Flexibility Practice:

“We need to be at the Miami airport at 3:30pm,” Rachel explains.

“Oh, so, what time does our flight leave?”  I ask.

“At 7:30pm.”  She says.

Oh, okay … wait… a minute…we need to be at the airport 4 hours earlier in order to make our flight to Cuba?  

I assume this is partly because of the fact that maybe things move slower in communist countries, so getting into a country must be just as slow. 

When we finally arrive at the Miami airport, everything starts to make sense as I witness the line of passengers waiting to check in their luggage that is so long that standing at the back of it, I can’t see the front of it.  No, really, even if I was 7 feet tall, I still couldn’t see the front of it from standing here.  In fact, the line winds around the corner and spins and spins and spins until somehow you end up talking to a very important and powerful person that looks at your papers and decides whether you have the legal papers needed to enter into Cuba. 

Wonderful. 

“Sometimes they lose the papers and you have to start all over,” Rachel adds.

Three and half hours later.

We are still standing in line.  We managed to stand in three lines during the first three hours:  first in the pre-check in line, then in the check-in line where we handed off 450lbs of luggage, and then in the “now you need to pay money because you brought too much luggage line.”  We waited in line for a really long time today.

I look at my team and they all look wiped out.  I laugh.  We’re in Miami.  We haven’t even got to Cuba yet and we’re exhausted!

“Be like a rubber band.  Learn to be flexible,” Auntie Miriam’s voice echoes in my head. 

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Here’s to practicing being patient about simple things on our way to Cuba, a place where we Americans will adjust to being flexible about all things.