Epicuriosity

Sunday May 30th

Our last full day in Cuba. Out of all the vacations and trips we’ve been on, this is the only one I can remember not wanting to leave yet. Maybe it’s the sunshine or the fact that I am dreading my workload when I return. But I’m pretty sure it’s because of my wonderful family!
We spent the day at my tio Olo’s house. Food, rum and Spanish karaoke. I actually got Mark to do the twist to ‘Jail House Rock’, while three of my cousins were belting it out in the microphone! The heat and rum has definitely got to him! To top it off it was the Spanish version! First time hearing an Elvis song in spanish! We laughed so hard we cried! I’m so glad we got video of that. I also got video of my dad dancing and singing like a rockstar! Everyone was dancing and singing and having SO much fun! 

We also found out that it’s pretty “Cuban” to recite poetry back and forth like a battle (think Eminem in Eight Mile).We watched my tia and great uncle go back and forth for probably 20 minutes. I didn’t understand half of it, but I’m pretty sure my tia won!
Dinner was a cream soup and fried rice. Not just some fried rice. I’m talking about a GIANT pot that covered the whole stove kind of stir fry. Mark said it was the best he ever had, but I’m pretty sure it’s because it was something other than frijoles, arroz, carne, tostones y chicharones.hehe
The party lasted all day and we didn’t even take a nap! We had way too much fun to have and such a short amount of time left.
So, Mark has this hat that he bought years ago in Arizona. That had has been all over the US, Carribean and even Egypt. One of my uncles really liked it and wore it anytime Mark had it with him. So my sweet man gave my sweet uncle his traveling hat. My uncle was so excited! He didn’t take that hat off for the rest of the day. We told him about all the places it had been. It was such a sweet moment.

When it was time to go I got really sad. I hugged all my uncles, kissed their cheeks and foreheads a million times and told them all how much I love them and how grateful I am for all they have done and that I will miss them so very much. Everyone wanted to know when we are coming back and they all want us to stay with them when we come back! In only ten days this family has touched my heart so very much. It hurts to think how long it will be before I can come back.

No crying today. I’ve been preparing myself since my cry baby incident in Palmira. Though tomorrow we will leave Cuba and just the thought of squeezing my aunt for the last time in who knows when makes me teary eyed.
This vacation wasn’t at some tropical paradise resort, road trip on route 66 or an Egyptian adventure. This was roughing it in a third world communist country and I think it’s been my favorite! We are however looking forward to a hot shower, a bed that our feet don’t hang off of, not having to check my bed (and coffee) for bugs and a large sushi boat with hot sake!

ok…I guess I’m kinda ready to go.

Saturday May 29th

We had about an hour this morning at el mercado (the market). We found gifts for our parents and even found a couple of things for us! Then it was off to see more family!
We went back to my great aunt’s house. She is 90 years old. It’s interesting to to note that the records show she is only 80 years old because she was 10 before her father ever went into town to register her. For this reason they also think my great grandmother was actually over 100 when she died.
One of my cousins spoke english so we talked for hours about live in Cuba, professions, family, etc. Life in Cuba is relaxed. People are generally happy, but so far we haven’t met anyone who thinks the Castro family is doing anything good for the people or the country. But most people don’t know anything different. They simply aren’t exposed to concepts like “freedom of speech”. They only know of communism (and a bad example by far). So there is only the choice to be happy. The only thing they can control is their attitude and taking care of their family. So living a relaxed, comfortable life is really all that anyone can hope for.Again, if it wasn’t for the whole communist thing I could totally live here. Though Mark has strong opposing feelings on the matter.The heat is starting to get to him. Most days are in the high 90s and of course no air conditioning. But while he’s hiding under the shade breaking out in a heat rash, I am sitting out in the sunshine and taking it all in!

After lunch we headed to an uncle’s house. I’ve lost count on uncles,aunts and cousins!
Mark and I took a nap when we got there (we’re really liking this mid day nap where ever you are thing) so I have no idea what was going on for the first hour we were there. But when we woke up we walked out on the balcony and watched the train pull out of the station. About an hour later the same train was heading back to the station because it was broken. Another reason life is so relaxed here…..You can’t plan a thing! You never know when  you might get a ride or if you will actually go to work that day. Trains may not run, buses may or may not show on time.

