Diaries – Page 10 – Havana Times

Interprovincial Transportation in Cuba Is No Longer Routine

Today, in Cuba, traveling between provinces by bus is no longer part of everyday life. It is the exception.

Merely standing by and watching such an obvious catastrophe is beyond pitiful. It takes much more than signatures, parades and slogans.

Every morning, before they enter the school, the children receive their first lesson. It is a lesson that is not written on the blackboard.

“Music is the soul of a people..” I think Jose Marti said that: but if not, someone else did, and well said, for certain.

Almost every Thursday, my only day off work, I take the opportunity to do the week’s grocery shopping. Often, it’s a major shopping trip…

For a very long time now waiting at a bus stop in Havana has been an ordeal, public transportation, has been woefully inadequate.

On the streets of Cuba, the roar of 1950s engines has been replaced by a metallic, electric hum, almost silent.

Three and a half years ago, when I arrived in this country I felt like an isolated molecule in an ocean of Brazilians.

A friend tells me he has lost his phone. Someone stole his backpack when he wasn’t paying attention, and his cellphone was inside.

A survivor, his face covered in dust, his wounds only partially cleaned, speaks into a cellphone camera: “Please, come down here now…”