Guantanamo, Cuba

I LOVE photojournalism and just photographing people doing what they normally do so wanted to share with you some photos around the town and streets of Guantanamo.  Ken, one of our team mates loves kids and was so smart to bring bags of candy and toys to just randomly give out whenever he could.  He would see kids playing in the street and would toss them a baseball or soccer ball out of nowhere and they would just explode with excitement.  We all stayed in homes where people had extra rooms that they rented out just a couple blocks from the church. Each morning (very early:-) we would hear a guy yelling to let everyone know he was selling fresh bread, loud diesel engines zooming by, and the clip clop of horse and buggies.  There were a lot of dogs, both stray and pets.  There was one that looked down on us from the roof everyday as we walked by.  There is a school right across from the church, and for gym class or recess they just string a rope across the street so cars couldn't cross and then would play soccer and run races.  The old cars are so cool and weird to see.  On the outside they are painted bright colors and look amazing.  Pastor Raidel has a blue 57 Chevy, and when you open up the hood it has a diesel Toyota engine, Fiat carburetor, 2 sets of different tires and makeshift whatever parts so that it runs.  There were people gathered in the town square as they do have wifi hot spot guys that for $1 will connect your phone. I tried it one day, and it really only worked for texting not for email or social media which was actually kind of nice for a change!  There are just a few options for stores there and they all pretty much have the same thing as they are all run by the government.  There's a picture below of one that had things like clothes and cookware and appliances.  The pricing was similar to what you would see in the US which didn't make sense to us since their incomes are $12-$20 a month.  They told us that since they are government stores, it doesn't matter if they sell things or not and that there is a huge black market where people go to get things at prices they can afford.  It was such an interesting place, like nothing else I've ever seen!  Our last day on the way out was spent in Havana so I'll be posting some of my favs from there next!