Ideas for Bartering and Gifting
courtesy of Susan Bartley (subartley@hotmail.com)

There was a man who did oil paintings who came by our resort. Our friend wanted one, one that was $65 U.S. She got him down to $35 U.S. and then told us about it. We put together a clothes package, 1 woman's dress, 1 man's pants, 2 men's tops, 1 girls' dress, and a few baby things. My husband then told the man clothes for the painting, no money, and showed him the dress. The guy agreed, even though he did not see the rest of the clothes. Deal of the week.

We traded clothes for coffee--2-3 lbs, for 1 dress and 1 half slip. Leather belts, shorts, and tops for that. We had lobster with the fishermen again, and traded for clothes. The only thing we paid cash for was the jeep, rum to bring home, and a necklace of silver and black coral. (As these things are run by the government stores and you can not trade, trust me we've tried.)

Upon landing, my husband was taken into a room at customs with the luggage. It was just stuffed with clothes. The customs man asked Terry if this was all for him, no, for tips. Again he asked if we had friends in Cuba, no, for tips. He had taken some clothing out of the luggage and came upon a little doll. He loved the doll, and Terry asked him if he had kids. Yes, a little girl. Terry said then take the doll. So the customs man started to put things back and Terry talked to him how much he likes Cuba, and the people etc. The customs man shook his hand and thanked him for the doll. Great, now we are bribing officials!

We stopped at a school and gave them pencils and markers, along with some dinky cars. The teacher was a little suspicious, I think he thought we were trying to sell them to him. But I told him they were gifts for the school. That warmed things up. All the kids posed for us for pictures, and they got a book so that we could sign our names in it. Again, dinky cars were a hit as tips. One Cuban, Luis we had given a dinky car last year to for his son, said he still had the car, as the son is only allowed to play with it in the house.

Note that one should not take human interest pictures of policemen. My husband did so, as there were 6 cops talking to a few people. He likes taking shots of people, and thought this would be a good human interest shot. The cop didn't like that! He wanted Terry's passport, (in the hotel), took him to a phone, made some calls, and ended up taking him to the police station. He kept looking at the camera, but his english was so poor, Terry figured he wanted the film, but didn't know how to ask for it. He was kept at the police station for about 1/2 hour, and released. The cop said there was "no problem", and let Terry go.

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