Epicuriosity

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!