Wednesday, January 21, 2009

A little Catching Up......

Since I've only had my own blog page for a few weeks I thought I might post some pictures and stories about who I am and what I do. Yes, of course I'm a gardener. And as I mentioned in the "about me" section I'm also a Plumbing Contractor and I own a (struggling) plumbing business. But that's not all there is. I'm also a short term missionary. I've been to Cuba, Venezuela, Romania, Hungary, Honduras, Trinidad & Tobago, Mexico, & other misc. Carribbean Islands. Next month I'm off to Nicaragua. A lot of my trips are construction orientated, like building schools, churches, houses, etc. Sometimes we'll bring humanitarian supplies like powdered milk, hygiene stuff, books, food or, believe it or not, baseball equipment. The Cubans love to play baseball! And other times I might go as a teacher or speaker.

So I'm going to start with a few pictures from my last Cuba trip which I believe was in the summer of 2007. Check it out:

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Me & my friend Asmanti looking over the construction of his new house, which is being
built on top of somebody else's house. Upper left is one of his friends working on the roof.
Upper right is the Plumbing Contractor (me) checking out his HUGE bathroom.

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Havana.


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Back in time. Top middle is the Havana airport. Top right is a picture of electrical
meters for a building I was walking by. I took the picture from the sidewalk.

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Did I mention the Cubans love to play baseball? That's me on the left and
my friend Asmanti (who played for the Cuban National team) on the right.

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Yeah, I took a picture of the plumbing. But look, that's the shower head and
the water heater all in one! Just don't get the wires wet!

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And of course the propaganda. I used to know what they all said but I've since forgotten.
I know the one on the bottom is about these 5 guys that Castro says we kidnapped. The rest I
can sum up for you like this: Cuba=Good, USA=Bad, Socialism/Communism=Good, Capitalism=Bad. All the billboards there are used for propaganda. I didn't see one billboard used
for advertising.

5 comments:

  1. Actually, none of the signs say anything about the US or capitalism. You can infer that if you wanted but then you could infer a lot from the signs.
    This is what the signs say:

    "MONCADA. Victory of ideas."

    "No one will surrender before the immortal victory at (of) Maceo. We swear this!"

    "We will accomplish all that we swore to do in Baragua"

    "We will continue to achieve victory with patience, ideas, effort, and heroism. 45th anniversary of the revolution"

    "Defending Socialism"

    I have never been to Cuba and I know little of the actual situation there. But in most conversations about Cuba I notice that no one mentions the blockade or the trade embargo and the effects these two things have had in the economy of the island. No one agrees with dictatorships and Fidel should have probably left power a long time ago, but I think is disingenuous to blame all of Cuba's troubles on Socialism and to completely ignore our mismanagement of the situation, both historically and current.
    I also find it amusing that we consider this tiny island-nation to be a threat to us.
    I am in awe of the resilience of the Cuban people, dealing in one side with the idiosyncrasies of the Castro brothers and on the other with the politically-motivated paranoia of the US.
    Having said all of this, I have a deep respect for your mission and your commitment to helping the needy of this world and I really enjoy following your garden blog.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
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    2. Like building schools, churches, houses, etc. Sometimes we'll bring humanitarian supplies like powdered milk, hygiene stuff, books, food or, believe it or not, baseball equipment. The Cubans love to play baseball! And other times I might go as a teacher or speaker.

      Delete
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