View of the train station from my uncle’s apartment:

Last week my cousin got a call not to go to work because there was a power surge at her building….no spaghetti for lunch that day! Another cousin goes to work every day and just sits there because the machines at the sugarcane processing plant have been broken for weeks. This year has been the lowest cane harvest since the Spanish American war! Noone will work the fields. Fidel wants people to volunteer to work the fields “por la revolucion”, yeah right! I think that term was deemed useless after about a year of him taking power. How can you still be in a revolution 50+ years later?! What a sorry piece of worthless mierda(let’s just say this means poo) he is! UGH!
Anyways, we ended our day with a drive around Havana. Along the malecon, past the humongus Russian embassy, past the fancy hotels for European tourists (if they only knew what was a few blocks away). The city is beautiful. I wish I could have seen it in it’s hay day!

WE ARE FULL!! If I see another bean, rice, tostone or pot full of carne I think I’ll throw up. The meals we’ve been eating are not normal Cuban meals! Think of it as Thanksgiving dinner. Tons of food, overeating, drinking and then eating again. Now imagine having the same meal and the same massive amount every day for over a week. blah. Mark says the word ‘comida’ (food) makes him nauseated. Only one meal planned tomorrow! My dad’s making fried rice for the whole family and even thoug it’s more rice, we are totally going to eat it because as I take a bite of our black market shrimp, I’ll be secretly giving the Castro family my one finger solute!

Friday May 28th

It’s a good day when you spit the live beatle out of your mouth before you swallow your last sip of coffee.
Today we leave Palmira and head back to my tia’s in Havana. I’m happy we’ll be spending time with my tia again and I’m so very happy for all the wonderful moments in Palmira, but I am very sad to be leaving. I cried as we left my tio Arturo’s house. My 94 year old uncle who I grew to love so much in just four days…..will I ever see him again? Will he remember me next time? te quiero mucho tio (I love you very much uncle).
We said our goodbyes to the other uncles and the entire street of family. My uncles loaded the car with fruit, garlic, milk, homemade tomato sauce (put in beer bottles and capped with wax) and coconut cookies. Off we went.
We stopped at another uncle’s house on the way (the one we stopped at on the way to Palmira). Guess what? We ate! At this point Mark’s stomach is not acting right and my dad is just getting over a sour stomach. MUST STOP EATING so much. My family just keeps putting food on our plates and then just as you are about to pop they bring out dulce (dessert). Today was flan. Oh how I loooove flan. Despite how full I was I ate two servings (well someone had to eat Mark’s share)
My dad purchased 100 pounds if rice and a huge block of homemade cheese from my uncle. Milk is very sparce in the city. Only children under 7 and the elderly can have it. The price of rice is ridiculously high and each person’s ration is only five pounds. That may sound like a lot, but rice is a staple of every meal. My dad purchased enough rice to give my aunt and uncles in Havana 3 or 4 times what their monthly ration is.
When we got back to Havana we dropped our uncles off with their rice and other goodies from the country. Their wives and family were so happy to see them and of course all the rice, garlic, etc.
When we got back to my tia’s house she couldn’t believe all the stuff we brought back from the country! Not to mention what we bought on the black market……
Dinner that night was LOBSTER! The black market is basically how people can barely afford to live. I’m sure the shrimp we picked up for Sunday’s dinner will be good too.
After dinner we relaxed with a bottle of rum and practiced our Spanish while my tia practiced her English. The subject of music came up and all of a sudden my tia handed Mark her bongos as a gift. No words can describe how he felt. He loves music, drums and world percussion and my tia, who lives in a third world country and has to wonder if she’ll have enough food for the month, just handed him an amazing sentimental gift. She would not let him refuse. There were many hugs and teary eyes.
It’s been an emotional day. It’s nearly impossible for me to remember and write down every detail that is making this trip so special, like pinning a protection charm on a two month old cousin to ward off evil spirits and holding the hand of my 80 something year old uncle as we ride through the countryside. I love Cuba! I love my family! I’m already trying to plan when we can come back.
Three more days, three more family meals and I still don’t have a single souvenir for my friends and family back home, There’s still so much I want to see and do!!

