Ruminations of an Expatriate

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Thursday, July 26th, 2007...9:16 am

Saba

My great friend, and neighbor of more than thirty years before my expatriation, Life Long Harborite, joined me here in Playa Baracoa a week ago for a two week stay. We tell folks here that we are Dos Gringos Locos en un Mision Diplomatico Privada a Cuba. We are indeed locos; very diplomatic; and we, of course, engage in our usual reprobative behavior involving the excessive consumption of rum and tobacco.

Our pursuance of our mission, not to mention our reprobative behavior, daily results in very interesting and very memorable encounters with Cubans, as well as periodically with other tourists.

Yesterday, July 16, LLH and I went to the internet café in the Hotel Nacional in Habana. Sitting at the table where I placed my laptop for connection to the hotel network was a young fellow busy at his laptop.

Shortly, the fellow excused himself, indicated he noticed that LLH was smoking a cigar, explained he knew nothing about cigars, and asked LLH if he would look at the cigars he had bought on the street for a friend to determine if they were genuine. The saleslady in the hotel cigar shop (where, incidentally, a box of Vegas Robianos sells for $181) had told him they were fakes. LLH soon determined the cigars were genuine.

I suppose I should explain that tourists here are approached on the street with offers of cigars that are obtained illegally and illegally offered at prices ranging from $30 to $100 a box. The price is of course negotiable and the price ultimately paid is a function of the savviness of the consumer. The young fellow had paid $100 for a box of lower quality cigars than those bought by LLH for $40.

At any rate, the fellow, Saba, is Lebanese and travels the world in his work for a satellite communications company. He was here, on his first visit, to meet with Cuban telecommunications officials; had been here only one day; and was staying in the Hotel Nacional.

Saba indicated he lived in a coastal city in the Christian section of Lebanon. I politely asked if he was a Marrionite Christian. He responded that he was, but only nominally so. He explained that Marrionites are kind of on again, off again Catholics, sometimes throughout their history loyal to the Vatican and at other times not.

A conversation ensued ranging from our shared antipathy to the current Pope to Middle Eastern, Cuban, and USA politics. We suggested that if he would like to encounter the real Cuba that during his next visit he should stay in a casa particular with the owners of the home. Saba expressed amazement when we explained that we had rented an entire house for $30 per night.

LLH and I had both determined by the end of the conversation that Saba was badly in need of an education relating to properly vacationing in Cuba and asked he if would like to visit our home for an evening of reprobative behavior and conversation. We explained that our friend Antonio, a taxi driver of a size causing me to refer to him as “El Oso”, would shortly arrive to retrieve us from the hotel and that we would gladly arrange for him to transport Saba to and from our house that evening.

Saba eagerly accepted, recognizing that an evening of reprobative behavior with a couple of Gringos Locos would likely be far more interesting than another evening in the hotel.

I, being the only Spanish speaker, arranged for Antonio to pick Saba up at 6:00 for the trip to the house and to arrive back at the house at 10:00 to return Saba, in probably a somewhat inebriated state, to the hotel.

Saba arrived that evening and we sat around drinking rum, smoking cigars, discussing politics, and being silly. Saba was soon exclaiming Hasta la Victoria Siempre, a propaganda slogan one frequently encounters here and with which Castro often ends his speeches.

Saba is an extremely well informed fellow of 24 from whom I learned very much about Middle Eastern politics and with whom I agreed entirely in his assessment that the USA war on Iraq and Israel’s recent invasion of Lebanon had resulted in increased Iranian and radical Islamic influence in the region.

When Antonio arrived at 10:00 Saba was indeed inebriated and exclaimed that he didn’t want to leave. The third time I told him that it was time for him to go he finally got up and weaved his wave to the cab with an assist by LLH.

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