Day Six McAllen, Texas

Saturday, July 14th. McAllen, Texas. Today is the day when every single box is taken out of each bus and truck, opened up, and taped back up, and put back on the bus. Each box needs to be checked for expired medicine and correct contents. It 101 degrees and 50% humidity. Apparently cars have been circling the church all day, some form of intimidation. I am bummed I am leaving. This has been an incredible learning experience. Later at the airport I become even more depressed--watching all of these people coming and going to and from comfortable vacations while knowing that 150 people are working in the ungodly hot weather, preparing for a humanitarian mission to Cuba. Everyone I met on this trip has such a huge heart and dedication to global change.
You can see a slideshow of the trip at: http://picasaweb.google.com/fotocubano/Caravan/photo#s5088054826451630258

Day Five in Caravan

Friday, July 13th. Route: San Antonio to McAllen, Texas. Now the weather is hot and there is no escaping it. We arrived in McAllen in early afternoon. Here is where all of the caravans from around the country and Canada meet to organize all the of the aid gathered on the trips and to prepare for crossing the border on Tuesday. Dinner that night was delicious and so fun to be in the presence of all these new people, young and old. There is so much energy and good will. I am sad I will not be on this journey till the end. This is Ishmael who has been cooking for Pastors for Peace since it began 18 years ago. He is Cuban but hasn't been back. Many people have been working with Pastors for several years.

Fourth Day in Caravan

Thursday, July 12th. Route: El Paso, Texas to San Antonio, Texas. We got off to a rough start with several repairs throughout the morning. And then to save time, Woody opted to not get gas until our next pee break. We didn't make it and had to pull to the side of the road to fill up with a 5 gallon reserve. This was our longest drive, about 12 hours. Thankfully we didn't hit major heat until around 5pm. We arrived tired and hot around midnight to a Unitarian Church but stayed up late laughing hysterically as Hans entertained us all.

Third Day of Caravan

Wedneday July 11th. Route: Tucson, AZ to El Paso, Texas. I awoke at 5:30am. There was only 2 bathrooms and 13 people so I figured I should get in there before too many more get up. When I was fixing the window last night, I left my phone in the rain...not working now. Woody, Gerry, and Larry fixed the electric window. You take the two wires from the window and touch them to the battery and it will roll up, and if you reverse them, it will roll down. How genius. Sharon with the prius is staying in El Paso in the ICU. We are down to two cars and added two people. Drive to El Paso was pleasant because there was surprisingly cool weather the whole way. We picked up two amazing women from Tucson-Rebekah and Teresa (you can see them dancing in the ceremony pics). Rebekah wants to go to Cuba to look into the Latin American School of Medicine. We talked a lot about border issues as Rebekah crosses the US/Mexico border everyday for work. We all stayed up late that night talking more about politics and Hans was cracking us up.

Second Day of Caravan

Tuesday July 10th. Route: San Diego to Tucson, AZ. We all met at 8am to hit the road but since we were going to drive through deserted areas, decided to go grocery shopping to prepare. Hit the road at 10am. The caravan consists of three cars at this point: the bus, the mercedes, and the prius. The mercedes and the bus both don't have AC. It was very HOT driving thru the desert. Sharon, who owned the prius hadn't been feeling well for days and was taken to the hospital when arrived in Tucson. The rest of us were greeted by a ceremony in Tucson right around sunset. The leader of the ceremony talked about the necessity to have a hard journey in order to really understand what you are doing and why you are doing what you are doing. He talked about bodies being disposable but ideas solid. An idea will live on past the life of a body. We are portals for ideas. At the end of their dance, he invited us to make a circle and walked us through their dance. A good workout! We stayed here at this house and had a very relaxing evening. Earlier that day I rolled down the window to wave to the bus when passing it on the highway and then it wouldn't roll back up--broken! We tried fixing it at a rest stop but wouldn't budge. Later that night before bed I went to go tape up the window because it felt like rain. Just as I was putting on the last piece of tape, it started to pour, but just for five minutes.

First Day of Caravan

Monday July 9th. Route: Los Angeles to San Diego.
I didn't know for sure until Sunday night whether or not I would be joining the Pastors for Peace Caravan from Los Angeles to McAllen, Texas. A very generous person, John Pokrajac donated a 1984 diesel mercedes for us to donate to our Cuban collaborators. Having to ship this car ourselves would have been financially prohibitive, so fortunately we were able to team up with Pastors for Peace, an organization of interreligious pastors who make humanitarian missions to Cuba and around Latin America each year. (visit their website: http://www.ifconews.org/) We were able to fill the car with video equipment to use on our shoot in the fall and also for our Cuban collaborators to start using such as a video projector, vcrs, diffusion gels, etc, generously donated by Theresa Chavez and Steve Gibbons. Here we are leaving LA on the freeway, the hippie bus making its way thru traffic. Larry Parrish will be the Mercedes driver from La to Texas. The car is stick so I can't drive it, but Larry offered to take on the responsibility. The car is packed full of donations, everything from a video projector, to 2 VCRs, to diffusion gels, electrical wire, tape, 2 laptops and 2 desktops, and toys all donated by some very generous people!
A few hours into the trip, Woody the driver, pulled into a weigh station because he saw the porta poties from the road. Driving thru a little bit too fast, he was pulled over and asked to show license and registration. He wasn't up to date with his medical card so we waited at the weigh station for 3 hours while he went to get a physical. We slept in comfortable suburban San Diego digs. Still a little bit in shock from going on such an unexpected long trip but getting to know everyone. You can see a slideshow of the trip at: http://picasaweb.google.com/fotocubano/Caravan/photo#s5088054826451630258