Flash | QuickTime | iPod In an open courtyard on a normally quiet street in Santa Clara, Cuba, the young people line up to enter what is called Mejunje , literally translated concoction. El Mejunje is a club of sorts, where you pay 2 pesos (about a US dime) to get in and hang out listening to loud music blasted over not so state of the art sound equipment. It s called Mejunje because every night is a different genre of music appealing to a different sub-culture of young people. The interesting thing about our visit to Mejunje on rock night was that one of the bands playing that night was from a church in the center of town. The band has been invited a few times by the operators of the club, which is a government based program that gives young people a place to hang out with their friends without causing too much trouble. But this is no ordinary church group. They weren t playing songs out of the hymnal or singing Kum-Bi-Ya . They were there to offer hope to the audience, with driving guitars and strong lyrics talking about the hope that the band members have found in Jesus. As we left the Mejunje that night, we saw the church band going back into the club to hang out with the young people and get to know them better. They really want to help the young people of their community. (Video on Blip)
