Day 7 – Leaving Havana –
well getting through the airport in Havana was not a big deal, you do have to
pay an airport tax of 25 CUC so you can actually leave the country (very
interesting) – our flight ended up being 3.5 hours delayed so this blog is
being written in terminal 2 of the Havana airport – I am now very happy that I
brought some snacks and various food items since they do not have a restaurant
here – just some “Cuban Duty Free” shops with Pringles and cookies of
sorts. I bought some pringles to bring
home to the boys and a few other small snacks so they maybe bring them to school
to show the Spanish teacher – I am going to bring home some CUC currency as
well – some coins. I think my mom asked
me about 4 times to bring a coin home (as that is something she does over the
years) – so she has options. Here are
some random thoughts about Cuba – first of all this is a totally strange nation
– it is total socialist (well communist) society with pictures of Fidel and Che
all over the place (brainwashing…..). Virtually
everyone (was 90%+ in the 80’s now more like 70% in 2012) are employed by the government
– all the jobs pay the same (for the most part) and it is equal to about 25
pesos a month (very little) -- now they
do get Free Health Care, Free Schooling, Free University/College – but it is
VERY poor here. What is interesting
about Cuba – it is a third world country but the interesting part is they had a
thriving middle class in the 1940’s and 1950’s – so they have amenities that
you don’t see in many “developing nations” – they have decent housing,
infrastructure, water/sewer, electricity, etc.
Since 1996 Cuba lifted many tourism rules - so how they make money in
Cuba is basically setting up a “black market” for goods and services. Tourism is a huge boon to the economy and the
people here – how it works (in a nutshell) – the Cubans have their
regular currency “the peso” – which is the equivalent is $1.00 to 25 pesos – but the tourists cannot use pesos – they have to use CUC
(Cuban Convertible Currency) which is about 1 CUC equals about $1. So essentially the tourists are buying and
paying for items at a 25x markup. Tips
are a huge item – beggar’s are around the common areas (tourism – especially in
Havana) and then of course they have the “jinetero” – the guy (or in some cases, women) on the street who
has a story or is hustling something. So an
American (or any other tourist) giving them a 1 CUC is similar to getting
$25…..so it’s a big deal and why not do some hustling if you can get a CUC out
of it. Lots of people playing music,
lots of bars, & discos (prostitution is rampant).
The Cubans need a way to survive so they do whatever they can to make a
living – the prices for goods in Cuba is outrageous – the government here
(controls all the goods) jacks up all the prices, a jar of mayonnaise is 5 CUC
– so how does someone making 25 pesos a month even buy things? So if you ever seen any movies that talk
about how good things are here may be embellishing. The health care is excellent but it is
overshadowed by how the country is run and holds all the citizens down because
of how the government controls the goods.
Cuba also was hurt by the fall of the Soviet Union (they were communist
comrades until then) who used to supply them with oil and other much needed
imports (food especially) – so they have a major oil (gas) storage and Cubans
pay about $6 per gallon (which was told to me by our tour guide be about
$25/gallon in the U.S. – standard of living equivalent) – I was talking to him
about the currency and the country – he called it “crazy” – so even the
citizens here recognize the problem.
Like one of guys mentioned at the airport – it’s one big con scheme and
the whole island is in on it!! Raul
Castro has changed many things in the last few years (like giving citizens to
buy property and build houses) and creating more of a free market (sort of), I
wouldn’t doubt it seeing Cuba being more “capitalistic” within the next decade. (sorry for the political/history rant – but
just thoughts about the reality here).
This was an amazing trip – the people of Cuba are wonderful
(opportunistic….) and they love baseball.
I went on this trip because of my love for baseball – Cuba and I will
always have that in common. A big shout
out to John Gilmore and Baseball International – he does a great job and I
highly recommend anyone to attend a trip internationally (and play baseball
too) as this year he has a trip to Germany (June) and then to China (in
September). He does not put these trips
together for money, Baseball Int’l is a non profit and one of his primary
reasons for doing these trips is promote friendly baseball games between the US
and the countries they visit. Equipment
is donated to all places they visit as generally outside of the U.S. they do
not have access (or the buying power) to get reasonable gear – all in all I
gave away a number of items – I received donations of baseball shirts, jerseys,
pullovers from Stan Dickman, director of the Twins Fantasy Camp and also struck
a deal with Dan Murphy of the VoteTonyO.com organization (he is Tony Oliva’s
neighbor in Bloomington, MN who is promoting Oliva’s chance to get into the Baseball
Hall of Fame via the veterans’ committee – voting in 2014) and was able to
donate and hand out many items – I also gave away both pairs of baseball pants,
socks, cleats, many hats, jerseys, sunglasses, batting gloves, batting helmet,
and an assortment of band aids/first aid items. These are all sorely needed there……I think I
had about 70 pounds of baggage on the way there and came home with about 40 lbs
– so I left about 30 lbs of “stuff” while I was there – it felt good to donate
– I hope those items get used in a fruitful way. Well time to get back to normal life and
complaining about traffic, paying for gym memberships, parking spots…….looking
forward to seeing the wife and the boys – it was a long week as I got into
Minnesota at about 11pm last Friday.
Thanks for reading and
following along with my Cuba baseball adventure!
PB
~~ "You can observe a lot just by watching." - Yogi Berra ~~
No comments:
Post a Comment