The Land of Setbacks, Surprises & Fun

With having been in Cuba for close to an entire week, my classmates and I felt we had

acclimated to what a typical day in Cuba was like and felt we could handle most situations we

would be faced with. Before we departed on this program, we were informed that one of the

most important things that a person can have as a foreigner in Cuba is flexibility. With the

combination of immersing ourselves in a new country for the first time, having a jam-packed

schedule every day, and wanting to explore the city of Havana during the little free time we had,

there were bound to be bumps in the road along the way. However, as our days in Cuba quickly

flew by, we found that all the mishaps that occurred were just another aspect of everyday life in

Cuba. Having the ability to work around all sorts of unexpected issues that arise is something

native Cubans experience day in and day out and is something we became slowly accustomed to

during our time there.

On Day 7, our final full day in Cuba, we had a short turnaround from getting back to

Casa Vera the previous night and to getting up and ready for the eventful schedule that was

planned for the next day. However, that had been the same as pretty much every day thus far on

this adventure. The lack of sleep and the brief period of grogginess every day was a small price

to pay for the experiences we would have and not be able to undergo again for a long while. If it

were not for the delicious breakfast prepared for us by the residencia staff and the blissful poisonof Cuban coffee being served constantly throughout the day, we never would have been able to

do everything we desired to during this trip.

After breakfast, we hit the ground running with a guest lecture at the beginning of the day

which covered race and revolution in Cuba by Professor Victor Fowler of CIPS (Centro de

Investigaciones Psicológicas y Sociológicas). This lecture was fascinating and unique in the

method the historical ideas were presented and in its content. Fowler’s lecture centered around

how race and revolution went hand in hand throughout all the major events in Cuban history

such as the Cuban War for Independence and the Cuban Revolution. He explained how during

these two major historical events in Cuban history, people of all races and occupations banded

together to fight for what all the Cuban people collectively wanted and were immensely

successful in both cases.

Fowler also covered how race and revolution were involved over extended periods of

Cuban history. One example of this was the political instability that Cuba experienced following

the Cuban War for Independence with the forming of the PIC (Partido Independiente de Color).

The PIC was a party that formed in 1908 and advocated for equal treatment under the law

regardless of race. However, the PIC was frowned upon by the white citizens in Cuba because of

how the party divided Cuba by race. After the party was forcibly terminated in 1912, there wasan uprising of Afro-Cubans against white Cubans in what would be known as the “Cuban Race

War”.

Throughout Cuba’s history, it has been a theme that for every positive thing that

happened, there was a negative to counteract it. One case of this is with the Cuban War for

Independence when Cuba’s Liberation Army was on the verge of gaining independence and the

U.S. stripped control of Cuba. This idea is reflected into modern-day Cuba as well. On one hand,

Cuba was the first country to develop treatments to prevalent diseases such as Polio and Measles,

but on the other hand, there are ongoing protests by the Cuban public addressing issues with the

economy and restrictions on freedom of speech. Even within our trip and this day itself, we

would experience a roller coaster of events, some positive, some negative, all while only being

visitors to Cuba.

During the lecture, there were many surprises such as the way the content was presented.

The lecture was accompanied by a slideshow, one of the most common teaching methods today,

particularly for historical topics, but there were hardly any words on the slides at all! Instead, the

slideshow consisted entirely of political cartoons from the last 150 years. I found this teaching

method interesting, and it kept me engaged with the subject the entire time. Another twist was a

hiccup that occurred with the electricity in the room where it completely went out in the middleof the lecture. This goes along with the need for flexibility in Cuba where mishaps like this are

very commonplace and need to be worked around daily.

