As a
slight contrast to this experience was our road trip getting here. We had been
in ___ and were making our way to Fantasy Island via the rural back roads that
provided a more scenic view than the freeway. The only problem with this kind
of travel is that there just aren’t a lot of places to stop for a snack or
bathroom break. (There were barely enough places on the freeway!) Since we
fellows are 30 years old than we were on the fellowship, bathroom breaks have
become more vital. We were about 60-90 minutes away from our destination when a
few of the women asked our guide for a quick solution.
“Would
you be willing to go to the bathroom at someone’s house,” Pavo asked.
“Yes,”
a couple women chimed resoundingly.
Pavo
and Edgar, our faithful bus driver, talked about where we would stop and who
would approach the homeowner with such a request. Edgar found an area on the
side of the road that had a number of houses despite our rural surroundings. He
saw a woman sitting on her front porch and stopped our huge bus. Then Pavo and
Edgar discussed who would approach the woman. Edgar absolutely refused to do it
but advised Pavo to “be suave” in his asking.
Pavo
left the bus not with his usual confidence, but he was on a mission. He later
told us what he said to the woman.
“We
are on a tour of Cuba and have some elderly women who need to use the
bathroom,” he said. “Would you allow us to use yours?”
From
the bus I watched the woman’s face drop with astonishment at Pavo’s request,
but she agreed and opened her house to the few people who had to use the
bathroom. Many other fellows got out of the bus to stretch their legs and to
talk to the woman’s children and neighbors who were gathering around her porch
to see who these strange gringos were and what they wanted. There were a few
curious goats in the yard who approached a couple fellows and got some petting
in return. A dog across the street sat on the roof of one house and
checked in amazement out the strange visitors from the big bus.
As we pulled away, Edgar declared that he wouldn’t
go to the woman’s house but instead would make another stop once he found some
high bushes. A few other men waited until then and joined him.
Fellows engaged the woman and her children as a
few neighbors (and those of us who remained on the bus) watched the whole
scene. They learned that four generations all lived together in three adjacent
houses. Her little girl had been sick with pneumonia for the past 20 days and
was even in the hospital. She is better now. After half an hour, everyone piled
back in the bus and we moved on. I’m sure we were the talk of the town for a
few days.
 |
| Evelyn Hu-DeHart |
But the surprises of this journey were not over.
As we headed west, the sunset began to show its fine colors. Evelyn suddenly
and reflectively declared that the moon was very bright tonight. Pavo began to
look all around the sky for the moon, but he saw none. Then he realized she was
talking about the sun. She must have been really tired to confuse the two
lights of the sky. Those of us around her who witnessed this incident started
laughing uncontrollably for the remainder of our ride. What was so funny to me
was Evelyn’s way of swooning over “the moon.” Later, Evelyn mentioned that the
Cubans sometimes mix the sun and the moon or see them as the same. It’s just
another example of the “land of topsy-turvey.”
