What are the downsides of living in Cuba?

I feel like most people don’t really know what I struggle with everyday because I try not to be critical of things I don’t understand, and as such try to avoid saying negative things about this country that has so graciuosly given me a free medical education. I want everyone to understand though what it’s like living here, and I usually openly express all the positive things, so let me just spend a few mintues talking about some of the difficulties.

First, I don’t have access to air conditioning, hot water, electricity 24 hours a day, water 24 hours a day, a car that I can drive, comfort products made in the US like Dove soap, Always maxi pads, Aunt Jemima pancake mix, etc, the list goes on and on, but you all get the point. I lived here 3 years before I even bought a toilet seat. Some of this stuff is lacking here because that’s just normal in most parts of the world because most of the world lives in poverty, and Cuba is not one of the few exceptions. There’s also an economic blockage against Cuba that complicates things that much more and makes things like access to internet, phone calls home, fax and pretty much every form of communication that you can imagine really really hard. When I first came here, I embraced the struggle. I knew that this would be a temporary time in my life and so I just said, fine. I can do this. I didn’t have a toilet seat. I mostly hand washed my clothes, even blankets. Many of my meals came from the student dining hall, which is way less calorically and nutritionally than anyone needs to survive, but I was doing it, and I was proud of myself for being so strong. Plus I didn’t want to feel like I was wasting all the money people had so generously donated to me for my education on things like toilet seats or washing machines. So I roughed it.

I still feel very strongly that I should continue to rough it because the people of this country are giving up higher salaries and more comforts for themselves so that I can be here studying medicine. I appreciate them more than words can say. Even when I’m upset with my school, my neighbors, my patients, my professors, I try to always remind myself to be thankful for their sacrifices for me, who some perceive to be spoiled rich kid from America. You all know my story is miles away from that, but still, I understand and accept my position of priviledge with respect to people who don’t have the funds to come and go as they please, will never have access to Dove or Always,and will never make the kind of money that I will one day make practicing medicine. I try to remain humble and thankful and never boast or negate their stories of struggle because it’s real. Thanks to that very real stuggle, I walk several miles a day just going to school, proving food for myself and taking care of other necesities. It keeps me in shape if nothing else, lol.

To finish this I just want to list really quickly some of the most frustrating things…

When I have a final exam and the electricty goes off for hours (the professor doesn’t care! You better know the material!)

When I’m hungry, but so much time has passed since I last ate that I don’t even have the energy to walk to the store (you have to walk everywhere, even when you get a ride you have to walk to that ride)

When so hot that even sitting still in the shade makes you sweat and there’s nothing you can do about it…Nothing!

Waiting hours in line at the cheapest place in town to make international calls, and when it’s finally my turn, no one is home!

Spending a whole day trying to accomplish simple tasks like use the internet, but every place you go is either malfuntioning, closed for fumigation, or just otherwise unable to meet your needs, but this of course is after you spent the whole day running around, literally, and you still have not completed what you set out to complete.

So that’s it in a nutshell. People who know me best know that all food tastes better to me now. Hot water feels amazing and soothing. Car rides that I don’t have to walk to are like a marvel. Being able to wash my clothes in a machine just like blows my mind. I appreciate and live life in a way that I never could have had I not made the conscious decision to live without these things, and for that I thank and appreciate Cuba and really the third world as a whole. I love the compassion, strength, resilience and just overall generosity, determination and love that living here has taught me. These are lessons that will stay with me for life whether I chose to live forever in the US or practice medicine and live with the 98% of the world for whom life without those comforts is an everyday reality.