Each of us here are required to write an ethnography (or, un investigación) about something in Cuba. The topics are diverse, ranging from the culture surrounding car ownership, to renewable energy, to race and tourism. I have chosen to study the mental health care system, both because the health care system here is fascinating to […]
School begins
We have started classes at the Instituto Superior de Arte in Havana, Cuba. We take our classes in a pre-revolution country club turned school of art. Though unfinished and neglected due to financial limitations, the buildings are a beautiful and grand. On our first day upon arriving, our trip leader told us that in all […]
Excursión
Fewer times have I felt more Yuma than our last weekend in Viñales, Pinar del Río. We arrived on Friday afternoon and stayed for two days of exciting activities in this small town in the Valle de Silencio. Although we looked strange horseback riding through town and struggling to salsa at the casa cultural, my […]
9 March — Sick but sound
Yesterday we returned from a weekend in Viñales — a farm town to the west of Havana and a tourist trap. I became ill yesterday afternoon and have been sick all of today. It is evening now and I am beginning to regain some strength. Due to my sickness, there isn’t much information to recount […]
28 Feb — A beach excursion
Already more than a full week in, Cuba still feels unreal. While the first week of classes have begun to bring me out of my non-academically oriented funk, our lives in Cuba so far feel more dream like than ever. Furthermore, many of my original conceptions of what Cuba would be like have turned out […]