Thursday May 27th

We slept in a little today, maybe too much birthday fun last night. After our breakfast of guava, pinnaple juice and boiled eggs we headed to Cienfuegos to meet more cousins!
Cienfuegos is about the size of downtown Birmingham, but instead of tall, new buildings, all the streets are lined with gorgeous French Colonial architecture. It’s suppose to be the cleanest town in all of Cuba. Lots of tourism, shops and restaurants.
My cousin lives in an old colonial townhome about 1200 square feet. This is the biggest house we’ve been in our whole trip.

One of my cousins lives in London, but has been living in Cuba with his family for six months. It was nice to talk about Cuba and it’s pros and cons of the country, government, etc with someone who speaks perfect English and has a Cuban and Eurpoean viewpoint.
Lunch was the fanciest we’ve had the entire trip! All the plates matched, we had forks, knives and spoons (though still no napkins) and we even had a Cuban version of pizza! To top it off we had the BEST strawberry ice cream I have ever had….ever. All other desserts we’ve had in Cuba consisted of homemade cheese and marmalade which is really good, but oohhh this ice cream was a real treat!
Before we went for a walk around town I checked out the bathroom. YES!! A REAL working toilet! With toilet paper! I have thoroughly enjoyed the experience of pulling strings or pouring buckets of water down the toilet to make it flush,  but having a real toilet, pizza and ice cream in one day….SCORE!!
Cienfuegos is beautiful. The ocean is many shades of blue and there are mountains in the background.

 Fancy little bed and breakfasts line the streets and the some gorgeous trees I have never seen before. This is definitley the part of Cuba that Fidel wants the tourists to see.

We headed back to Palmira and ended our “tourista” part of the day by taking photos of the town center.

When we got back to my tio’s house we found out there were TWO different houses making us dinner. It’s our last family dinner before heading back to Havana and everyone wanted us at their house. How do we do this without offending anyone?

Mark and I stayed at my tio’s for dinner and my dad headed down the street to another uncle’s house for dinner. There. Surely that will work.
Watching my family prepare the dinner was so amazing. We watched them pick the rocks and other nonedible stuff out of their rationed rice, saw plantains cut right out of the tree and corn from the field cut off the cob. I even got to see all the cows come in from pasture for the night. I can’t believe the things you miss out on and take for granted when you live in a US city.
This is our last night in el campo and I wouldn’t have spent it any other way. I could go on and on about the political and economic conversations in Spanglish we had over dinner (my spanish is actually pretty good now and my cousin has been practicing his english all week), but I’m running out of pages in my journal.
I had no idea that Americans are portrayed so badly by the government ran media. Apparently everything is wrong in all other countries of the world, but Cuba is doing great. This is the crap that’s being fed to the population through television. My cousins didn’t know of our economic crisis, the unemployment problems or even the concept of mortgages and car loans. I’m also pretty his knowledge of 9/11 is limited because he just shook his head when we were talking about it and then asked me “what is Muslim”. We’re talking about a well educated, intelligent hydro-electric engineer!
He said he always heard Americans are bad, but after meeting us he knows that isn’t true. I explained to him that America does not hate or even dislike Cuba. It’s their dictator that is the problem. Americans want to help the Cuban people (or at least the americans I know) but as long as the Castros are in power I don’t think we’ll be able to do anything to help.

Meanwhile my 94 year old uncle is shaking his fist and cussing Fidel and his politics. Something he can never do outside of his home.
We’ve learned so much about this country! It amazes me that the inconsiderate, selfish, brainwashing liar hasn’t been shot yet! I guess now we know why guns are illegal in Cuba.

Wednesday May 26th

Today is Mark’s birthday!! Let’s celebrate with rum and food! Every day we are here is a celebration. The family is all together and everyone is so happy (even before the rum).
But before we celebrate the birth of an amazing man, we are going to honor the death of another.  I never met my grandfather. He died of lukemia in Cuba when he was just 24 years old. Today we visited his grave. We also visited my great grandmother’s grave. She died 28 days before her 100th birthday! In Cuba when you die you are placed in a box (kind of like a coffin) and after several years your remains are removed from the box and put in a small box and placed in a mausoleum. They have opened my great grandmother’s grave twice to remove her remains, but she is still in tact. How weird is that?!
After the gravesite we all headed to a cousins house for lunch (after we made a stop for rum and beer).My tia (aunt) Nilda lives so far out in the country that her son has to go pick her up on a tractor! She lives without electricity or running water. She actually likes it that way. Her husband says there is no communism on his mountain so he’s not moving. I suppose seclusion wouldn’t be too bad in Cuba. You could live the way you wanted to and not have to hear the brainwashing on TV or see the soldiers in the street.
We spent the day listening to my uncle sing as we sat outside, rum in hand and watched my cousin cook in her outdoor kitchen. I got to pet a horse, and a baby chicken! I also got to knock fruit right out the tree! Yes, I really do get excited about these things…sad I know. haha

