A teacher tells ’14ymedio’ that schools have had to readjust class programs due to power cuts
14ymedio, Julio César Contreras, Cienfuegos, 21 September 2024 — With dark circles under their eyes letting out long yawns, the children and teenagers of Cienfuegos were heading to school this Friday after a night of intense blackouts throughout the city. Overwhelmed by the heat, many of them could only fall asleep in the early morning, when the fans and air conditioners were turned on for just three hours. Waking up these days is more difficult than usual, because the night becomes too long in the face of involuntary insomnia.
“They turned off the power at 6:00 in the evening and turned it back on at 4:00 in the morning. It was ten uninterrupted hours of blackout in which my son had to do his homework with the light of a rechargeable lamp. His food was a pizza, because my stove is electric and I couldn’t cook. We ended up lying on the couch, with the living room door open and mosquitoes coming in,” says the child’s mother, Ania.
She and her son walk two kilometers every day, leaving their house in the Tulipán neighborhood to reach the school. “The teacher told me that in the last few days the child has fallen asleep in class. If I had someone to leave him with, I wouldn’t take him to school while the blackouts continue like this,” says the mother, who confesses to being very worried because not only her rest, but also her son’s learning has been interrupted.
Due to the lack of public transportation, many family members and students have to get up
