Labor Day I arrived in New York City driving a small yellow school bus. The Chicago office of the Pastors for Peace (P4P) had asked me if I would do that. Fidel was scheduled to speak at a church in Harlem the following Friday and I had hoped to be there.

Once in NY City I was informed that the Cuban mission had requested that we chauffeur the arriving diplomats for the U.N. millennium conference. That week would prove to be interesting and boring at the same time. Boring as chauffeuring is a lot of sitting around and waiting but that gave me time to watch and interact with the working Cubans.

We arrived at the mission at 7:00 in the morning as requested. The area around the mission was very high security, with tons of NYC police and Secret Service forces. Concrete "New Jersey barricades" blocked the Lexington Avenue side and wooden barricades secured all of the 40th St. side.

It would be 12:30 before we left for the airport. A convoy was shaped up by the police. It contained many police cars, Secret Service SUV's with black-tinted windows, a bullet roof limo, a fire department ambulance, motorcycle cops and two P4P small yellow school buses. The police took the convoy, with sirens blazing, at break neck speed through crowded Manhattan and onto the expressway to the air port.

I noticed that every overpass on the expressway had police stationed on them. At the airport we were taken into the hanger area. All the vehicles, police cars included, were inspected by humans and then bomb sniffing dogs. There we waited several hours until the two planes arrived from Cuba.

Police security was such that I didn't see Fidel then, nor would I see him that week. He would be near-by. The secret service limo would arrive or depart at various times while I was waiting to chauffeur. I guessed that Fidel was in the limo those times.

I've been to Cuba seven times, now I had a chance to see them out off their element. What I saw was the same as I've seen in Cuba. The Cubans were insistent that all the chauffeurs stay in a near by hotel. That we were people and not just service staff. The Cuban van drivers were foreign service staff. They did not complain that this was beneath them. If the staff were not occupied with diplomatic chores they would bring us meals from the mission. The meals were simple --rice, beans, a little meat. It was the same meal that the diplomats ate, including Fidel.

At the end of the week it came time to load a truck with the luggage and gear that the diplomats had brought. The Cubans took off their ties and sport coats, rolled up their shirt sleeves and all helped to load the truck.. Nor did the diplomats complain that they were chauffeured in a school bus. But then no other national leader would doff his suit and tie and go to a black church in Harlem to speak to 3,000 "commoners."

On Thursday the chauffeuring crew returned to the hotel to find a gift for each. A bottle of 7 year-old Cuban run, a box of Cohiba cigars and an enclosed business card from Fidel.

We were all charmed. All-in-all the time was a neat experience and re-affirmed my admiration for that island nation, its people, and their system that fosters truly human behavior.

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Ned Powell is a Wisconsin steam-fitter who drives material aid for Cuba with the Pastors for Peace caravans.