It was SO hot today. Between the heat, full stomachs and rum we decided to nap. Every house we have been to someone took a nap after we ate. Whoever is hosting even asks if you’d like to lay down for a bit after you eat. It’s kind of an odd thing to be a visitor and then take a nap in your host’s bed. It seems so odd. But after several days here it’s not so odd and actually starts sounding like a great idea. Nothing like having all the windows and doors open with a fan blowing on you as you sleep with a full belly. A hammock is the only thing that could have made it better!
We headed back to tio Arturo’s house (where we are staying) and found a GIANT cake, food and even bread waiting for us! My cousins threw Mark a suprise birthday party! My dad had been planning for weeks. Trying to get flour and all the ingredients for the cake. It meant so much to Mark. Soon all the family started pouring in and telling Mark “feliz cumpleanos”. When it was time to sing I prepared myself to sing in spanish and had been practicing in my head for the last ten minutes. Nope. About 15 people who speak absolutely NO English sang Happy Birthday to Mark….in English! It was so funny and so amazingly sweet! I’m so happy I got that on video!

The evening consisted of rum (suprise!), cigars and several old men, Mark included heehee, sitting around gossiping and talking politics. Trying to explain US politics is really hard to do when all their life they have been fed filtered and censored information about the US. My dad was the translator and we have some different political views so I don’t think he was translating exactly what I wanted him to say! We told our uncles “See, we can’t even agree within our own family, how is a whole country going to all agree on something and get anything accomplished?!”

The night endded with Mark and I dancing under the full moon. Life is good. Real good. I have no idea what’s going on in the world right now. No idea about work or the economy. There could be a major disaster and we would never know. But none of that matters. What matters is that I am happy to be alive. Living life. Experiencing the simple pleasures like eating fruit right off the tree and dancing under the moon with my love.
Cuba is absolutely wonderful! Not one day goes by that I don’t get teary eyed from being so happy that we are here.

It’s half way through our trip so I want to share a few facts we’ve learned so far:

1. Houses are not owned. The government owns everything. If you want to move you swap houses with someone and whoever has the better place pays the other person an agreed upon fee.

2. If the government sees someone has a lot of money then they can, and will, come and take it. Therefore noone flaunts anything.

3. Most people do not own a source of transportation. You can pay a few pesos and catch a ride on a horse cart, on a bike, in a car converted to a taxi or even a giant container being pulled by a tractor. You get where you are going any way you can.

4. Most people make an average of 250 Cuban pesos a month. That’s $8 US dollars. I’ll be thinking of that the next time I pull in a Starbucks.

5. Wherever you work, they feed you lunch. My cousin is fed spaghetti every single day.

6. You eat what’s available. There is no vegam, vegetarian, raw foodist lifestyle. Every meal, no matter what it is, is food. Eat it while there is some to eat.

7. Propaganda about the Revolution is everywhere. Commercials about progress, employment and schools show a wonderful view of life. If only they weren’t all lies. People make more money by raising pigs then they do in the IT industry. Roads and homes are falling apart and people get excited when bread is available.

8. Most toilets don’t flush. When you’ve eaten and drank as much as we have been, you tend to notice these things quickly. Fill a bucket (if there is running water that day) and pour it down the toilet to make everything go down.

9. Bugs are inevitable. When a lizard crawls down the wall next to your bed, you just need to hope you don’t roll over and squish it while you sleep.

10. Cuban people are absolutely the best people I have ever met. Not just because half of Cuba seems to be my relative, but because despite the hard work, tiny pay, sparce food and super hot weather, they rarely,if ever, complain about anything, they greet everyone with a hug and kiss on the cheek and they are enjoying every minute of life. As my aunt says “what other choice do we have?” Of course it was in Spanish so my daddy had to translate.

