ElderChicks

I’ve always wanted to ‘see for myself’.  I had heard such positive things about how Germany ‘owned’ its horrible past, and taught it to their children, but I simply had to see it for myself.  My husband would never go to Germany, so I had to go after he had died. I went with a friend; a friend of my husband’s actually.  We hired an experienced guide, who turned out to be 1/2 Jewish, and we did indeed see for ourselves exactly how the German government mandated teaching its ugly past to their young, so it would never happen again. Would our government only follow in Germany’s example!

I felt the same way about Cuba. One hears so much; you hardly know what to believe…In this case, my husband was willing to go, but he got sick and died before that was possible. My interest remained, and I was fortunate enough to go, and ‘see for myself’, at a most historic time:  Fidel Castro died the day before we arrived in Havana! I will just share two vignettes from that trip. The Cuban people have such pride in their country; a friendliness toward Americans that went beyond interest in our tourist dollars, and this:  How safe a tourist is in Cuba. Why? Because in their strict criminal code, if you are caught doing a crime against a Cuban citizen you will get jail time. But, if caught, doing the same crime against a tourist, your jail sentence will be two or three times as long!

In this time of Covid, one has to have hope. A friend of mine, who moved to California this June, and underwent a mastectomy followed by Chemo this past September, and I have plans, real plans: when we each have received the Covid vaccine and have shown positive antibodies, we are going to go to Cuba together!