Introduction

Why Cuba ? (again)

Why go back to Cuba so soon (only 6 months after my first trip with my sons) and why did my high school friend and ex-basketball coach Craig Esherick want to visit Cuba this summer.

Everyone was asking me that question (especially my wife….lol).

Well it really had to do with Craig. We grew up playing ball in the Washington DC area back in the early 1970’s. He went on to play for Georgetown University and I for Jacksonville U. Many years later he was the Head Coach for GU and on national TV on a weekly basis since GU belong to the Big East conference.

In 2002, my son Brandon then 16 yrs old and I visited GU. My sister Manela also worked there and had met Craig a few times at various campus functions. Craig invited Brandon and I into his huge office and we also got to see GU practice. It was impressive.

Craig had met some Cuban coaches when he was the assistant to then Head Coach John Thompson at the 1988 Olympics in Seoul, Korea. And he had expressed to Manela a desire to visit Cuba someday.

During the next 10 years, Manela had asked me several times if I would be interested in going to Cuba with Craig and visiting some Cuban coaches. So you see this trip was 10 years in the making.

Now it just happened that I had just visited Cuba at Christmas 2010 with my sons and sent some pictures and stories to Craig. And I expressed to him that I would be interested in taking a group of doctors or coaches to Cuba for a conference.

The doctors (mainly friends of mine and Berkeley bball alums) said that the trip would be too complicated for them.

Several coaches said they were interested, but in the end, only Craig followed through and went.

It turns out that this summer was a perfect time for Craig to go. His oldest son had just finished high school and was getting ready to take off to college. And his second son was done with AAU ball.

So we settled on July 2011. 4 days and 3 nights in Havana. I, of course, told Austin he had to come with me. (we were both able to get a couple of days off from work)

Like last time we went through Zeinada Tours in Miami. Friends of my older sister Lala. This time around my visa was NOT approved quickly by the Cuban govt….so we really did not know whether we were going or not until the very last minute. This put a little extra pressure on all of us. I even suggested to Craig that he could go without us. But it all turned out ok at the last minute.

We drove down to Miami Wed. nite and slept at Steve Kitchens house (Steve had gone with us to Cuba on the first trip)….plane was not leaving until 6 pm Thurs, but Zeinada wanted to meet us at the airport at 2 pm to give us our tickets (talk about “last minute”) and our Visas and sign some papers…..etc.

I was NOT anywhere nearly as nervous as the first time I went back to Cuba. That trip I did not know what to expect. This time I was the calming force in the chaos that is Miami airport !!!