Tuesday May 25th

We woke up to roosters yelling all over the town. What a great sound! Can you tell I’m a city girl? Of course, it probably would have sucked if we had been trying to sleep in.
My cousins were peeling guava they picked from the tree, warming the milk from their cows and cooking eggs from their chickens. This family barely has enough for their family to eat and here they are offering us everything they have. They even offered us their last piece of bread (and bread is a treat out here). Of course I didn’t take it, but I thoroughly enjoyed the fresh guava juice and eggs.
After breakfast we picked up two uncles and headed to my aunt’s house which was even futher out in the country. Of course I met even more cousins and the rum started flowing. It was only 10:30am! haha
We spent most of the day there and most of the time was spent eating, napping and eating again. You can’t turn your head without more food being put on your plate. I think I ate three servings of everything. Mark is in food heaven. Roast pork, tamales, beans and rice and rum for pretty much every meal. I’ve noticed people usually cook in some kind of outdoor kitchen. My dad says it’s because it would make the house too hot (no air conditioner) and it makes the house smell. My aunt cooked us the best meal so far and it was all done from a tiny stove in a run down storage barn. wow. I’m no longer going to complain about my lack of cabinet space.

After a nap we sat out on the front porch in rocking chairs and watched the horses, 1950’s cars and bikes drive through this tiny town. Another beautiful day filled with family, practicing our Spanglish and eating so much we can’t move. Here are some pictures of my aunt’s street out in the country

We went to a hot sulfer spring just at the edge of town. It was pretty stinky, but the warm water felt soooo good. I wish I had brought my shampoo. haha It’s the only way I will get a hot shower out here.
On the way back to my aunt’s my dad stopped so I could take a picture of a man plowing his field with two ox.I got giddy when I saw it. I thought that kind of thing only happened in Amish country. I’m sure the man thought I was a crazy American tourist (yes, I know I am), but I just had to get a picture of that.

Towards the evening we continued on to another uncle’s house. More food. Ugh. I still felt sick from eating so much at the last house. How am I suppose to squeeze this down? I managed to eat enough that I wouldn’t offend my uncle, but he still got a little upset when I wouldn’t eat the goat. Mark loved it, but I just can’t do it. Especially not when ten minutes earlier I was petting one at the neighbor’s house.

The rain started. More rocking on the porch (I love this part of the day) and wouldn’t you believe it….10 more cousins show up!! Holy frack what a ginormous and very loving family I have!

Monday May 24th

 First I just need to say that I love the fact I had to look at my previous day’s journal to see what day it is. Ican’t remember the last vacation where that happened.
Today we headed to el campo (the country). My grandfather’s family is from a small town called Palmira. It’s about three hours outside of Cuba. We packed the car full of more coffee, razors, meds, etc, picked up two of my uncles and headed out on the open road.
The countryside of Cuba is stunning! Sugar cane fields, giant royal palms and small towns where the main source of transportation is horse and carriage. It was like stepping back in time. We learned some political facts about farming. If you farm more than your family’s needs, then you must give the government 50% of your crop. So most people have small family farms and live off of their garden.  We stopped at yet another uncle’s house about half way through our trip. Everyone wants to feed us, but since our family in Palmira was going to have lunch ready when we got there, my aunt served a snack of home made cheese with mango and guava marmelade. Mark and I had two servings! YUMMY!
While we were there a neighbor stopped by and mentioned someone had been stealing his rice. NOT good. Rice is a staple part of the Cuban meal and there is already a shortage.
Before we continued the drive, my uncle loaded the car with some bags of rice, garlic and onions so we could take it to the rest of the family in Palmira. Family watches out for each other here. You have to. It’s the only way to make it. My dad asked my uncle to find him 100 pounds of rice so he could buy it on the way back to Havana to take to that family.
The closer we got to Palmira the more excited my dad and uncles got.They were so cute! They were telling stories about the family, answering all my questions about how and why they left the country and went to Havana (it’s not an easy trek now so I can’t imagine traveling 300 miles across Cuba in the 40s an d 50s.
We finally arrived! More uncles! More cousins! An entire street of Padrons! We started out at one uncle’s house where most of the family was waiting for us. Also waiting for us was a ton of food! Everyone insists that you eat and they continue to fill your plate regardless of how full you are. The food is SO freakin good! All home grown. All organic (chemicals and pesticides are expensive) Best fruit and veggies I ever ate!
After dinner my dad handed one of my younger cousins a big bag that had two pairs of shoes, two Barbies, two dresses, a pink purse and a bag of tootsie pops. I have never in my life seen a child so excited. She couldn’t believe she had a Barbie…much less TWO! She wanted to hurry and finish all her dinner so she could have a tootsie pop.
After dinner is began to rain, then pour. The mangos and avocados are off cycle this year due to lack of rain, They say that everytime my dad visits he brings rain. They were so happy to see it and celebrated with rum, of course. We watched the neighborhood kids play in the giant potholes as they filled with water.

