The crisis does not distinguish species
October 05 of 2022
Consolación del Sur, Pinar del Río.
Aloida Rodríguez , is 65 years old, is the caregiver of a 78-year-old bedridden person, she suffered partial losses in her home, she lost part of the fiber cement roof and a kitchen wall it collapsed on him, wreaking havoc on the crock pots and refrigerator. More than 100 hours after the hurricane, none of the institutions or mass organizations went to his house to worry about his situation, thanks to the help of some neighbors who have a power plant and know his situation, he was able to preserve the most important thing I had in the fridge, 'it's not much, but it's the little I have' .
The lack of electricity affects the water supply, and supposes the change of elementary routines for the psychic development of her husband. "These days have totally disoriented him, as soon as he knows me, he screams in the dark and relieves himself." Aloida points out, who has been accumulating sheets with urine and dirty clothes for a week.
The quality of life for both of them decreases significantly, the lack of hours of quality sleep and rest, the concern about how to fix what collapsed or recover some of the essential things that they lost occupy their present and cause them a burden that they do not knows if it will come out.
Her children, like most of the young people from her town, have recently left the country for Nicaragua, they are still not in a position to help her. "The outlook is bleak, I feel like I live in a country at war, due to destruction and hopelessness."
Sagebrush
The Artemisa province was not the most affected by the passage of the hurricane, however there are around 6898 homes affected (officially, it is possible that in practice there are more), most of the damage to roofs._cc781905-5cde -3194-bb3b-136bad5cf58d_
The municipalities of Bahía Honda,
Candelaria and San Cristóbal were the most shaken by the wind, especially in rural areas where peasants, in addition to houses, lost a good part of their crops .
The community of El Brujo, located in the limits of these three municipalities, is one of the points that was cut off, the roads that lead to the place were covered by trees and landslides, being a rural area it is not a priority for the brigades so the peasants themselves have had to clean them and are waiting for public transport to be reestablished so they can go to the city and get basic services. Mothers with small children and elderly people devoid of any medical service reside in the community, in case of emergencies they must go to the nearest polyclinic located more than 25km away by their own means, there is no mobile or fixed telephone service. The restoration of electricity in the area is not a priority either, we will have to wait for the recovery work in the cities to finish.
candlemas
Villa miseria is a neighborhood located in the outskirts of the municipality, the settlement is popularly known by the 'come and put' people who come from other areas of the country and build their homes with their own effort, most of wood and whatever they can find. They are usually slums with extreme poverty. The damage in the area is widely visible.
"Sweet and avocados, that's what we've eaten these days, mom made jam from the guavas that the winds knocked down from the bushes, with that we'll kill ourselves hungry" Roberto, a 14-year-old resident of the town tells us. "Avocados have become matured all at the same time, so they also help us to appease the
hungry and accompany with rice, white”.
His mother worries about getting something to cover a part of the roof and protect what is left of their belongings. Mattresses in the sun, clothes hanging from wires, toys and family memorabilia exposed to everyone's sight, welcome the few people who come to the place.
"I am concerned about the start of the school year announced for this Monday , my children do not have to eat breakfast, nor take a snack, if the shortage was great before the hurricane, now it is much more so."_cc781905 -5cde-3194-bb3b-136bad5cf58d_
After the passage of the hurricane and the collapse of the national energy system, which left the country in the dark en the municipality of Artemisa has only been able to restore 47% of the electrical service, according to official sources. The population manages to conserve the little food they have, some agree that they are living "daily" and although they know about the protests of the last few days, there are places where people just settle and try to survive until they die. can.
"Cooking is only possible with firewood and charcoal who can buy it, the bag is already 500 Cuban pesos"
Candelaria does not have the service of manufactured gas, only a few people have contracts for cylinders, they are minimal and many times they have to go to look for it to the head of the province, the city of Artemis.
"Here we buy the small balls (cylinders) of gas en the black market, the price oscillates between one thousand or one thousand five hundred pesos, although it increases every day with What is the deficit?
For some time the state enabled points of sale of coal and firewood, due to the
long hours of blackouts and the difficulties of people to cook food for daily consumption. This time, he also sold packages of sausages that were available in the freely convertible currency (MLC) stores in national currency, for a small number of people considered vulnerable.
"Outside of that we have not had other 'help' although there are a lot of promises."
Maritza, besides Roberto, has two other children, six and eight years old. She works as a self-employed person and is in charge of providing her children with all their needs.
A few months ago she moved to the town and with the help of her brothers built her house, among other difficulties she has not yet been able to register it in the property registry, so she does not have a supply booklet where she lives. Every week she travels to Cayajabos, another town on the outskirts of the province, to bring the fluid milk that her children receive. Bad weather, electricity problems and lack of transportation make it difficult to store and preserve milk. As a result of the hurricane, the government decided to grant 100 grams of powdered milk per child every two days, "They do not sell you the full week, so it is not enough and every two days I must allocate time and money to look for milk" .
