About 12 years ago, my husband's two brothers went on vacation to one of the resorts at Santa Lucia. Since there's not a whole lot to do in Cuba (no malls, restaurants or movie theatres, except in a few of the larger cities), they decided to *follow the road as far as they could go*. They took a caleche (horse-drawn cab) until the road got too bad even for the poor horse, so then they got out and kept walking along this dirt road.

They walked to the last house on the road, where there was a very old man sitting out on a chair on his verandah. The old man waved them over and despite language differences, they struck up an immediate bond of friendship and soon the entire family came out to meet the brothers. The rest is history. And how the family has grown since that first day!!!

The one brother (who just died last January in his late 70's) went back every year, sometimes two or three times a year, to visit his Cuban family. The other brother (also in his 70's) still goes back every year to visit and bring whatever stuff he can. My husband started going with them 9 years ago, and I joined in 3 years ago. Hubby's sister came with us this year. Other members of his family give us clothes and medicines and other goodies to take there.

The old man who the two brothers met on the verandah that day died a few years ago the day after the brothers and hubby had come to visit him. It seemed as if the old man had waited for them to arrive before dying. The brothers had brought him a heavy sweater (along with a wheelchair so he could get around the village) many years ago, and he had insisted on being buried in that much-beloved sweater.

We do this on our own, just within my husband's family. We're not rich by any stretch of the imagination, (except in comparison to them), but they're our family now too, and we just share what little we have with them. Our biggest headache is the weight restriction on our suitcases when we fly down there, but most of the airlines do give us a little break on the overweight charges when they realize how much of it is going to stay there. We also send small packages throughout the year, but those don't always make it to the right people, so we can't send anything new or of any real value through the mail.

I'm a bit long-winded when it comes to talking about Cuba...can you tell it's a true heart-passion of ours?