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Everything was fine until someone mentioned the towels. 

“Towels?” said Gail Murphy, a look of concern flashing suddenly across her face. “I didn’t know they were supposed to take towels.”  

Bottled water, yes. Toilet paper, yes. Bug spray, yes. But towels? 

Murphy was one of dozens of Berkeley parents gathered in San Francisco’s International Airport late Tuesday night to watch 73 Berkeley High students depart for the mother of all field trips – two weeks in Havana, Cuba, and rural areas nearby. 

The trip’s organizers, San Francisco-based Global Exchange, estimate that this is the largest group of American high school students ever to travel to the island nation, which they say is one of the last socialist countries in the Western Hemisphere. 

Murphy said her ninth-grade son had been somewhat cavalier about making sure he had everything he needed. 

“He said, ‘Don’t worry about it. We’ll get it (in Cuba),’” Murphy said. “But I told him it’s not going be that way.” 

There are no Walgreens in Cuba, Murphy observed wryly.  

But Murphy said she’s not nervous. 

“He’s going be okay,” she said. “This guy’s got it together. 

“Am I anxious? Yes. I’m anxious for him to have a great time” 

In less than an hour the students would board an 11:30 p.m. flight for Mexico City, where they would change planes for the final leg to Havana. They were scheduled to arrive in Cuba about 7 a.m. Wednesday. 

The United States has maintained a trade embargo against Cuba for more than 30 years and U.S. law restricts travel to Cuba by U.S. citizens. Nevertheless, Global Exchange, a San Francisco-based organization that is sponsoring the Berkeley High trip, has taken thousands of U.S. citizens on educational trips to Cuba over the last 10 years.  

As they waited for everyone to check in for the flight, the students huddled around luggage carts, flipping through their passports and talking excitedly about what lay ahead. 

“We’ve heard mixed stories,” said ninth-grader Craig Long. “Some people say you shouldn’t go to Cuba, and others say it’s great. I want to see for myself.” 

Part of the Communication Arts and Sciences small learning community at Berkeley High, the students have been trained in how to use modern media tools to promote social justice. They will visit schools and hospitals in Cuba, gathering information and building relationships. When they return to Berkeley High they will present what they have learned to the rest of the school and to the community through a series of forums. 

“For me it’s seeing the students become more worldly and having the opportunity to see a very different society and make comparisons (that’s exciting),” said Berkeley School Board President Terry Doran, one of 15 chaperones for the trip. “I think the most fascinating thing will be to listen to the students after they return,” he said. 

The students prepared for the trip by reading extensively about Cuba, watching videos and meeting with a number of Cuba experts the CAS teachers managed to bring to Berkeley High.  

Since last year’s Elian Gonzalez custody struggle placed Cuba at the center of the international stage, the students will have a unique opportunity to study the difference between the way the media view Cuba and the way Cubans see the country, said parent Leander Murphy, husband of Gail Murphy. 

“You hear this, you hear that, but is that the way it really is?” Murphy asked Tuesday, as some of the students began making their way out to the Mexicana Airlines gate. 

“Even to travel period is a great experience,” Murphy said. “But to got to Cuba, where there’s been so much controversy, and to see first hand (what it’s like), you really can’t beat that.” 

Berkeley High teacher Bill Pratt, who originally proposed the trip last year, said parents and students were in festive mood Tuesday in part because they had already accomplished so much just by making the trip happen. 

“Even before we leave I think we’ve already had a lot of success because the community has come together in an incredibly remarkable way,” Pratt said. 

Pointing to parent Laura Singh, who volunteered to serve as treasurer for the Cuba trip project, Pratt said, “If she hadn’t stepped forward and made this huge commitment, then the trip wouldn’t have happened.” 

Pratt said the trip’s organizers were determined from the outset that all students who wanted to go to Cuba would be able to go, regardless of whether they could raise the $1,800 needed to cover their travel expenses. Parents and students organized benefit concerts, bread sales and car washes to raise more than a third of the trip’s $145,000 cost, Pratt said. They also rounded up medical and school materials – in chronic short supply in Cuba due to the U.S. embargo – to deliver in Havana. 

“From each according to ability; to each according to need,” Pratt said, paraphrasing one of Karl Marx’s most popular aphorisms. “We organized a trip to a socialist county along socialist principles.” 

Doran, who visited Cuba in 1993 as part of another educational trip, said he thought Berkeley High students would be surprised to see how much Cuba looks like their own campus in terms of its racial composition. 

Cuba is 51 percent mixed ethnicity, 37 percent white and 11 percent black. Berkeley high school is 37 percent white, 37 percent black, 11 percent Latino and 5 percent mixed ethnicity. 

The Cubans will give the Berkeley students a warm welcome, Doran said. 

“They’re very proud of their country and they want to show it off,” Doran said. “And they assume that Americans coming there are genuinely interested in their society.” 

With this group, it’s a pretty safe assumption. 

“Cuba is a completely different thing,” said ninth-grader Devin Thompson, who was wide-eyed and eager Tuesday night despite having risen at 7 a.m. to begin preparing for the trip. “Your brain just goes like ‘Whoa!’ when you see it.” 

“Short of getting to Africa, this may be the closest I get to home,” said parent chaperone Michael Miller, an African-American, Tuesday. “It’s going be amazing, from the plane ride (there) to the plane ride (back), and then beyond that.”