It stopped raining just before sunset. The sky was absolutely stunning! Lots of shades of pinks and purples peeked through the storm clouds. I got the camera out and one of my cousins took us on the rooftop and showed us the view from there. Here we are in a tiny countrytown in the middle of nowhere Cuba, on top of a house at sunset after a celebrated storm. It’s an experience of a lifetime!

Before dark we headed to my tio Arturo’s house. He is 94 years old and the sweetest man. He’s worked on his farm his whole life and still gets around pretty well. My dad brought him some advil and bengay for his knee. His son (yet another cousin) and his family all live in the house. My cousin’s wife took me outside to their porch and showed me their monthly rations. Per person they get 4oz of coffee, 1/4 pound of dried peas, 1 pound of white sugar, 1 pound of raw sugar, a pack of some kind of noodle to add to soups, a bar of soap, and a tiny box of matches. Oh Fidel, your view of utopia is seriously twisted!  They are very lucky to have a farm. They have two ox for plowing the fields, tons of chickens, two houses of pigs and several cows (for milk only. killing cows is illegal due to their necessity). They also have a small field of corn and several fruit trees.

Mark and I squeezed together on a bed a little larger than a twin size and passed out. I woke up in the middle of the night and as I walked to the bathroom I noticed my uncle sleeping under a mosquito net in his room. When I walked into the bathroom I realized why. There were beatles and bugs EVERYWHERE!We might as well have been outside. Now I know why the shutters in our room are closed. Outside I could hear frogs, crickets and who knows what else. It was so loud. It was so cool!  I really wanted to go outside and just sit and listen, but I wasn’t really sure what all I would find out there so I headed back to bed falling asleep to the sounds of el campo.

Sunday May 23, 2010

Welcome to Cuba! We woke up and found we had just enough water for me to get a full mouth of foaming toothpaste. Then we heard my dad and aunt at the door of our apartment, towels in tow. Sorry Dad, no water here either. Apparently it happens sometimes but people find a way to manage. Our land lady was able to get us some water so we took the quickest shower ever in fear of it running out (all the while flipping that butt burning breaker on and off)

When we got to my aunt’s she was hunched over the well of the apartment bringing up buckets of water up with a rope. No complaining, no strain, just another normal day for her. But Mark and I are totally enjoying the experience. No matter what happens, we are just happy to be here experiencing it all!

We got in the car and began our daily trek around Havana to meet more family. Along the way we drove through the streets of my dad’s childhood. The theater he and my aunt would go to, the bakery where he used to pick up bread for the neighborhood, the river he used to swim in. Most of the buildings are in shambles or no longer exist. Factories that once supplied the country with crackers, mattress stuffing and beer are just a few examples within a mile of each other.

Then we parked in front of an old abandoned yellow house. The house where my family grew up before moving to the US. It was so emotional for me. I couldn’t help but cry. I never thought I’d ever see the country of my heritage, or any of my aunts, uncles or cousins. But here we are. Standing on the very front porch where my father used to play as a child.

So surreal. I didn’t want to leave. I wanted to go inside so bad. But it was time to got meet more family and eat more food.

We headed to a great uncles where we met more cousins too. We ate a huge meal, danced salsa and listened to the Cuban rendition of happy birthday as my family sang to Mark! I absolutely love my family. It’s only the second full day and I feel more apart of my father’s family than I have in the past 32 years. They’ve taken Mark in as though he were a Padron. It’s so sweet to see my 80 something year old uncle grab Mark and give him a huge hug and kiss on the cheek.

