Some words from Vince

Folks here LOVE to fish, as they should, since fish are plentiful. One of V's co-workers took him fishing several weeks ago, and this is one of the yellowtail snappers that he is gleefully displaying. There are fish here that I have never heard of - hog fish, snook, cobia -- and then fish like grouper, tarpon, king mackerel, flounder, barracuda, and more.

All this beautiful water, though, has witnessed some amazing stories, as Vince relates here (I am publishing part of an e-mail that he sent to a friend):

"Guantanamo Bay, or GITMO as the locals call it, is a very strange place. The original gated community, they say. The Marine and Cuban military guard towers are a common sight from many areas on base as well as the fence line separating us from the dirt-poor Cuban peasants. The base is full of people with amazing stories. I hear many of them as I commute to work crossing the bay on the ferry. Cathy and I have housing several miles from the ferry landing and the airport is on the other side of the bay so I spend about 2 hours a day commuting to and from work.

I met R. on the ferry last week. He was born on a farm in Cuba to a poor peasant family. When he was 18 he built a raft and set out for freedom with 3 other people. After 6 days at sea drifting northward, they encountered an empty boat adrift in the sea (sounds like God's providence to me) and they transferred to it since the raft was in bad shape. Two days later they were picked up by a ship and all were interned at GTMO for a year and a half and then released. Today he is a Seabee, married with a child, and he sends $100 a month to his family near Havana. He uses a personal courier service to carry cash from outside of Cuba so that the Cuban government does not take the 18% tariff on it.

He told me how poor they were and how hard they worked for the communist government. Education and health care were "free" but nothing is really free there. Everything comes with the cost of hard work for little or nothing in return. Many have to subsist on about $5.00 a month. Iguanas are protected on base as they are nearly extinct on the poor side of the fence. The poor eat them, a fact R. confirmed. He is a happy man and proud to be a free American.

I hear many other stories. A man named M. and 15 others hijacked a train years ago and rode it to a point about a mile from GTMO. They ran to the fence line and only 9 made it after Marines guided them through the mine field. Today M. is a retired Navy Master Chief and is moving to a home he bought in Panama with many of his family members he was able to get out of Cuba.

I hear of a Russian sailor who jumped ship at night many years ago and swam 12 miles to GTMO to obtain freedom.

Sunday morning Cathy and I worshiped at the Jamaican church here on base. They have 2 hour services and they really know how to praise for most of it. A humble uneducated man gave the message and did very well. Almost all the menial jobs on base are done by Jamaican and Filipino foreign nationals. All of them have at least two jobs and many work 7 days a week to send money home. They never complain even though they must come here alone to work. After 2 years they get a month and a half off to go home and see their families. Even the skilled Filipinos make only a 5 or 7 dollars an hour as electricians or computer techs. The unskilled work for as little as $2.50 an hour. They seem to me to be the meekest folks I have ever seen."

I appreciate what he has described, because it helps keep things in clearer perspective when I start whining about not having any baskets here.