Whenever my dad said that one has to play with ones own cards, which he said very often, i instatnly thougt that we all must be getting the same cards, why would the creator be partial. Looking at people in grand cars with bad tempers, and joyful poor vegetable sellers was a very nice justification to my simple conclusions.
Cuba argued with me, showing that cards are not the same, or i heard it wrong.
The moment i landed in Cuba, i met a group of three very smart and bright ladies. 'Hola' the first authentic one that i heard. Talking in broken spanish that i acquired from LP, I found out that one of the younger ones liked talking to tourists. "I have never been out of Cuba all my life. I wanted to see the world" probably till she realised that outside world is a far off dream. There was nothing that i could say. If an orphan boy in Northern Khivu had told me that he wanted to see the world, i would have confidently said 'You will if you want. Just dont forget it.' For that lady there in the Cuban airport that answer would have been a lie. There is no way that a cuban today can come out of the country.
A young exhuberant tour guide wearing a crisp ironed white shirt with the company logo talkng in fluent german on the pay phone with occasional smile, paused and asked me time in american accent. He had seen the canadian flag on my jeans and assumed i spoke english. He later told me that like others, he is also making 500 cuban pesos a month, value of which is what they spend without thinking on a burger at mcdonalds in my chosen country of residence. His mother tongue was spanish, educated in Cuba, he didnt dream to ride the Audi he sees tourists drive anymore. He probably is much smarter than not only me but the millions of people living their dreams in the world outside.
The cards in Cuba are probably different. They dont seem to be very helpful. Cubans dont dream to play big now. Dreams i saw there were in chains.
Just becuase i was not born in the land 70 miles south of Miami, my cards are different. I am dreaming that Carlito Sardenias cant even dream of.
