I hope youve enjoyed the pictures Ive posted from Cuba (finding internet was a challenge so I hope it was worth it!) I have many more to post so Ill make a proper album when I get home. Looking back at the rush of glamorous photos from this stunningly atmospheric and hauntingly beautiful country, I dont want to shy away from discussing the harsh reality of what life is really like here. I have been lucky enough to meet many fantastic locals who shared their stories with me. Sometimes I had to push....for these are not a people who are inclined to complain or try to garner your sympathy. I have partied with young Havana and also met people who were alive before the revolution. All but one of these people had ever left the island and most had never been on a plane. They are in a sense living in a beautiful gilded prison. On my last day I went back to see a guide at one of the museums I visited. Marlen had been incredibly candid and sincere with me on my initial visit that I couldnt get her out of my mind. So I went back and asked her out to lunch. She was a bit nervous about being seen with me while she was in her work uniform so we had to meet at a designated point. I couldnt understand her paranoia but she pointed out the cameras on every street corner which I had never noticed before. Over lunch she told me that she had an economics degree and had been working at the museum for fourteen years. She lives just outside of Havana and public transport being what it is, she has to wake up at five in the morning to make the two-hour journey to work. She works a forty-hour week and makes $23 a month. If she has a day off sick it is deducted from her wages. She lives with three generations of her family in the same home and has one daughter. Her husband ran off to the US to get a job as a cleaner in Las Vegas and married another woman. Her first marriage was intriguingly to a man from Yemen who left the island because he did not want to stay in Cuba. When she told me that she had been paying off her fridge for eight years I started to go a bit cross-eyed listening to this story of woe. I couldnt stand it anymore and reached into my bag, grabbed some money and attempted to subtlety hand it to her under the table. It felt like a furtive drug deal. I thought I was being very surreptitious doing it this way but she frustratingly wouldnt take the money. She kept pushing the money back to me. We were arguing back and forth with me saying take it and pay off your fridge Marlen. I finally had to put the money on top of the table and threatened to report her to the authorities if she didnt take it. That seemed to work. By this stage it became damn obvious to everyone around us - including any secret police who may have been watching - what I was trying to do. So much for being subtle. Oh well. When I asked her for her bank details so I could send her money on her birthday she said she didnt have one. At this point I was almost crying with frustration as I asked her why she didnt have a bank account?? She replied that she had no need for a bank account because she didnt have any money. Ok then. She continued to tell me more about life under the Cuban regime while I held my head in my hands in shocked disbelief at what I was hearing. In essence, people dont complain and protest because the government continually promises them that there will be better days.....days that never come. When it was time to leave she straightened her jacket and with a tear in her eye said that despite everything she had told me that she was still a proud Cuban. When I asked her what I could bring her from the outside when I next visit she smiled and said she wanted nothing. So I suggested that perhaps I could bring her some perfume or some small electronics. She smiled and nodded no...all she wanted from me was solamente amistad (only friendship). This sweet expression was one I heard all over Cuba. The simple act of friendship is valued above all else. Is this a result of communism? I dont know but it is a lovely expression...representative of a humble and special people.
Posted on: Sat, 06 Dec 2014 03:37:48 +0000
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