|
Residents join Cuba caravan
By Kevin Kalhoefer, The
Olympian. Texas, July 6, 2005.
Rick Fellows expects to be in Cuba later
this month, along with four other people
who left Olympia on Tuesday.
In the next two weeks, the caravan will
travel to Seattle, Portland, Boise and Salt
Lake City before converging with the other
caravans at McAllen, Texas, on July 17.
Along the way they will pick up volunteers,
collect donated items and speak at churches
of varying denominations as part of a nationwide
project coordinated by the nonprofit organization
Pastors for Peace. Six caravans spread across
the United States will travel through 130
cities and 48 states.
The group hopes to aid Cubans by providing
medicine, medical equipment, computers and
bicycles.
Fellows, an Olympia resident and mechanic,
has participated in 15 similar excursions
to Cuba and will be the project's principle
mechanic.
He will remain in Olympia to provide on-call
mechanical consultation to other caravans
and sort and load repair equipment until
he meets the caravans in McAllen.
In Texas, experienced participants will
brief newcomers on the entry process to
Cuba. Then they will travel to Tampico,
Mexico, where they will load the collected
items onto ships and then fly to Cuba.
The collected goods will be distributed
with the help of an ecumenical distribution
committee, Fellows said.
Catherine Murphy, a participant from San
Francisco, said she hopes the trip will
"illustrate the reality of the embargo"
the United States has imposed on Cuba.
"How can we be involved in a true
democratic process if we can't even go there
and see things for ourselves?" she
said.
Under the Helms-Burton Act, people who
travel to Cuba without government permission
can be fined or imprisoned.
That hasn't happened during past excursions
by Pastors for Peace, though a few participants
have been arrested and injured by border
patrol, according to Bill Hill, the excursion's
organizer and a Vietnam veteran.
Genevieve Mutschler, a Canadian nurse,
said she may never achieve her goal of living
and working in the United States because
of the actions she'll take with the group,
yet she was willing to risk it all to help
Cubans in need.
Those who want to participate in the caravan
trip and trip to Cuba are required to fill
out applications with Pastors for Peace.
Hill said they expect 140 people to participate.
He will remain in Olympia to provide on-call
mechanical consultation to other caravans
and sort and load repair equipment until
he meets the caravans in McAllen.
In Texas, experienced participants will
brief newcomers on the entry process to
Cuba. Then they will travel to Tampico,
Mexico, where they will load the collected
items onto ships and then fly to Cuba.
The collected goods will be distributed
with the help of an ecumenical distribution
committee, Fellows said.
Catherine Murphy, a participant from San
Francisco, said she hopes the trip will
"illustrate the reality of the embargo"
the United States has imposed on Cuba.
"How can we be involved in a true
democratic process if we can't even go there
and see things for ourselves?" she
said.
Under the Helms-Burton Act, people who
travel to Cuba without government permission
can be fined or imprisoned.
That hasn't happened during past excursions
by Pastors for Peace, though a few participants
have been arrested and injured by border
patrol, according to Bill Hill, the excursion's
organizer and a Vietnam veteran.
Genevieve Mutschler, a Canadian nurse,
said she may never achieve her goal of living
and working in the United States because
of the actions she'll take with the group,
yet she was willing to risk it all to help
Cubans in need.
Those who want to participate in the caravan
trip and trip to Cuba are required to fill
out applications with Pastors for Peace.
Hill said they expect 140 people to participate.
©2005 The Olympian
| 
