Random Thoughts by Ktownbuddha

As I write this I'm less than 46 hours from landing in Kelowna.  I'm quite excited to be spending some well deserved time at home.  I'm looking forward to sleeping in my own bed, eating food that doesn't make me sick, and playing with Stewie.  Yes I miss all my friends but those are the 3 things highest on my list. I think the Cuban's are just as excited to see me leave, as they have never worked so hard or been more accountable for what they do.  Even though at times I have felt unproductive, I feel like I've made some progress that should help them and the Company in the future.  The next trip in will be a doozie.  I'm here for 6 weeks and will need to have pretty much everything done and ready for year-end. So for those of you living in Kelowna, hopefully I see you over the next few weeks.  For the rest of you, it sucks to be you!!!!

This weekend started off on an interesting note.  On Friday morning, all of the expats received an email that our boss was having a bbq for us on Friday night.  We all thought something was up. Our boss isn't a very social creature and never communicates about things other than work.  Upon our arrival he was a gracious hot running around making sure we had beer, or whatever we wanted.  The food was amazing.  One of the expats had found a good meat sluppy and we had NY strip steaks, and a wonderfully smoked pork tenderloin.  We also had this very foreign invention, called a salad.  Not only that but we had salad dressing!!!!!!!  Needless to say we were all excited and ate to our hearts content.  Finally one of the other expats asked when the other shoe was going to drop.  Much to our surprise the boss said that it was just a bbq and nothing more.  So we continued to trade stories and then soon enough it was time make our way to poker. By this point the crew had thinned out to 4 pe

A little bit of background first.  Travelling to Cuba requires that we bring a ton of stuff.  Clothes, food, and other necessities.  So we are always flying with the maximum amount of weight allowed, and paying all the extra baggage and weight fees.  On my next trip in I need to bring a 3rd bag.  That will be my bike.  The cost of that alone is $275 ($225 for the extra bag, and a $50 bike fee).  The other two bags will both be over the weight limit and will cost $200 ($100 per bag).  So all in I'm due to pay $475, of which $425 would be covered if I upgraded from economy to business class as they are allowed to bring 3 bags each weighing a maximum of 70lbs. So I had our travel agent cost out the difference between economy and business to see if it would be cheaper to upgrade.  Low and behold the cost difference to upgrade was only $183.  Perfect I thought.  All I need to do was get approval and away we go, the Company would save $242.  Unfortunatley the Company has a policy that

What a week.  Yes our bar is still closed, although there are rumours that it will re-open this week.  The 2nd week was a lot better than the first.  Things are starting to come along.  Small improvements are being made and things are starting to settle down. I went out and bought some buckets so that I can fill them up clean myself.  Water pressure has hit an all time low.  We aren't sure what is going on, but its at the top of our to fix list, which means the bottom of the Company's. Based upon my desire to get out of Moa for a bit, I arranged an overnight trip for a few of us to head to Guadalavaca, and more specifically the resort Rio de Oro.  It's a 3 hr drive each way over some nasty roads but it was worth it.   We did run out of beer on the way there, but that was probably a good thing.  We were greeted with a bottle of champage at reception and quickly proceeded to polish that off.  Next we were off to the pool.  It was supposed to close about 30mins after we got

I knew that I was going to experience some weird things living in Cuba.  I knew that there were going to be food and supply shortages at various times.  However, last night was a little strange.  One of the government owned companies that supplies our Company with food, transportation and other services has been having difficulties in paying its suppliers.  This Company supplies not only us, but 2 other mining companies in the city.  However we are the only one that has a foreign investor with the other two being 100% government owned. Also as the other two mining companies aren't performing that well, they aren't paying their bills from the supply company.  So basically the only source of cash for the supply company is us. So how does this really effect me?  As part of our motel complex, there is a restaurant and a very small bar.  So a few of us had planned on meeting in the bar and chatting.  So weren't we surprised to find out that the bar was closing.  Buddy had just