A while back, Felix, our national coordinator for Cuba, was traveling in an ancient van that he has kept "alive" for decades.

Felix graduated as a mechanical engineer from the university in Havana, so he has been able not only to keep the van going, but also to make many improvements. He turned the four-speed transmission into a seven-speed for better gas mileage. He raised the roof so that workers could actually stand up inside it. He has done a heroic job of inventing and duplicating parts, even recreating some of them with a lathe.

It is almost impossible for Cubans to own a vehicle because the government considers this a luxury item. A license plate is the ticket to ownership, a very rare privilege in that island nation. It's so valued that if your car is ever destroyed in an accident, you salvage the license plate and build your next car around it!

A businesswoman was waiting at the same airport gate as me at the airport in Charlotte, North Carolina.

She had all the trappings of being a busy, successful person-dressed in a power suit, talking on a cell phone early in the morning prior to the flight. She was the last passenger to board the plane so that she could continue to make phone calls until the last possible minute. And then—surprise—her seat was next to mine.