Excess Baggage

Excess Baggage

I read a daily newspaper-like website called Havana Times. It seems to be a place for free speech and offers an opportunity to add comments to each article. Writers seem to come from all political leanings—old line Stalinist Communists, modern Cubans who support the government, disidents, Cuban expatriates who have fled to the US, and these last are further divided between those who hate the Castros and those who just long for a return to normal relations between the US and Cuba.

I try my best to keep politics out of what I write about Cuba. After all, our main interest is to improve life for the animals in Cuba, and politics is mostly a "people" business. Therefore, why should I weigh in on political topics? I'm not disposed to criticize my own country and when I'm in Cuba, I know my presence as a guest will only be tolerated so long as I stay away from political themes. Fine by me.

One article by a Cubana seemed to take offense that US visitors there often bring items along to pass out as gifts—like bars of soap, or tubes of toothpaste or perhaps shampoo. She felt it was somewhat demeaning to accept such gifts, as there are sources for them in Cuba and accepting them would suggest Cubans live a much more basic existence than they actually do. Perhaps they can't get US brands because of the embargo, so this means no Colgate toothpaste. But this doesn't mean no toothpaste at all.

Well, in my visits I've always used hotels and talked mostly about animal matters, so I can say that even after eight trips, I don't have a full appreciation of the daily lives of Cubans—their problems, their pleasures. Surely there is pressure on workers to feed, house, clothe, and transport, but I'm sorry to say that I can't articulate the details of these pressures.

Every trip I've made I've taken lots of meds and vet supplies. This is an area where I know the locals sometimes face severe shortages. Once, the organization that gave me the US license to travel to Cuba asked me to carry a few packages of personal items to specific people in Cuba. A box arrived at my house from them with a few packages of toothpaste, vitamins, soap and such. I'm sure that charity believed that mundane personal items were needed and wanted in Cuba.

Xenia and Bob, good friends who have gone there twice with me carry along prodigious quantities of vet items, but Xenia doesn't forget the personal either. On her first trip she had several beautiful women's handbags. They were for Nora to pass out to the volunteer members of Aniplant. We later heard those handbags were some of the most appreciated items we brought.

Charlene decided to clear out some closets and ended up with 150 pounds of women's dresses, slacks, tops, etc. I went to Salvation Army and got a huge rolling suitcase for them. Nora felt they were all useful and carried them back to Cuba as excess baggage after attending the Humane Society of the US Animal Care Expo in 2009.

While I can only speak for myself and a few close friends who have traveled with me, I can state that every donated item is offered in the hope it fills an unmet need in someone's life. There is so much we have that we probably don't need or perhaps will never use. We try to get some of this stuff across the Florida Straits as an act of love. Never is there the connotation of "alms for the poor." Instead we offer "help for our fellow creatures" (human or otherwise.)"

Les Inglis