The eggs had little American flags in them. Four eggs, all fried.
To my right, a Russian couple. I’d say in their early 30’s. Very Russian-looking. Strong and sexy. The girl was wearing Coca-Cola slippers and the dude was wearing a t-shirt with an American flag on the front. Irony.
A guitar player and his sidekick on the violin eased towards the Russians. After the song was over, the guitar player asked where they were from in his broken English.
“Russia,” the dude said also in broken English with a strong Russian accent.
It was 8 am and I was in a small restaurant in the middle of Havana, Cuba. My buddy and I went down last weekend to mule some cash to a lady desperate to escape that hellhole called Cuba and take her daughter someplace with more opportunity. Any place besides Cuba.
Cuba is tired. The people are tired. The cars are tired. The dogs are tired. The buildings are falling apart. Bread lines stretch around the block. There are no stores.
Fascinating.
Our friend, the lady, told us about the hardships at dinner the first night. She sipped on a virgin pina colada as we scarfed down a pizza. Did you know there are pizza joints all over Cuba? Well, apparently Fidel Castro loved pizza so much that he required every neighborhood to have a pizza place. Can anybody afford the pizza? Nope.
She is in her 50’s. Her daughter is 17. There is no work. No opportunity. No future.
Earlier that morning I was sitting at a small table in the middle of a plaza. It was around 7 am when a street sweeper lingered over to my area. He was pushing a little trashcan cart around the plaza sweeping up trash. When he saw me sitting at a table, he put his broom up and took a seat next to me. He pulled out a cigarette and started to talk to me in Spanish. He was rail thin and tanned by the sun. His face had a million wrinkles and his worn-out sneakers had seen better days.
When he realized I didn’t understand a word he was saying he handed me a piece of paper that read the following in English:
I WORK HARD AND AM HARD WORKING MAN. I ONLY GET PAID USD $20 A MONTH. COULD YOU PLEASE SPARE ANY MONEY? THE MONEY HELPS ME FEED FAMILY A LITTLE BIT. WE ARE VERY HUNGRY.
I imagined him working every day burning calories with little to nothing to eat. Sweeping. Every day, all day, sweeping.
I gave him $20.
I don’t think it’s working in Cuba. I think there needs to be a change. The people want the change.
I travel because it radically shifts my perspective on life. It reminds me how blessed I am to have won the luck lottery of being born into a good family in a prosperous country. A country people like our friend are desperately trying to get in.
We were chatting with our lady friend on the last night. She told us her love story, a story about her first love who she still loves today. He left Cuba 25 years ago. She even showed us a picture of him. She talked about how much she loves her daughter and is committed to finding a way to get her out of Cuba so she can have the opportunity at a prosperous life. Her 17-year-old daughter, the girl I met last time we were in Cuba who helped me find a tattoo shop, speaks seven languages.
SEVEN LANGUAGES she taught herself. Damn. That is amazing.
“Are you going to write another book?” She asked me with a big smile. I said yes.
“What will it be about?” She asked.
“Well, I am thinking about trying to answer the question ‘How does someone enjoy life? What do we need to do to really enjoy life?’”
“Oh, that is a good idea,” she smiled.
She had such an amazing attitude. I couldn’t imagine the hardships she had endured over her lifetime.
“What do you think the secret is to enjoying life?” I asked her.
She thought for a moment and then answered…
1. Meet new people
2. Motherhood
3. Never give up
I think that’s good advice.
Trey
I just got this message from her on WhatsApp…