Stan and Kim in Cuba

  Last week, I heard something on the radio that chilled me to the bone. Before describing the story, let me say what it brought to mind. It was a trip to Perico, a small city in the Matanzas province, where I saw a sculpture I had been wanting to see for a long time, "Cristo Obrero" (Worker Christ), by the Matanzas artist Agustín Drake (beside me in the photo). The work had been commissioned by the people of Perico as a means of giving thanks to God for miraculously saving their lives. The miracle happened on February 18, 1960, when a U.S. Civil Air Patrol bomber, piloted by Robert Ellis Frost and Robert Kelly, mysteriously exploded in mid-air and crashed just outside the city of Perico before reaching its site for dropping the bombs, a sugar mill called Central España. The only victims of this bombing raid were the two pilots who died in the crash. This was the 30th such air raid US planes had made that year, all aimed at destroying the new revolutionary government's su...

  As some of my Cuban friends began to regain some access to the internet yesterday, the recurring theme I heard from several was how greatly troubled/appalled they are by seeing Youtube video footage of security forces beating protesters with sticks. These perpetrators had responded to a televised call from President Diaz-Canel for revolutionaries to take to the streets and confront the demonstrators (a page from the playbook of former President Trump, who would encourage his followers to beat protestors at his campaign rallies). The horrific scenes on Youtube are reminiscent of the 1963 confrontations between Bull Connor's security forces in Alabama and the unarmed followers of Martin Luther King's Civil Rights movement.   There are important differences as well—King was unwavering in his determination to prove that his movement was aimed at reforming the system from within; he was not calling for a coup d'etat or overthrow of the government. He was calling for the nation...

(blog by Kim) It seems that we have a lot more socks that need darning than those that don’t.   Darn the luck!! Anyway, one thing I learned from a friend in Matanzas was that in Cuba it is more common to have a day when socks need darning than when they don’t. He wasn't talking about socks so much as about when things don’t work. Whether it's something in the house or at church, or some form that needs to be turned in to get a permit or permission, or finding transportation to get somewhere, or waiting in line for cooking oil or chicken or laundry soap, the expectation is that things will not work out as you might hope. The norm is to experience frustration or disappointment.   Recently I sprained my ankle. I was able to go the doctor and was quickly seen with no problem. I also got crutches and a wonderful stability boot so that I could walk around. It all happened in one day. Plus, I had some ibuprofen I could take. I was really tired and discouraged that I had hurt myself, ...