Our spanish is improving too. Mark understands a lot of what’s going on and I suprised myself today when I held and hour long conversation in Spanglish con mi tia. Yo quiero hablar espanol todo los dias en Cuba, per no se enough of the words yet. We still have eight days and apparently “haven’t seen anything yet”. We leave for the country (el campo) tomorrow. Three hours of Cuban countryside con mi papa, mi esposo and mi tios! I’m super excited about  going to Palmira!

Saturday May 22, 2010

Our rented apartment is considered pretty nice because it has an AC window unit and hot water in the shower. The hot water is a breaker that you flip and basically burn your ass off. So it’s an interesting experience flipping a breaker, with exposed wires, on and off throughout your shower so you freeze and then scald yourself. At least there isn’t any water pressure. I think it would be worse. I have a feeling we’ll be taking cold showers from here on out.

We got ready and headed to my aunt’s for breakfast. She made papaya juice, mango juice and we ate bread with butter while we drank cafe cubano. Then we loaded up a bunch of the meds and stuff in the car and headed for a drive through Havana. The homes are really pretty but it is very expensive to maintain them, so many are unpainted and falling down. As we drove throught the neighborhoods, Mark and I were imagining what it all would have looked like 50-60 years ago. We stopped at a cousin’s house to drop off some coffee my dad brought from the US. WOW! She lives in an area considered “ghetto” but the stunning 1920’s tiled floor, arch entrance and huge bathtub wasn’t ghetto to me. I can’t imagine the architecture in some of these homes. My cousin was very happy to have the coffee, but not as happy as her son was when my dad handed him an electronic Sponge Bob toothbrush, a pair of sketchers and his very first tootsie pop ever.

We drove through downtown Havana and discussed the political history of Cuba. There were signs that said “Revolucion is Progress” Progress my ass. We were dodging potholes, passing homes made of leaning sheet metal and passing out coffee and shoes to family.  This place is a beautiful and is an unknown world that we are lucky enough to get a glimpse of, but progress it is not. Monuments, tourist spots and government buildings were the only maintained structures.

This is one of the well kept historical structures in Old Havana. A place where tourists frequent.  This church is hundreds of years old.

But I digress….next stop was my 82 year old great aunt’s house. A cousin lives there and he showed us their new 20 day old piglets. They were SO cute. It’s still hard for me to understand how someone can raise animals from babies and then still kill and eat them. But it’s all about necessity and culture.

My cousin went to University and was a veteranarian. That is his passion. He told us he made the equivelent to $20 a month as an educated vet! But he left that profession because he can make that much in one day driving a taxi. So he is fixing up his 1950’s chevy and will join the profession so many other well educated vets, doctors, etc have had to accept.
We dropped off vitamins, coffee, razors and a few other items and then headed to my uncle’s after a stop for rum and beer.  So here we sit at my great uncle’s house, food and alchohol free flowing and the sound of dominos hitting the table. My family is wonderful. I can’t believe we have this opportunity to meet them. I may never get to see them again, but for now we sit around and enjoy the time we do have together and continue to attempt conversation. However, day 2 and I already understand about half of the conversations. Maybe by the end of the trip I will prove my cubanita side and assure everyone I’m not an adopted little white girl. Mark on the other hand, will always be a gringo!

Just got to our apartment after a long wonderful, yet long day. My tia took us for a walk around the famous Tropicana.

This place is beautiful! Right out of the 50’s! The trees, gardens, statues…..gorgeous!

My aunt has lived just a couple of blocks away for fifteen years and first saw the Tropicana grounds just two years ago. Prior to that, Cubans were restricted from there. If you are a tourist and take a bus or cab to the Tropicana you are shielded by the “real” Havana. The road leading to it is well kept, paved and clean. The walls surrounding the grounds are so high you can’t see the run down neighborhood just on the other side. I’m so glad we get to see the REAL Cuba and not just the parts the government wants you to see.

During the walk we got to discuss a lot of the political side of Cuba with my cousin. Found out that my great grandmother spent nine months in prison for being a jehovah’s witness (religion use to be against the law). The government pretty much tells you what to do, what to think and what to like. It’s gotten a little better over the years, but he said it’s hell for anyone that thinks differently. He started building a raft several years before he moved to the US. He said he would rather have died trying to get out than being stuck here. He lives in the US legally now and has only been back twice in the last nine years to see his mom. Both times were this year.

Family is very important in Cuba and a big part of everyone’s lives. We’ve met so many family members in just a day and a half and we haven’t even left Havana yet!