Summer 2016, Reasons Not to Leave the House

Summer 2016, Reasons Not to Leave the House / Rebeca Monzo

Rebeca Monzo, 15 July 2016 — This summer is one of the hottest since
1880, according to commentators on the radio.

In addition to the punishing sun and the invasion of dust from the
Sahara, in a country with almost no air conditioning, even the few hard
currency stores and government offices don't have AC and they have
orders not to install it in order to save electricity, due to the
terrible problems happening in the country with the supply of oil from
Venezuela.

The few buses that are circulating on our streets are hugely overcrowded
and "fly past" the official stops, where sweaty and disgruntled people
accumulate, and where waiting an hour or more has become normal.

It is true that there is an extensive program of government-run summer
recreation for kids, young people and adults, in museums and government
facilities, and that all of them, indeed, are linked by government
mandate to the 90th birthday of the ancient leader.

The streets are filthy, filled with potholes and sewage, the recreation
facilities and movie theaters don't have air conditioning, there is a
great shortage in the supply of soft drinks, mineral water, beer, ice
cream and other "goodies" in the misnamed national currency (the Cuban
pesos or CUP), since most of these products, when you can find them, are
sold in hard currency (Cuban convertible peso, or CUC), making them even
more difficult for the majority of the population to access.

Staying home in front of the television with a fan at your side,
drinking boiled water every now and then, is the other option, as long
as you can watch movies and TV shows obtained on the private market
[i.e. the "weekly packet"] because at least these are not "contaminated"
with the repetitive and constant celebration of the 90th birthday of
the "Cimarrón Mayor," as a cultural leader recently called Fidel Castro
on TV, trying perhaps to flatter him, without properly assessing the
meaning of the adjective: the cimarrones were escaped slaves who
abandoned their plantations and were always fleeing to hide in the
mountains.

Source: Summer 2016, Reasons Not to Leave the House / Rebeca Monzo –
Translating Cuba -
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