Here they come, from all over the world! (Well, almost.)

I sometimes muse at how mind and matter collide and what materializes from such collisions; of how matter is molded and manifested into our world as the result of a thought in someone's mind.

In 1984, a bullet from the rifle of a Nicaraguan contras "freedom fighter" found its mark inside the body of one Reverend Lucius Walker, Jr. The following photos are all the result of that bullet (matter) meeting with that Reverend (mind).

Approximately 12 years afterward, on the 19th of July, 2006, Mrs. Dada and I passed a strange looking bus on a lonesome stretch of Interstate 10 just west of Blythe, California. I slowed the car as we passed while Mrs. Dada took pictures of the very unusual bus.

We didn't know it, but that bus was a manifestation of that earlier space/time intersection between a bullet and Reverend Walker.

On April 6, 2008 while walking with blogger and frequent commenter on Dada's Dally, Border Explorer, pictured here with husband -- Mr. Border Explorer, revealed to Dada the highlight of her life had come about as a result of the 1984 shooting of Rev. Walker.

(Photo courtesy of Janine Bandcroft of Journey to Cuba with Pastors for Peace)

From last Friday, June 27, 2008. Dada, pictured above listening to group spokeswoman, Nita Palmer, seated across from him. (Mrs. Dada can be seen standing behind in pink. ) We attended a potluck dinner hosted by El Paso's Unitarian Universalist Community Church. It was for a contingent of 16 representatives of Pastors for Peace on their way to Cuba with medications, educational materials and computers.

For the 19th time in 17 years, Pastors for Peace, through this year's courageous group of volunteers, will again challenge the U.S. blockade of Cuba this Thursday, July 3rd, when they will attempt to cross the border into Reynosa, Mexico.

They had come to dinner in two very unusual buses. One of those buses parked outside was the very same bus the Dada's had passed nearly two years ago outside Blythe, CA! (top photo)

If we didn't know what that bus was about in 2006, we were learning this evening, all because of a bullet and Reverend Walker's interaction in 1984.

Below then, are pictures of some of the buses carrying volunteers from the U.S., Canada and Europe along with desperately needed and appreciated goods and medications for Cubans. There are also cars and trucks in this convoy.

NOTE: These photos were taken in McAllen, TX and are courtesy of Janine Bandcroft, one of the caravanistas. The following is also from her website:

"More than 100 Pastors for Peace volunteers from the US, Canada, and Europe have assembled in McAllen, TX to challenge the immoral US blockade on trade and travel to Cuba. Participants in the 19th US/Cuba Friendshipment Caravan arrived last night in McAllen and are currently preparing for their journey. They are camped out at Our Savior Lutheran Church for several days to inventory the 100 tons of aid they have collected for Cuba, to decorate and maintain their vehicles, and to prepare their border-crossing strategy. The aid includes medical, educational, arts and sports equipment for the blockaded island nation. Six brightly painted school buses and a mobile library will also be donated to Cuba. The caravan plans to cross the Texas border into Reynosa, Mexico early on Thursday, July 3, on their way to visit Cuba."

As you look at the pictures of these buses carrying all these volunteers, remember it may be it's only because of the intersection of a bullet and a reverend sharing the same space and time in 1984 that all of this has manifested.

And while viewing this magnificent fleet, ponder what might not be if that bullet had missed Reverend Walker.

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Dada note: The U.S. blockade of the small island nation, Cuba, for nearly 1/2 a century makes absolutely no sense. Unless, as Dada suspects, Cuba scares the shit out of the United States.

That would be because Cubans enjoy many benefits we in the United States don't/can't have, such as free education and medical care for all citizens, despite that nation's impoverishment.

And while a poor country, try to imagine what the U.S. would be like with our dwindling resources and an industrial base that manufactures little more than humongous personal and national debts, or ponder how "rich" we'd be if blockaded for forty-seven years unable to import the oil and essential resources from others all over the world we so desperately need to build our major exports, bombs and bombers.

Or, "God forbid!" what would we do if we couldn't have the cheap Chinese Wal-Mart crap our insatiable, addicted appetites require?