Who's reporting and from where? I'm a middle aged physician, fluent in Mexican-American Spanish, who has been to Cuba many times - I think 17 - and has developed close ties there. It isn't really a Cuba report in the sense of all Cuba,either. I spend most of my time in Havana, in Municipio Marianao where I stay and where most of my friends live, with side trips to Yaguajay, a town in Santi Spiritus province where my god-child lives with his family, now mine also as these things go. Marianao is a "barrio marginal" in Cuban terms - not a place where upper class people ever lived. It's poorer, Blacker, more revolutionary than, say, Vedado, for example. Nonetheless, like most Cuban neighborhoods, it's entirely mixed. (It's not just neighborhoods - in Cuba it is not unusual at all for Black families to have White members and White families to have Black members. Plus - many people considered White in Cuba would be considered "Latino" here. And many people considered Black here would not be considered Black in Cuba. Life is very complicated and race is a social and cultural construct, which doesn't make things any easier for those on the negative side of the constructs. That's another report, which I am not qualified to write.) There are no tourists in Marianao, nor any services for tourists, which makes it very easy and comfortable - I'm just another person on the street, the bus or in the market. When I open my mouth people say "Mexico." When I keep it closed I'm just there, though I've been asked twice if I was Russian. In Yaguajay, small enough so that everyone knows everyone's business, people know know exactly who I am. It's an unusual place in that there was a strong socialist-Communist movement there before the revolution. When the Revolutionary Army arrived, they were ready, and the older members of my family there were active participants. So that's my Cuba. Your mileage may vary.
I have lots to say about the US blockade of Cuba, but not right now. This report is about water. When I'm at home, I live in the mountains. Our water supply is a well, with pumps and pressure and storage tanks. We are, needless to say, suffering from severe drought, trembling as we watch trees die by the hundreds. Many people have had their wells run dry and the water delivery truck runs along the roads at all hours. We're still OK but the water table is a box of unknown size and fullness. All we know is that we are taking more out than goes in.
Cuba is also suffering from drought. The most obvious effect has been on agriculture, but what I know about is how people manage at home.
Water in Yaguajay. It comes straight from the aqueduct and is good to drink, is the first thing I was told, and it seems to be true. Different parts of the town get water at different times of the day. It comes to the center of town about 9 PM and lasts overnight. This means that either you have a watertank on the roof and a pump, or you need to fill enough containers for the next day's water supply during the evening or early morning hours. You have to remember not to leave taps open after you check to see if the water came yet, or you'll have a flood to clean up. In the daytime, you flush the toilet with a bucket. The majority of toilets in Cuba flush this way anyway. If you have a pump, you need to wake up and shut it off once the tank is full or it will just keep on splashing water down all night, driving the neighbors crazy, though they probably won't say anything because they've known each other all their lives. To take a shower, you use a big bucket and a smaller container to pour the water on yourself. Most people heat the water, on the stove, of course. Washing clothes - backyard washboard/sink or Asian-style washing machine - 2 tiny wash/rinse and spin tanks filled and/or drained by hoses controlled manually.
Water in Havana - Marianao, remember. It's every other day. Either you have a pump and a watertank on the roof (manual turn-on and shutoff, again), or someone has to be home when there is water running to fill enough containers for the next day and night. The pressure and volume isn't much either - usually not enough to reach the sink faucet - so buckets have to be filled at the knee-high tap in the courtyard, and used to fill a bunch of 5 gallon buckets in the yard and kitchen. Somewhere between 2 and 3 hours, typically. Filtered water for drinking is available at the Martin Luther King Center, about 1 1/2 miles from this particular home. Most people just drink tap water if they are this far away. Toilet - bucket all the time. Shower - bucket and dipper. There's a drain in the bathroom floor, you just mop up after. Washing vegies or dishes - tin pitchers, dip and pour. You can see why it is common to peel the root vegetables first, then wash them after. The water is probably good quality when it enters the system but after traveling though old leaky city water pipes which are probably near the sewer pipes, who knows? It's common to freeze some drinking water; it thaws fast enough in tropical temperatures and the freezing process may kill some microorganisms and precipitate out some impurities.
It's a lot of work being Cuban, compared with a middle class life style here. As 3rd world countries go, it's a walk in the park, though. But other 3rd world countries aren't the ones trying to kill the Cuban economy and make people miserable through embargo/blockade of trade and denial of access to finance everywhere in the world. We are, us with our 24 hour running water, and huge washing machines, and hot water heaters, and master baths and garbage disposals in the sink and all. Aren't you kind of ashamed to let this go on? I know I am.
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| A Cuba Kitchen The 5 gallon buckets under the counter are the household water supply for 2 days. They were filled at a knee-high tap in the courtyard. |
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| Men who cook! The difficulties of daily life don't slow down the Cubans when they are ready to have a good time. |
