Exercising Patience -- the #1 Thing Cubans Do Better
They say patience is a virtue. Unfortunately it’s not something I possess an abundance of. When I travel to Cuba and spend time in their neighborhoods and communities, instead of at a resort being coddled by bar service on the beach and Wi-Fi in the lobby, I realize just how significant my deficit is in this regard.
Waiting to enter the the Etecsa office, internet and phone provider to Cuba.
While there are many lessons from daily Cuban life which may serve us well (ie their coffee-brewing expertise or the ingenuity with which they re-use and recycle items we would normally throw in the trash), their ability to exercise the patience required to stand in very long lineups has been perfected into an art form. I’m not talking about waiting ten minutes behind five people for a fresh omelet at the buffet. I’m talking about really long lineups waiting for ordinary things that we take for granted, like buying a block of cheese or hopping on a bus or buying a SIM card for a cell phone. These are often epic endeavors for the average Cuban, requiring a mountain of both time and fortitude. For example, on a recent trip to the bank in downtown Matanzas, I was told by the crowd of locals gathered on the sidewalk that the power had gone out (a regular occurance) and they had closed the doors until it could be restored. I waited there for over 30 minutes under the blistering sun -- sweat literally coursing like a river from my neck to my belly button -- until the doors opened again. It was another 30 minutes before I was allowed to take care of my business with the teller. But this is normal everyday stuff for a Cuban.
So I was ready to pounce on the guy standing behind me as I waited to pass through Customs in Toronto after a recent return flight from Cuba. Stressing about the 200 people in line, he could not stop complaining. “Ya know, the airport and the damn government just don’t care about people anymore. Don’t they realize everyone is just tired and we want to go home? Why do we have to wait in such a long lineup to deal with a crappy machine instead of a live person? This is just f***ing ridiculous!” The interesting thing is, it only took about 15 minutes to get from the end of that line all the way to the baggage claim. 15 MINUTES!! The kiosks they’ve installed to scan passports and print customs cards have sped up the process significantly, making it all remarkably efficient. One is hard-pressed to use that adjective – efficient -- to describe anything in Cuba.
Waiting to enter the bank
For a quick second I felt compelled to turn around and say “Hey buddy, you just came from a place where people wait in line for an hour behind six people at the bank, and there's a guard at the door telling them when to enter, where to sit, and when they are allowed to approach the counter. And because almost nobody can afford their own wheels, they wait at the bus stop with 200 other locals prepared to pack themselves like sardines into an already jammed, stinky, stuffy, dirty bus in order to get to their unairconditioned office or school. I didn’t hear any of those people complain. Please sir, recognize how fortunate you are to have the freedom to travel at will in the first place, and then do everyone a favor and shut your pie-hole.”
But no. Instead, I remained tranquila like a Cubana who knows there are things in life that we simply can’t change, such as the lineup at airport customs or the bad attitude other people have as a result of their ignorance. We can, however, improve upon some of our own personal deficits by observing other cultures and people who happen to be better at certain things than we are. Cubans are better at patience, hands down.