Another Day In Paradise

I have just returned today from a 48 hour stop-over in Cuba. Now its not a place I go to very often, in fact since my airline started flying there I have only been scheduled three times.

The route from the airport to the hotel goes through some very run down neighbourhoods. The sort of places when you are stuck at traffic lights kids come up to the window of your car begging for money. These kids have no shoes on their feet and no shirts on their back, these kids come from real poverty.

On the way back to the airport yesterday afternoon I stopped at a set of lights in one of these neighbourhoods. This little boy of about 4 or 5 years old comes and knocks on my window, he holds his hands out and just looks at me. Tourists are advised to not give money to these kids because the kids give it to parents who use it as drug money, but I am a real sucker and find it impossible to resist, so i wound my window down and gave him the eqivalant of about £5.

I drove off knowing full well what he would do with it but there is always that chance that his parents may use it for food. It makes me realise how lucky we all are to live in a civilised country, sure we all complain about prices and the weather and high taxes, but you what, we really do live in paradise!!!