Going to Cuba

Exciting news has rolled in.

I just received word that I will be going to Cuba to carry aid and participate in reconstruction efforts with other solidarity activists and skilled laborers from around the US.  Cuba was devastated by Hurricanes Gustav and Ike, more damaging than any other hurricanes in Cuban history.  We are leaving on Monday (only a few days away!) and there is great hurry to get things together.  I am traveling again with the support of others, and could use help.   I will taking the skills that I have learned in my communities and in New Orleans, when you sent me there in 2006

This is an interesting time to be traveling abroad to help another people while our own country is in the midst of financial crisis and uncertain elections (will they steal them again?) just around the corner.  It is, on the other hand, a good time  to be building solidarity with our close but estranged neighbors, and bringing stories home.   However much we may struggle with mortgages in this country, they struggle with food, and that struggle may be closer to our own doors now than we imagine.

We travel both as laborers and citizen ambassadors to the Cuban people.  We will be breaking the blockade that prevents US citizens for visiting Cuba, and carry with us rice, beans, coffee, tools and the skills that we have.  20 of us will go, from around the United States.

In my mind, breaking the US blockade to bring valuable relief and attention to Cuba in this time of crisis is akin to the first house-gutting crews that entered the Ninth Ward of New Orleans breaking the cordon creating by the National Guard that kept people from repairing their homes in the months after Katrina.  I wasn’t there, but arriving nearly a year later it was clear that much of the work we did would not have been possible without those first volunteers who took their citizenship into their own hands.

The Cuban people deserve the help.   In 2005 Immediately after Katrina hit New Orleans Cuba offered the aid of 1300 mobile doctors to be sent immediately for the survival of those stranded by flood waters and dehydration.   The offer was refused, or ignored, by the White House and it is obvious to me having heard the stories, that many, many lives could have been saved.   Maybe a good example is that in the wake of two successive category 4 hurricanes (Gustav’s winds topped out 340km per hour — which is over 200mph) only 7 lives were lost.

The Construction Brigade,  organized by Pastor’s for Peace and the Interreligious Foundation for Community Organizing (IFCO) and consisting mostly of skilled laborers from the US, will be to my knowledge the only group from the US in helping the reconstruction process in Cuba. We will stay for at least a month in the western province of Pinar Del Rio which has suffered the worst damage.  Our first project is to rebuild a school.  We are currently assembling the tools for the job.

WE STILL NEED HELP!

There is no doubt that I am going, but I still have some hundreds of dollars left to raise.  Can you help sponsor me?  Any help is greatly appreciated.

Make checks out to:

IFCO/PASTORS FOR PEACE

Write “Hurricane — Logan Price” in the subject or notation line.  Please DO NOT write “Cuba” any where on the check. It would make it unusable.

Mail to  IFCO, 418 W. 145TH STREET, NEW YORK, NY 10031
You can also donate by phone at 212-926-5757.

It would be helpful, if you do contribute, to tell me how much.  Send me an email (anonymously if you want) by clicking here.

I will blog as much as I can while in Cuba, though internet access may be VERY limited.  I will certainly take a lot of photos and you can look forward to slide shows and stories when I return.

Thank you so much and take care,

Logan