One Last Hurrah

Sopheary Sok

To launch our final full day in Cuba, we visited the University of Havana and spoke to Yudivian Almeida Cruz, Ph.D, one of the computer science professors who researches web-based information distribution systems and their application in Cuba. We were able to get answers for questions relating to education in Cuba. Like healthcare, housing, all levels of education are free. Primary school consists of the first 6 grades, grades 7-9 is secondary and 10-12 is high school. Much like the SAT/ACT, high schoolers take a big exam that covers math, history, and Spanish prior to enrolling in university. After high school, males are required to do 1 year of military service. Everyone is required to do 2-3 years of social service. There are approximately 30 universities in Cuba. We were informed about their number grading system where 5 is the highest and a 3 is passing. English must be taken for every major (most of which are 5 year programs). We learned so much about how well the education system in Cuba is set up to be free and accessible, and their emphasis on giving back to the world. Cuba sends more doctors to Latin America and Africa than any other country in the world. After our conversation, we were given a brief tour of the University of Havana and stopped at nearby Alma Mater Library to shop around for books. Books are heavily subsidized by the government to encourage people to read. Some of us bought books for the equivalent of $.20.

Next, we found ourselves at Hotel Nacional de Cuba where a representative of the Ministry of Public Health briefed us about the free and easy to access Cuban health care system that focuses on prevention rather than treatment. The system can roughly be divided into 3 tiers: primary medical consultants, hospitals, and medical institutes. Primary care doctors live within the population and visit homes regularly to give check-ups and identify/track social, environmental, and health concerns within the community. 70% of health problems are solved in this stage. If there is an issue that cannot be solved here, patients are referred to a hospital where 27% of health problems are taken care of. Patients who need specialized care requiring resources that hospitals cannot provide go to a specialized medical institutes. Cuba's focus on prevention saves them a ton of money because treatment is very expensive. These are just some of the many fascinating facts we learned about Cuban health management.

For lunch, we ate on the 32nd floor of the FOCSA building, La Torre. The scenery of Havana was breathtaking from that level.

Up next on our itinerary was a meeting with Nancy Morejón, a UNEAC representative, Afro-Cuban poet, writer, and translator (see our picture with her in the banner above). UNEAC is a group of associations of painters, filmmakers, writers, and etc. Nancy shared her story of growing up in Havana and how she became a writer. Nancy has published books of essays and poetry. A few of the topics she likes to write about include gender, race, nature, and the weather. We were able to ask her many questions about Afro-Cuban culture and how they are perceived in Cuba.

After that, we exchanged with Roberto Chile in the comfort of his home in the neighborhood of La Florida. Chile was Fidel Castro's official photographer for 25 years. In this role, he traveled side by side with Fidel around Cuba for over 2 decades. He showed us exclusive photos of Fidel and said that his ambition is to preserve the historic memory of their former leader and to defend the cultural diversity of Cuba. His current projects include a film about sexual diversity with other international moviemakers.

Our farewell dinner took place at social enterprise El Divino Paladar. To wrap up the day, we strolled along the Malecón interacting with the locals (Jo called it "mango hunting") before returning to the hotel and calling it a night.