Random Thoughts by Ktownbuddha

It seems like only yesterday that I was writing my previous post from Moa.  These past two weeks have flown by. The weather in Kelowna was absolutely terrible.  I think it rained every day I was there.  That being said I was still busy.  I'm now thinking I may have to add another week out in August to make up for the lack of summer I experienced over the last two weeks. This was a trip of me meeting some new people, and introducing my friends to the new person in my life.  I don't think I have ever laughed as hard as I did when my friends were interrogating her.  She was a trooper and survived an onslaught of over 75 questions.  I thought I had it bad, but boy was I ever wrong. My trip also coincided with a visit from my good friend Sapita.  While we didn't get to spend a ton of time together, it was nice to catch up and I will see her again at the end of August. The count down is on as the visitors will be showing up in 3 short weeks. ...

The train is about to leave the station.  Well I guess not really a train, I think I'm in a Pathfinder for my trip to the airport.  This has been a good rotation.  Nice and short how I like, without a ton of stress.  Things worked out well. That being said we have had some issues.  We haven't had much water in our rooms for bathing and flushing the toilets.  It has been a problem the entire time I've been here.  This week the problem got worse as we also seem to have run out of bottled water for drinking.  I did a trip around town yesterday and there is nothing to be found.  I was looking to stock up on my hurricane provisions prior to leaving.  Normally I like to have enough water on hand for an entire rotation, as well as several flats of beer.  You would be surprised how much you need to survive a storm.  By our estimates you need 5L of water per day (no AC), a flat of beer (calories and medicinal reasons) and as much cann...

It seems to me that my previous post has been officially eclipsed by my weekend rant.  Just to be clear that diatribe was long in the tooth and probably a bit overdue but it had to be set straight.  I'm proud of it, and looking forward to what is to come. This post, well let's see where it goes.  It's been a week.  Cuba has been Cuba.  I have to say I'm getting a certain fondness in my heart for the crazy and I actually understand it and can try to protect it.   We have been trying to pay this one invoice for probably 2 months if not longer.  The amount to be paid and the work are not disputed. The problem is that the project hasn't been approved within the budget of the country.  Yeah this is like getting the government of Canada to approve an invoice.  If you think that might be daunting this is the world we live in.  So while crazy, I have to say it has been a fun ride.  I swear the course I took a few weeks ago gave me my...

Words are a powerful thing.  While everybody thinks they mean the same thing to everybody they don't.  Everybody has experienced words differently in their own life.  Some people may find a certain word funny.  Others may find it offensive.  I remember one female co-worker that would laugh hysterically if somebody mentioned the phrase pussy cat.   It used to be a game of ours when we were working long hours to try and make each other laugh.  It was how we coped with working 70-80 hr work weeks. Here in Cuba I find it especially interesting.  Their sense of humour is amazing.  Even with everything going on they find the ability to laugh.  Everything here has a sexual connotation to it. This isn't just left for the men, the women are just as big of a part of it as the men. Today for instance is one of my regular monthly meetings that's about 3 hrs long, all in Spanish without a translator.  This is one of the meetings where I have...

Ok so made my first post in over a year this past week.  I've started and stopped this entry several times.  Why?  Well I didn't know if I should write this one and if so how it was going to flow.  So without further delay lets see what we got. So the last several weeks have been interesting.  Well in all honesty the last couple of months.  Over the last few months I started hanging out with a new person.  I guess not really new as she used to date a friend of mine.  Yeah I know bro-code and all but it was a long time ago.  I don't really remember spending much time with the two of them back then as I had my own stuff going on.  I had just started my new job in Cuba, I was seeing somebody new myself at the time (on and off) and yeah we didn't really see each other a ton over that time.  Life was busy. Anyhow we went out a couple of times for some drinks and debauchery.  When I say debauchery I mean consumption of far too mu...

Yeah triple question marks.  I seem to like using triple punctuation marks.  It was pointed out to me recently and I had never noticed.  I think that three is better than one, and two is just strange.  So that was a tip of the cap to a certain someone.  ;) Ok yeah I've been gone awhile.  I have been kicking around the idea of writing again.  Part of me misses it, and part of me thought that I had written everything I had to say and that I was just repeating myself.  I started writing about Cuba as a way to communicate with friends as well as to vent about my frustrations and learning to adapt to living and working here. Since I started here in August 2010 I think I have changed a lot.  I have mellowed significantly with dealing with the stress of being here.  Oh don't get me wrong I can still go on a diatribe of pain about the most inane subjects.  My fellow expats know when to leave me alone and have even given me the following...