced you recently.  In her email, she enumerated all the places in the Luberon and the Rhone area that she hoped we would return to discover with her. I can picture the journey already.

The great benefit of my travel is bringing home not only memories of the short time I have ventured into a country, but also a continuity of lives shared and, always hopeful, return trips.

 It seems a way to know the real world, wider and more open each time, through the people we meet there.

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By the way, here's a preview:  my next trip is in fact a return trip, to Scotland in October, where meeting up with old friends (and also family) will be the highlight...I can hardly wait.

Dorothy, Will and I, Glasgow, 2008