Why do I keep coming back?
Everyone, including most Cubans, ask me.
This is my 5th time here so it is a fair question.
I just can’t seem to get enough.
This country haunts me.
The first time I came was at the same time as Obama came here in 2016.
The place and people all seemed filled with hope.
Hope for a better and different future for themselves and, more importantly, their children.
Each visit since then, the fire in their eyes dims a bit.
Many Cubans have given up and voted with their feet.
It is mostly the young who have left. Their parents and grandparents remain, holding out hope or too exhausted to leave to try something new.
One of my tour guides said that out of his class of 50 from the University, only 5 remain in Cuba.
I ran into a friend from home on the street in Havana. Complete happenstance. She texted me when she got home and said she had traveled the world but hadn’t been anywhere quite like Cuba.
We agreed that it was the remarkable potential of the people we met and the texture of the place that keeps calling to us. And, the fact that it is all of 90 miles off the coast of the US makes it hard to fathom.
I will be back again someday.
Hopefully, there will still be some fire and some people when I return.
Leave a comment