"I left Cuba 41 years ago. I never ever thought for one second that I would make it back here. Not alive, anyway."

Having just met the night before in the silence-challenged bar of the Miami Airport Holiday Inn, the 24 members of the Marcus Jewish Community Center of Atlanta's second-ever mission to Cuba decided we still respected each other this morning. We gathered for the first of what were to be many early-morning bus departures.

After arriving at the airport, our journey really began - from one check-in area to another, then back to the first one, sitting on tables, floors, and bags of relatively soft aid. Shaindle was kept behind the scenes so long, we thought surely she was being strip-searched… and had asked for the guy's hand in marriage. Mario made a fortune trading in blue shrink wrap - a fortune he would soon throw away on a crippling addiction to Montecristos. Expediting the process were the Kutners, almost every member of whom, it seemed, found some way to hold up the process.

It felt like a miracle when, four hours later, we finally got to board that tiny American Airlines plane. But when, just a scant hour later, we touched down in an exotic country that's even as close to ours as Macon is to Atlanta (not to mention a lot more interesting), that was even more miraculous.

On the bus ride into town, we got to know Manuel (our guide), Arnaldo (our driver), and Miriam (our mission leader), as well as this strange, yet alluring, country we could barely wrap our heads around.

We checked into the Hotel Telegrafo that afternoon and were set loose upon Havana. Some took advantage of their newfound liberation with a nap. Others, with a stroll around the very scenic Parque Central area we were staying in. Still others tried an activity that would come to consume more of their trip than they'd planned on: waiting for the Internet.

Somehow or other, though, everyone made it to dinner. And after that, a few words from our Rabbi and our Cruise Director, and a few dirty looks from our fellow hotel guests who didn't know the words to "Bendigamos," it was Nighty Night/Buenas Noches/Laila Tov for everyone. We had a big day tomorrow.