The second half arises
As our journey begins
Trees of all sizes
Pass us by
In a three hour drive
A rainbow
Not in the sky
But arranged
Upon the outside wall
Of houses
With the sun shining perfectly
Yellow and plump
Leading to sweat
Dripping vigorously
Check up
And visits
To physician clinics
Where everyone is welcomed
And served without pay
It’s sure a great place to stay
As volunteers are willing to help some
Yet as day comes
Day must go
And we lay to rest in a beautiful casa
We got up early today because we were on a tight schedule and needed to leave on time (we have a problem with that). After breakfast, we loaded the bus. After a small delay (Carlos forgot something!), we were off. After two hours of sleeping and one hour enjoying the green landscapes, we came upon a small town with beautiful houses of all colors, and beautiful people of all shades and shapes. We picked up our two companions for the day – our town tour guide, and a doctor from the town’s clinic. They took us to the clinic, but it looked more like a hospital. It was huge and beautiful, with smaller rooms than what we would see in a clinic in the USA. The doctors and nurses also talked about how difficult it has been to treat people because of the blockade. For instance, Cuba doesn’t make their own insulin. The United States is the biggest producer of insulin, but because of the blockade Cuba has to buy it from China, which costs more. They also talked about how they use natural medicine, oppose to commonly used medicines. It was really fascinating and informative. Back home everything (medically) is fixed with drugs, but not here. After our visit we went to another casa, the Instituto Cubano de Amistad con los Pueblos (ICAP) headquarters and was really big. [Bro/Sis Note: ICAP is a social organization founded for the purpose of educating people around the world on Cuba and social justice.] It was colorful and had a lot of cats. To put the icing on the cake, Tida made me share a room with her.
-Kiaralyn Rosario
