A Pleasant Havana Afternoon

By Luis Enrique Gonzalez Muñoz

HAVANA TIMES – What I am going to tell you is one of the many things that Cubans experience every day to look for the food that is becoming scarcer all the time.

I was on the way with my partner to a recreation center thinking about relaxing and taking a swim in the pool. While on the bus, suddenly she spotted several people with chicken packages from a distance, the privileged were coming from the 3rd and 70^th St. supermarket.

At first, we thought it was far from our route to the pool and we weren’t going to change our plans.

But, the taste of a cold beer continued in our imaginary palate as something we had already achieved. It happens that the bus passes near the market and without more ado we are already standing at the door to step down and try to buy at least a package of the missed food.

As always, a line here in Cuba, wherever it is, or whatever it is for, has its identity, life and even its own feelings.

There are those people who feel cleverer and want to but in line. But there are also those who feel that they have been waiting for eternity to get the chicken packages sold at a maximum of two per person. The latter will not allow anyone to get ahead or sneak in when they have been waiting for three hours.

But the three hour wait seemed well worth it. The satisfaction of buying what will feed us in the coming days and will give us the strength to continue having another of these magnificent experiences, as well as to wait in another enormous line to get on a bus home that promises to be a highly pleasant trip Cuban style.