Last week, Friday the 14th, I had the opportunity to visit the Latin American School of Medicine with the others in my group. We were given a brief tour of the facilities which was right along the ocean, a truly gorgeous campus. What amazed me the most about the school though was the global effect it was making. The school offers free medical schooling for not only Cubans but also other foreign students and then sends students abroad once they’ve graduated. Already they have a medical presence in a significant number of African and Latin American countries. Often the doctors that they send into these countries are the first doctors communities have had access to. In exchange for the doctors the countries trade other goods (Americans are most familiar with the trade of doctors for oil between Cuba and Venezuela).
I imagine the effects of a program like this will be huge and far-reaching as it continues to develop. The school is in its infancy; it’s only 8 years old yet the impact it has already made is phenomenal. I feel like the world is changing, particularly in Latin America and something big is going to happen that will force Americans to pay attention. It’s always been so strange to me that South and Central America are our neighbors yet generally we as Americans know so little about the history or the people there. Latin America has a history of Revolution, perhaps more so than any other area of the world and already huge things are changing that challenge the U.S. dominance that has always been assumed over Latin America. I am very anxious and yet excited to see what will happen and even more so, I wonder what role Cuba will play.
On Saturday there was a book fair by the Capital building. I was fortunate enough to obtain a copy of the highly sought after, 100 Hours with Fidel, which is a collection of interviews with, you guessed it, Fidel Castro. Apparently at earlier book fairs it was nearly impossible to obtain a copy. I also found a few comic books that momentarily satiated my need, but being a girl who is loyal to only DC, I was only momentarily fulfilled. The two-page spread of Hitler and Bush vs. Chavez and Castro at the end was certainly interesting though.
The book fair was like nothing I’d ever seen and a much different book browsing experience than I’ve ever had. Instead of leisurely flipping though books, you push and shove your way to a make shift counter, yell for attention, and then point out all the books you want to look at. Once you figure out which ones you want and you’ve paid you push and shove your way out of the crowd and then dive into another crowd swarming around a different booth. Throughout the whole fair a mixture of reggaeton and Salsa was blasting from massive speakers and vendors sold ice cream and street pizza on the outskirts. It was quite the experience to say the least but I loved every minute of it.
Following the book fair I went to see yet another Bergman film. This time they were showing Persona. So far I have seen Wild Strawberries, Through a Glass Darkly, and Persona and they’ve progressively gotten darker and stranger. So far Persona is my favorite and tomorrow I’ll go see Cries and Whispers then The Snake’s Egg and finally, I’ll end the festival with Fanny and Alexander. By the time I come back from Cuba, I will be a Bergman connoisseur.
During the past week I had (gasp) three whole essays to write but they actually were very interesting. The one I took the most time on was about how Cuba is a very socially developed country with a developing economy. Cuba is fascinating because socially, it is very highly developed. The infant mortality rate is low, the literacy rate is high, the life expectancy in high, and the birth rate is low which often indicates an economically developed nation yet the economy doesn’t reflect those demographics mainly due to the embargo. It causes a lot of problems here because while these social developments are good they also impinge upon the continued economic development of Cuba. With low birthrates the work force declines and since Cuba’s main resource is doctors, a shortage of youth is not a good thing. In addition, with the high life expectancy rate a lot of money goes to treating elderly whose treatments are often far more expensive thus more government money is being spent on medicine. It was very interesting to see the amount a country could do for it’s people by focusing its spending on social projects instead of weapons or wars. I can’t even imagine what would be possible the United States.
This weekend we went to Playa Girón or Bay of Pigs, as it’s known in the U.S. It was strange and I felt that the historical significance was perhaps lost for a lot of my classmates, or perhaps not lost, but never existed. I could be wrong, but nevertheless I am very happy I dedicated a year to studying Cuba fairly extensively before coming here.
I say Playa Girón was strange because there wasn’t much there. It mainly consisted of a small town with dirt roads that hosted a museum and a hotel. The museum was nice, very small, but had photos of all the Cubans who died during the invasion and some of their personal belongings. If anything, I think that may have had the greatest impact on our group. Some of the men who died were as young as 16 and we were told the famous story of one boy writing Fidel’s name on a wall in his own blood as he died. I enjoyed myself there except for a terrible headache that would not leave me alone and a tour guide who was absolutely convinced we did not speak Spanish thus would repeat himself in English. I also went snorkeling in the Cueva de los Peces which is a naturally formed hole that is very very deep and full of water. In the water there’s beautiful blue and red and silver fish but I didn’t exactly understand how the fish got in there and when we asked a guy who worked there said he didn’t know.
Today is my friend, Tiana’s birthday and we’re celebrating by going to the Bacardi building to get drinks and cheeseburgers which are apparently good there. I bought her a Monte Cristo cigar, the cigar Che used to smoke, as well as a chocolate owl from the chocolate museum. The chocolate museum is incredible and has by far the best hot chocolate I have ever had in my life. I often wish there was a way to capture a smell because the scent that wafts out to the street whenever the doors are opened is absolutely heavenly.
Last time I went there though, I was accosted by a woman who grabbed my hair in her hand as I walked out the door. When I stopped and tried to take my hair out of her hand she demanded that I allow her to braid it. I refused and tried to walk away but there’s only so much you can do when someone has a death grip on your hair. When she finally finished the braid she held out her hand and I reluctantly place 50 cents in her palm. So far, this has been the strangest situation in which I have found myself giving someone money.