HAVANA TIMES – My friend from Holguin has literally worn out the soles of her shoes looking for someone to fix her rice cooker. She tells me that there used to be an older gentleman in the neighborhood who did it well and didn’t charge much, but he passed away a few months ago. Another young man who showed great promise left the country. Those who remain are in distant neighborhoods, charge exorbitant prices, or don’t know how, or don’t have the necessary parts. Conclusion: disaster in the kitchen.
A veteran professor from Pinar del Río complains that he can’t find a mason to repair his bathroom. The one who built it a decade ago —a true artist of design and tiling— left “to see the volcanoes” (to head north via Nicaragua). Others who have done work in the house, are also gone; and sadly, the least capable ones have stayed in the neighborhood. It’s more work for me to correct what they do than to do it myself, even though I don’t have the necessary tools, laments the teacher.
In Havana, another friend narrates, the optometrist who used to measure her vision from time to time and was lovely in dealing with patients, left the position and took on a lesser assistant role in a small private business. It has nothing to do with his previous profession, but he earns more, and his family fills their plate better. They’ve put a newly graduated girl in the hospital who tries hard, but she just can’t get it right, the patients get upset, she gets upset… everyone loses, recounts the needy one. Conclusion: delay, anguish, and more darkness to see the dramatic face of day-to-day life on the island.
Any of us, in every province or municipality of Cuba, could
