Wilkerson said Cuba is also the perfect place for business students to learn about business issues in a developing country, foreign investment in an increasingly global economy and cross-cultural ethics issues. A business study tour would almost certainly include a tour of a cigar factory, one of the places the Wake Forest group visited. They had horrendous working conditions. Long hours, no breaks, no air conditioning, no fire escapes. They're paid by the cigar, so they're under pressure to work quickly in this environment.
Wood says that despite the poor conditions the group witnessed, they also saw great beauty.
I was also surprised by the friendliness of the people. There was no hostility toward Americans and they seemed genuinely interested in talking to us. Wilkerson was surprised by the nineteen-fifties feel of Havana. I felt like I was in an episode of I Love Lucy . The feeling that time had stopped in 1959 was also what struck Peggy Smith, who had visited Cuba as a child and found that not much had changed.