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Here In Havana, “Just Surviving”

In a country where the State no longer provides electricity, water, medicine, or bread, every family is trying to save itself however it can.

By Yoani Sanchez (14ymedio)

HAVANA TIMES – Today I couldn’t carry the trash downstairs. It didn’t weigh any more than usual, but my body sent me a brief and forceful telegram: “Don’t even try. Every cell is carrying too many days of accumulated exhaustion.”

So, I left the bag by the door and went out carrying only my purse, umbrella, water bottle, mosquito repellent, and shopping bags. I also slipped my cellphone into my bag, increasingly useless in a country where connecting to the internet or making a phone call can take longer than delivering the message in person.

As I make my way down the building’s more than 120 steps, the greetings become shorter and shorter, almost whispered. Few people even dare say “good morning” or “good afternoon” anymore, because there’s very little left that’s good. Conversations revolve around the accumulated hours without electricity, the unbearable heat that barely allowed anyone to sleep the night before, or the problems with the water supply.

One neighbor sums up the collective mood with a phrase that has become the standard greeting: “Here, just surviving.” He says it as though we were all contestants on one of those reality TV shows where you have to cross raging rivers, hunt for food, and find a cave to spend the night.

I walk along Tulipan Street toward Ayestaran. The ration-market bakeries that I pass every morning are closed. One woman warns another not to........

© Havana Times