Happy Three Kings Day!

Actual Date of Writing: 1/06/09

So today for our “Cuba in the 21^st Century Class”, we ended up basically just walking around Vedado, which is the section of Havana in which we live and study. We learned the locations of a lot of different things, like a library and the offices of the Ministry of the Interior (Minint). Apparently we also walked by a courthouse or a jail, because Minint trucks were outside, with a handcuffed guy being led into the building. I feel like walking down the street and actually seeing this is an experience not easily replicated, because the crime rate here is ridiculously low.

One of the other things we got to see was a bodega. So at home we all know bodegas to be a little corner store. Essentially, these are as well, only they run on ration cards. So the bodega we went to, which serves specific families in a certain area of Vedado, had things for sale like toothpaste, rice, or cooking oil- the basic staples. Two things, though. One- you have to have ration cards for whatever you want. If you’ve already received your rice ration for the month, you have to get it elsewhere, like at a CUC market (brief note: the CUC is the Cuban covertible peso, which is what tourists use, although Cubans can get them as well. The peso nacional is what Cubans use. The exchange rate between the two is that 20 pesos nacionales are worth 1 CUC. So you can gage the prices, one American dollar can buy you about 0.89 CUC- and that’s after you’ve already paid a 10% tax for converting the money in the first place. Clearly the embargo needs to be lifted. Speaking of the embargo, someone at home asked me what the benefit to Americans is in lifting the embargo. It will boost the economy. For one example (of which there are many) farmers in the Midwest would all of a sudden have a new market for produce. So many American products would also be purchased here. Also, our tourism to Cuba would bring more revenue into the country, then allowing more people in the end to buy more American products. It’s my firm belief that Obama should definitely lift the embargo- I think perhaps it might help to stimulate the economy).

Anyway, back to the bodega after that not-so-brief note. If the item you are looking for is not in the bodega, and you don’t have CUCs or don’t go to the market, tough noogies. Wait for later. We’re going to go back to the bodega at some point to sit for a few hours and observe how everything works.

Following the tour, we went to our AfroCuba class, and after a brief stop en la residencia, we decided to go to Old Havana for a Three Kings Day celebration that was supposed to be happening. FYI, Three Kings Day is January 6, and it’s the day when the three wise men/kings of Orient arrived to see Jesus. It’s very big in Latino culture. So, we thought this was something worth seeing. As it was also a gorgeous day, we decided to walked the (supposed) 35 minutes to Habana Vieja to get some exercise and see more of the city close-up. It was a gorgeous and enjoyable walk…but it lasted an hour and a half instead. Oh well. We later found out the parade was at 1:00, and we didn’t even start walking until 2:00, so we never would have made it anyway. So we basically ate lunch (at a Middle Eastern restaurant, mmm) and then shopped in a local open-air market that I’d actually been to last time I was there (Katie, you would LOVE this place).

It’s a huge area right off the Malecon (which is essentially the boardwalk) so you can enjoy a beautiful view as you meander up and down rows of stalls selling any kind of tourist thing you can imagine. There was clothing, wood carvings, and paintings, and a million other little things. Like in any area like that, everyone’s very interested in selling you their wares before you move on to the next stall. We made friends with some of the stall owners, like China, who gave us each a necklace made of painted seeds so that we would remember her.

During this, one of the people in our group got separated, and we spent some time trying to find her again. Now, we were all in the same little market area, and it’s not like she was in any danger or we were going to leave her there, but it made us all reflect on how much easier cell phones made our lives. Obviously you can get along without one, but it does facilitate things well. For whoever is wondering, cell phones aren’t terribly common among Cubans. In fact, there are people still that don’t have phones in their houses.

The rest of the night included a delicious (as always) dinner, followerd by some drinking and hanging out. We went down to the Malecon for a bit, and it was kind of cold- AKA, it was chilly in my sweatshirt and jeans. How’s the weather at home?