Tue, 20 May 2003 13:11:07 -0700 (PDT)
Three .. Four

Did I mention how hot it is here in cuba. I don´t know the temperature, but if you walk anywhere, you will quickley become covered in sweat. Yesterday at the gym, my clothes were completely soaked, and that was after working out for only about 20 minutes. At night time, I have not slept underneath the covers yet ... there was air-conditioning in my room that worked the first night I was here, but something happened, and I haven´t been bothered to complain about it.

I think I also finally figured out why I had sort of a sore throat the last time I spent 3 monrths in Latin America ... origininally I thought that it was from drinking every day, but now I believe that it is from the black smoke that every car spews out ... This I know because I haven´t been drinking evey day, but yet I still have a sore throat.

Also about the family that I live with: well, the guy (Onelio) who owns the house (apartment actually) and runs the school (if you could call it that) is a former colnel in the Cuban Army (for those of you who don´t know, that is right below General). He lives with his wife and 2 kids, and they all stay in a different part of the apartment than the students. There are 4 rental-bedrooms which they rent out to students, and the students are fed together at the same time, which isn´t that great for learning spanish since we sit there and speak english. Then the family eats afterwards (probably better food). They have a maid who does the cleaning, a cook who does the cooking, and some guy who is there every day painting or fixing something or other. Every single meal includes rice and beans, and always has way too much salt.

The way that the ¨school¨ works, is that my teacher comes to my house, and we sit at a small table in my bedroom and have lessons. A lot of the people are a bit surpised by the conditions, but I knew exactly what it would be like before I arrived here. Additionally, some people were surpried that there are no course-books, or study materials available ... again, I knew about that before I came, and so was not taken by surprise.

Onelio (the owner) has a pretty decent house by cuban standards (average/below-average by our standards). He has a huge belly, and he sits on his fat ass watching TV in his wicker chair all day. Every time he gets up, he has chair marks all over his back for the next hour. His main job is to organize the teachers and students, and to arrange accomodation for all the students. Of course, he gets a cut off of everhthing that he does, and so he gets rich by just sitting on his fat ass. He seems like a decent guy, in the kind of way that an italian mobster seems like a nice guy until you cross them. When he talks, it sounds like he is yelling, and if you are in another room you would swear that he is having an argument ... however, if you are in the same room as him when he speaks (yells), he is actually smiling, and has not hint of anger in his body posture.

Another interesting thing that I have noticed here is that when people want to visit their friends in an apartment building, then actually have to yell up to the balcony to see if the person will come down. This is because typically buildings here are locked, and no one has cell phones. It is pretty funny to see people standing outside of a building yelling up to the 7th or 10th floor for their friends to come down.

I finally managed to rent a guitar for $20 for 4 weeks. I am sure that I over-paid, but I needed to motivate my guitar teacher to find one for me ... he manged to borrow one from his friends father. I don´t know what cut he took of the $20, but I don´t care ... I made the offer, and he accepted. I also arranged to have an extra hour a day of guitar lessons with my guitar teacher for $5 per hour rather than the $10 that I would have had to pay if we went through Onelio. The guitar teacher gets more, and I pay less.

Funny thing happened today, I was standing outside the place that I go to for lunch every day (for $1 or $2), and I just started talking to a cuban guy there. Then he wanted me to translate a love-letter from his girlfriend in the US for him. It was the funniest thing I read, and it went something like this: ¨You have to stop telling me that you love me. I don´t thik we can have a relationship. I would like to help you from time to time, but you have to stop asking me to send you money. I am living on a pension, and don´t have extra money to send to you. Why don´t you get a job? I am sure that I will not be coming back to cuba for a long time, but maybe one day ...." While I was reading the letter, I asked the guy how old this lady was, and he told me she is about 45 .... He looked about 25. I asked them if they had sex, and he said, ¨just once¨. After I read it to the guy (I was actually laughing a little while I translated it) I wished him good luck, and told him I think he is going to need it.

Well, I have started to understand the cuban culture a little better, and one thing that I have found out is that their sense of humer is pretty funny. All you have to do to make them laugh is make a joke about cock, pussy, or tits. It is especially funny if you say ¨big-cock¨.