Life lessons learned in Paradise (part 1)

Nothing about the life, the spirit nor the mind are ever stagnant. Every day things are changing, and over the course of 3 months a substantial amount can change. Add in some catalytic event such as travelling, and in particular travelling to some very diverse and different places and you have a very different person spat out at the end. Many lessons were learned along the way, some as a result of very BAD experiences and others that were amazingly positive.

Cuba (3.5 weeks)

• Don't leave your drink sitting on its own
• So this should be a big fat giant DUHH lesson, and considering that it has been indoctrinated into us from a young age (ps. Queensland Education Department, maybe not necessary to teach 12 year olds the danger of drink spiking quite so soon) and considering that a number of friends have fallen victim I should have been more cluey. But in Mexico it has really not been a concern, and when you're dancing, having fun and being merry sometimes one does not realise that the girl's bathroom sink is a dangerous place to leave one's drink. But after a horrid next day and a total blackout of that night I now cradle my drink carefully whenever I am drinking.
• The fake boyfriend excuse doesn't work
• In Cuba they love whiteys/any foreigner who can get them out of the country. And always by the second question they are asking: Do you have a boyfriend? And of course when you see their greasy complexion, that evil glint in their eyes that screams 'I want to fuck you,' the most logical answer is YES, I do. Which leads to more questioning such as, 'where is he? do you have a CUBAN boyfriend though? are you actually in a serious and committed relationship?' And as the elaborate web of lies grows and grows one comes to realise that nothing will deter these lecherous beasts. So the best solution: "No I don't have a boyfriend," and just as their eyes light and and pop out of their head: "but I do NOT want you!" BAM! All it takes is the truth.
• You have no right to hate on a place if you've been a cynical little bitch the entire time
• So after a few negative experiences in the first 2 days in Havana, and the feeling of loneliness and the revoltingly persistent Cuban boys, I was guarded and closed from the word go. Short of glaring and scowling at people in the street (Brisbane CBD 8:30am style), I was definitely not the open and friendly girl who approaches people, laughs, smiles and waves as I normally am (especially not towards any Cubans) and I no doubt threw away a lot of opportunities and potentially wonderful friendships as a result. Even though it was hard with the shit that went down in the first week, it is REALLY important to remain open minded, because you can't change the universe nor the people around you, but you can control your own attitude which is 99% of the battle.
• You don't need to be a raging polyglot to communicate with people
• So this lesson came from a sweet Swiss guy who I met at a bar whilst I was with 2 spanish friends. This guy was 19; fresh, young and wide eyed (dare I say it, myself 3 years ago?). While his English was barely functional, his spanish was attrocious! He was able to knock maybe 5 words together and was not conversant in it at all. But every time I saw him around he had his dictionary with him. He smiled, laughed and made big hand gestures to get his point across, and his positive attitude simply radiated and rubbed off onto everyone. And doors opened for him! Despite his lack of control over the language he was always invited to parties, fun events and festivities, just because he was so nice to be around. So after feeling stupid, retarded and inadequate around polyglot friends when I barely speak 1.5 languages well, it was a burst of fresh air to realise that its not the 7 languages that you speak that helps you to relate to people but the attitude.

Haiti (2 weeks)

• Many NGOs seem to be doing a great deal of shit all
• Okay, so I will begin this by saying that I am generalising hard here. For every dodgy NGO there are many good, small grassroots ones with specialised aims and actual professionals working there which do a great deal of good in the world. But of course there are a few (lot) that tend to let down the team and those tend to be the big ones, the ones that everyone has heard of and the ones with the greatest amount of donations. And of course they are the most general in their aims! Of course an organisation that claims to end poverty, develop under developed nations and save the world sounds better than one that fixes sewers or distributes torches to people, but they're also the least directed (so what is the daily schedule of a person saving the world?). Add on top of that the expenses! Why does an NGO need to live in a beautiful mansion, with a guard, eating food that is imported in from [insert country here]; with staff who aren't allowed into the streets at night nor befriend local people? And are the big brick walls and barbed wire fences to keep the staff from mixing with the others or to keep the poor people out? And just to top it off: which Director for operations in Haiti of which charity earns $15 000 a month on top of his no expenses? BOOM! Be very careful about where your donations are going, that's all.
• Poverty is completely relative
• So coming from a lovely warm home, with my own room, hot showers for as long as our ghetto hot water tank would last and the knowledge that unless there was a cyclone the streetlights would always be on, it was a shock coming to Haiti. And even though I was staying in a rich neighbourhood (with the top 10% of Haiti's wealthy) it was definitely a shock to the system. Electricity that was only on for 12 hours a day (at sporadic times), no running water for 3 days in a row and sponge baths each day, rubbish lining the streets and half built houses all around. Did I mention that this was the rich area? Yet people are content and they don't complain. This is their life and the fact that they have a house with any electricity at all is fortunate. It just makes one realise how lucky they really are.

Republica Dominicana (2 weeks)

TO BE CONTINUED...