Adios a Castro, adios a amigos

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Its been a week of departures. It seems the press in the outside world were fixated with Castro’s retirement and the consequent “elections”. “Elections” in a loose sense of the word, in that we are not living in democracy. It is not the people really who chose their new president. They had to vote for the new representatives in parliament but they are all from the same party. It was no big surprise to anyone here that Raul got chosen as the new leader. And whereas the outside press seems to think that this signals a big change, the ppl here don’t see it that way. They think that yes, things will start to change now but only very slowly. A good friend of mine pointed out that when things do change, there will be problems, esp between the Cubans who stayed here through the often difficult times of the revolution, and those who fled to Miami, many leaving their houses and even hidden riches here. These houses are now inhabited by ppl here but the Miami petit bourgeoisie crew are just waiting to pounce back in. The house situation is interesting here: u don’t buy a house, u “permutarse” which basically means swap. So on Saturdays in Prado (a big street in Habana Vieja), u can see people with their “Se permuta” signs. They have a brief description of their house on their sign, and of what they are looking for. Obviously, not all houses are equal, so if when people want a considerable upgrade, they pay… this is of course under the table.

Back to goodbyes… as well as saying goodbye to Fidel this week (well, we all know he still is there in the mixture of awe, respect and fear he captivates his people with), I also said goodbye to three close friends, Flo, Tomas and my flatmate for6months, Corinna. Its been a whirlwind of partying, beaching, visiting, making food for the family 4 the 1st time (me and jenny, Mexican food for 14 ppl!!)… and little sleep! After taking Corinna to the airport the house felt so quiet and I felt (an still do feel a bit) lost. At the moment im sharing with a nice but old Mexican (who has a Cuban girlfriend half his age) but on Monday my new flatmate will come, a Spanish medicine student. Yaay! Will be good practice for my Spanish at least… might learn some Spanish swearwords to add to the Cuban ones!

While the countless leaving parties and preparations have made me think a lot about home and my eventual departure, I’m so happy to be the one who is staying. I think I’ve passed the point of adapting and settling and reached the point of adapted and settled. I love Habana more and more everyday im here. Ok, so haciendo la cola (queuing), the burocracy and the machismo isn’t particularly fun, but it’s a part of life. I’ve got used to the fact that if I want to buy something in particular, the shops have probably all run out of it; that getting hold of friends depends on waiting for the phone line to be free on both ends, both ends being at home and actually having a housephone, or trying to find a working public phone; im working out the grapevine of the music and events scene, im even doing better on finding out which bus to take and the etiquette of squeezing myself on. I can’t imagine being back in England, freezing, with the only comforts being a never ending choice of consumable goods. I love that no-one here is shy to talk to strangers. Having reached the settled stage I often find I have to remind myself not to take the unique beauty of this place for granted - the stunning arquitecture, the sunsets, the warmth of the people. Sweet Habana baby!

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Photos

oh habana!
the malecon