Nite 2

I am wearing my Black Womyn’s Lives Matter t-shirt to dinner, grateful I remembered to pack it even though it is black and too warm for Cuba, but just right for air-conditioning – although I doubt the dining hall is air-conditioned just cooled by lots of fans, open windows, and a nice breeze from the ocean through several large, leafy trees.

I hope that in the very least, I will meet like-minded people, if not engage in more interesting conversations.

A white womon sitting at a dining table with her husband intercepts me on my way to filling up my plate with luscious fruit. She proclaims in a heavy British accent she loves my shirt. I ask her if she knows what it means. Startled, she stops to re-read it, saying she knows what the womyn’s symbol means. So I read the whole shirt to her.

Her husband, still sitting and appearing to be quite drunk, tries to interrupt her. It is difficult to ignore his interruptions and focus on what she is saying. She is a communist and works in England with people who need her help like the elderly and the young. She doesn’t say, but I wonder if she means Black people. He is a journalist for the “Morning Star” paper, which is the only national socialist paper in the world, or so he declares. This is her third time in Cuba, his 5^th – and they have been all over the world, propelled by his role as journalist for this paper.

But the most interesting tidbit this couple shares with me is their claim – the catalyst to my “ah ha, of course” moment – that there are many tourists here that are communists – maybe not at this hotel, but visiting Cuba. He gives me a Morning Star pin that I promptly attach to my hat, succeeding in covering up the “veteran” part of farmer! Yeah!!!

We all express our regrets that they are leaving for England in the morning but our joy at meeting each other. I fill up again - actually more than fill up - on delicious veggies, fish, and fruit!