2/26/10

Well. The last few days have been very disenchanting. Last night we wanted to go out to eat with our good Italian friend from Spanish class. As the three of us we were walking down a fairly large street a guy comes out of nowhere and grabs Eleanora’s purse. They struggle over it a bit until he pushes her to the curb and takes off. We ran after him for a spell, but he was quite tall and extremely fast. He turned the corner as we yelled “Ladron” after him and called for help. No one did anything. As we turned the corner ourselves one man indicated the direction in which he had run, but he was long gone. It was an unpleasant wake up call. The streets of Havana have many police officers (one way Cuba deals with unemployment is through construction and police jobs), but I think we had forgotten to be extra aware. The truth is, Cuba is a very safe country; it is highly unlikely you will be physically hurt. But, in part just being in a city, in part because of economics, and perhaps even due to the nature of humanity, petty thievery is common. Anyway, poor Eleonora had some money, her cell and her camera stolen so that put quite a damper on our evening. It was the first encounter I’ve ever had with theft, and it was a pretty aggressive act. The rest of the night we were pretty preoccupied rehashing it in our minds.
Not too preoccupied to notice a couple cockroaches (lets pretend they were beetles shall we?) crawling around, and to be especially put off by catcalls. “Do you girls want boyfriends?” a group asked at the bus station, to which Eleanora replied jokingly under her breath, “I’d be more interested in a boyfriend if I could have my purse too”. We also had an extremely difficult time finding transportation back to our hotel without having to pay the unofficial “gringa tax”.
In the last few days I’ve encountered more and more Cubans who present to me their worries and doubts about life here. In the last few days we’ve heard about how while the intentions and ideas of the leaders here are strong, they are not fulfilled or effective. What has affected me the most is hearing people I’ve come to know speak about faults of the system (with very balanced opinions, I’m not referring to any counter movements here). They speak with hushed voices, and encourage the dialog to be very quiet.
So, I find myself needing to be more careful. I should not feel so settled that I neglect to be hypersensitive to my surroundings (though, honestly, I feel like that robbery would have happened even if we had been guarding our purses like a fox guards its pups (considerably). I also need to be careful not to put any person in a position where they are made uncomfortable. As I learn more about the true relationship between this country and my own, my appreciation grows for the opportunity to study here and witness it, but I realize I’m not just a tourist or an exchange student either. Lastly, a blog is a very public thing. I’m not sure how valid are the fears that the censorship here extends into public places as surveillance, but I think I should save most political and social commentary for actual conversations with you all upon my return.
Anyway, we got back late, and for this reason I was very tired during our last Spanish class today. After, I picked up some laundry from the Lavanderia and we’ve pretty much called it a week since. It has been quite filled with activity and I’m fairly exhausted.