Following the lecture and more coffee, we visited a polyclinic where we learned about

the Cuban health care system. The Cuban health care system is fascinating in its widespread

availability to people and by how doctors and nurses are raised up and exposed to copious

amounts of hands-on experience to get a better feel for working in the medical field. I thoroughly

enjoyed the atmosphere inside the polyclinic because of how the workers and patients there made

the best of the limited resources available to them. The equipment for treatment and

rehabilitation gave off a rustic charm that was much like a lot of the sights we saw on the streets

of Cuba. These sights were extremely heartwarming to me because it showed how hard the

people of Cuba have worked to obtain what they have, especially with their troubled history and

facing the trade embargo set by the United States.

Inside the polyclinic, we even witnessed some patients being treated and the techniques

that were used were eye-opening. One patient who received surgery three months ago had a large

amount of swelling in her arm, and it was captivating how the doctors there used a series of

sleeves and gloves to reduce the swelling and help rehabilitate her arm. It is something I never

would have imagined if I had not seen it firsthand! Earlier in the trip, Dylan was lucky (orunlucky) enough to injure his toe but was able to get it checked out during our polyclinic visit

completely for free just like any Cuban citizen. The theme of flexibility in Cuba comes back up

here with how doctors must use whatever is available to them to aid their patients and the

patients must adhere to whatever is recommended by the doctors.

After the polyclinic visit, we went to Salsa Río for lunch whose setting felt like a nature

park with unique plants as far as the eye can see and birds and dogs scattered all around us. To

much less of a surprise at this point, the theme of being flexible was needed here again. This was

not just because we spent over two hours there waiting for food to arrive, but also because it

threw off our schedule for the afternoon. While we waited, we had some thought-provoking

conversations and heated discussion regarding the existence of Cuba in the Cars cinematic

universe. In a smooth and completely related transition, the conversation moved to a debate

about how many toddlers are needed to take down a pit bull, but as we liked to say throughout

this trip, “What happens in Cuba stays in Cuba.”After those debates, the food arrived, and as wacky and outlandish as some of the dishes

sounded, such as pumpkin cream and fried cow, they turned out to be delicious. After the meal, it

truly felt like the day was falling apart with Charlie having an allergic reaction and Navya having

an issue with her eye. Luckily, we had allergy medication on the bus for Charlie, but already

being late for the next activity on our itinerary, we needed to prioritize stopping by the hospital

to treat Navya’s eye. Adapting was the name of the game today, and we ended up cancelling our

next activity, the visit to CENESEX (Cuban National Center for Sex Education) to make sure

Navya was okay, and everything turned out well in the end thankfully.

We ended up spending the remainder of the afternoon back at the San Jose Art Fair which

was one of the activities that spoke to me most during our time in Cuba. As we made our way

down the aisles of shops and paintings, my classmates and I were bombarded by shop owners

promoting their products and enthusiastically drawing us to their stores, trying to sell anything

and everything that they could to us. This was a very pleasant scene to me because it depicted the

effort that Cubans are willing to put in to make a living while also giving back to society.

With what has happened throughout this day, it seemed like fate that something bad

would happen to me at some point. At the art fair, a piece of work I bought and planned to give

to my sister was pickpocketed from right under my shoulder, and I did not notice it was gone

until I had walked through several aisles of shops. Once I looked back, retraced my steps, andsaw no sign of it anywhere, I knew it was gone for good, and was forced to go back and purchase

another artwork with my remaining money.

While it seemed like something went wrong through every hour of the day thus far, there

were plenty of fun moments too including our farewell dinner at the Laurent which was our final

activity in Cuba. Afterwards, we had the rest of the night to ourselves, which we needed to make

the most of since it was our last night in Cuba. As with every meal in Cuba, the food at the

Laurent was amazing and was a great final meal. With our last night, we decided to take in the

nightlife on Calle 23, one of Havana’s most extravagant streets. We spent the night surrounded

by flashing lights and loud music before turning in for our final night in Cuba. While this final

full day in Cuba was riddled with bumps in the road, there was still plenty to be joyful about

throughout this day. Overall, with everything we experienced on this trip, it was symbolic of

what lifestyle is like for any ordinary citizen of Cuba.