How do I sum up Cuba? I don’t know yet. It’s really an amazing place.

Unrefined I guess.

Cuba is a difficult country though to figure out, I won’t lie. Spontaneous travel takes a lot more than just hopping on a train or an airplane. Someone’s you get to a city and every bus is full for the next two days, so you sign up on a waiting list and just enjoy. The difficulty in traveling is only because it’s such a primitive culture, which is why I also love it so much. You know what you’re going to get. The humanity is perfect and people treat you with the utmost kindness, and love to host and take care of you. They love to tell you about the special parts of their towns and what they are most proud of. They welcome you in immediately as family, if you say hello and ask questions. When there’s a baseball game on, no one does anything but watch the game. Yes, this culture is devoid of many opportunities that they would like to have but it simply does not hold them back from working their hardest each day. There is simply no rushing. Absolutely no rushing. I mean, when you see it the way they live... It makes you even wonder why we ever rush? There’s always time for them to stop and give you a kiss and ask about your day.

This is a culture very dependent on community... On helping each other in any ways that they can. When you have that, you see a lot of extreme poverty but you never see people sleeping outside at night. In fact, I never once did, in even the most difficult places I went to. Everyone has a place to stay. I never saw one person without shoes. They might need to wait two hours for bread but the line is full of lively conversation.

It’s very clear that, yes, they are in a very tough economic spot and they are aware of it. But they will get through it, and they will get through it together. And not a second of life will be missed along the journey there.