Giving and Misplaced Giving | Debbie's Caribbean Resort Reviews Forums

An interesting article posted by one of our Calgary travel agents on her blog:
thetravellady.wordpress.com/2016/02/22/sometimes-its-hard-to-share/Every so often, when we read about tipping and gifting on some of the travel forums, there will be some misinformed tourist that thinks it is a good idea to go out on the street and hand out stuff to the "poor" Cubans, or to throw candy, toys etc. to kids from the tour bus. (No really, I have read where someone seriously suggested that.)

Similarly to DonTomas, who wrote that article on the other forum, this lady points out the harm that willy-nilly handing out gifts and money can do. Although her frame of reference is India and SE Asia, the same cautions can apply to Cuba, a country where there are probably even fewer really poor people.

Wow, a thoughtful, common sense article from a Travel Agent. Will wonders never cease!Some of the recent silliness on Trip Advisor regarding gifting, tipping, etc. is mind bogglingly naive/dumb. Some people need their Passports ripped up until they can get their head around the fact that they’re NOT travelling at home.Cheers,

Terry

Wow Cherry. If you said that on the other forum it would be pulled quickly, even though I tend to agree with you.

Cheers

For a while I quit even looking at those tipping and gifting topics, because it seemed to me that a lot of Canadians were just ganging up on anyone who dared to express a different point of view. Made me feel a bit embarrassed to be Canadian, in fact.I think that a lot of Canadians see people in other countries as some sort of cute and cuddly critters in a petting zoo, and think that we have to give them treats and somehow improve their lives.I have always advocated treating Cuban staff as equals, and as worthwhile human beings who deserve my respect. But that isn’t just limited to the staff in Cuba. Wherever or whenever you meet another human being, remember that they are just as worthy of respect as you are. That is until they prove otherwise. But, if you must judge, judge based on how they treat you, not on where they live, or where they used to live.

	I guess I’ve decided to treat tipping and gifting as a comedy opportunity.My culture is better than your culture. Hard work should be rewarded. Those workers are lucky to have those jobs and shouldn’t expect tips.Maybe make it into a stand-up routine. For Debbie’s Members, of course.

	I guess I’ve decided to treat tipping and gifting as a comedy opportunity.My culture is better than your culture. Hard work should be rewarded. Those workers are lucky to have those jobs and shouldn’t expect tips.Maybe make it into a stand-up routine. For Debbie’s Members, of course. So do we tip our waitress, or would she rather some patterned pantyhose from the dollar store?

	Be careful with patterned pantyhose. It might make her look like an airport nurse. LOL

traveljunky Senior Member

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In 2008 we took an excursion to a Mayan Village in Mexico, and the tour bus stopped at a store where we could buy candy to hand out to the local children. My husband and I were pretty upset about this, and when we pulled into the village, the kids came running up to us. Everyone got out of he bus and started handing out candy, like they were feeding animals in a zoo. We didn’t like it at all.

About 7 years ago we did a scooter tour and one stop was at a fishing village. We were forewarned by our tour guide not to give any kind of gifts to the children. Apparently the Village folk had told the guides at one time they didn’t want their children turning into beggars and to please tell those tourists brought to their village NOT to give any kind of gifts. I’d say that there’d probably be many more towns and villages doing the same where the parents want their children to grow to be responsible adults and not freeloaders !!

The smartest advise that I ever got about giving stuff out in Cuba was to gather everything up… travel out to some outlying town which hardly ever sees tourists.. find the local church… and give it to whom ever is in charge and NOBODY else. Those are HIS people in the area and he knows WHO needs it the most and can give it to the right people. Oh ya…. and to leave the candy at home. They ( the parents) don’t want it. Far better to give them a tooth brush and a tube of toothpaste than a bunch of Lifesavers.

Great advice, rainbow ! Our first time to Cuba we DID bring candy, etc as well as life necessities but no candy since then. We do bring tooth brushes and toothpaste for adults as well as children. And for the children we bring "Hilroy" type notebooks and pencils, etc. One time when we took some of our ‘newest’ grandchild’s outgrown baby clothes we gave them to one of the ladies in Guest Relations and she said she would give them to some of the young women in the kitchen who ‘don’t really get gifts from the Resort Guests’.

I was on a jeep tour in Varadero a number of years ago and the a couple of the folks in my jeep and their family in the jeep ahead tossed some candy across the street. One piece of candy landed in the middle of the street and one child rushed out to get it just as a car was coming. I thought the kid was going to be killed. He stopped just in time to let the car go by.

I’m a big believer in donating to the local church. They do know who needs the stuff the most. Father Bastarache (sp?) of St. Elvira’s in Varadero also ministered out in the country and he would take a lot of the donations out in the country where they were really needed.

	The new Priest, Fr. Bastarache’s successor, does as well. He has a large rural pastoral community to cover between Matanzas and Cardenas.

Does anyone know whether Pastor Eddy in Holguin is still around?

I prefer to give my donations with the Spanky Project and the Dubois Foundation, both of whom are right in there overseeing their projects.

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