Those who have already been completely crushed by the pyramid, expect what a good neighbor can offer them in a greater gesture of humanity the more sacrificed, that saves them from the danger and humiliation of eating the garbage.
Havana.-Nery removes the skin at two chicken rooms. After several days, shitting the old Havana, he was able to buy three pounds at 380 pesos each, a pair of quarter -size rooms, enough for ten meals within the severe savings regime that she implements from the pandemic to try to relieve hunger.
At 65, alone and with a retirement of 1528 pesos, Nery lives in war economy long before Díaz-Canel He will baptize with those words, before the National Assembly of Popular Power, the insurmountable Cuban crisis. Guaranteed chicken, your next step is to go to agriculture to buy with what to increase the main course. Berenjena, carrots or beans are the most compatible, less expensive and higher performance options. In order for the two chicken posts to stretch until you give ten meals, Nery boils or handle directly with the vegetable on duty, then fence in very thin strands and separate the rations in plastic pots that once were of ice cream, cream or butter cheese. As the vast majority of Cubans, she always keeps the gaps, because everything is needed here. Once the work is completed, it keeps the portions in the freezer and, mentally, discounts ten of the sixty foods that she makes in the month, knowing that a woman of her age, with various health conditions, cannot be limited more than she already does.
Then go to the mipyme and with 1200 pesos buy ten eggs (120 pesos each), which represent another ten lunches. The amount of his checkbook had already vanished with the purchase of chicken and the payment of basic services. The eggs were paid with the money reported by his work as a review, which also falls below the cost of life in Cuba. For breakfast, buy an eight loaves bag that must last all week. He keeps it in the freezer to prevent him from getting mold, and he has one every morning to accompany the yogurt that a friend buys, occasionally, in Supermarket 23. The other forty meals run on behalf of friends who, on and off the island, care about her and help her with what they can.
In Centro Habana, Ana Ibis, a single mother of two school -age children, has reduced her hot meals to practically a daily, always at night, not to bed hungry because, otherwise, she can’t sleep. For breakfast and lunch he has opted for the bread with whatever appears, or wet it in the sauce of the main course yesterday, hurry the swallow with instant soda and continue fighting. An eight bread bag costs 300 pesos. The expense is daily: three breads for each of her children, two for her.
During the week, Ana Ibis alternates her work for the State with the cleaning of several houses. On Saturday, very early, flies for the Galiano Fair, where you can buy some slightly cheaper products: 2400 pesos for an egg cardboard, which in the MSMEs costs between 2800 and 3600 pesos; A liter of sunflower oil in 850 pesos, against at least 950, which is worth in the shops in its neighborhood. Buy also detergent, rice, four mangoes, two avocados, a pineapple and tomato paste, slightly less expensive than in agros and trucks, but equal, it admits, it is a fortune only for food and some cleanliness.
Both women, a worker activates one, the other retiree, but forced to continue working so as not to have to disguise Mendiga, they have received with skepticism the official news that as of September there will be an increase in pensions of up to four thousand pesos, as well as the future possibility of increasing the minimum wage. The same measure without productive support was applied four years ago, triggering inflation that reduced the purchasing power almost zero. There is no objective reason to believe that this time it will be different.
Like Nery and Ana Ibis, millions of Cubans try to stay afloat in a sea of deprivation, anticipating and calculating, saturated with the stress of no, it is not enough, I ran out of money. Both try not to complain, they know people who live worse, elderly without filial support who, just last week, stayed two days without lunch or eat because the family care system (SAF) had nothing to offer them. The two help with what they can: a bread, a little rice with bean broth or a fufú soaked with the salsita of the chicken last night, which continues to save from hunger the next day, and perhaps also the day after tomorrow.
Nery keeps the skin of chicken rooms for a friend of her, nurse withdrawn and with a difficult family situation, which uses that lethal fat to cook because the oil that comes to the cellar, when it comes, does not reach her. The awareness of knowing that a handful of poison to the poor woman is delivering, but it hurts to see the expression in her eyes when she tells her that the skin’s skin threw.
Based on cuts, dependence and charities, Cubans live, applying solutions that deteriorate physical and mental health, looking for the cheapest option, which remains expensive in relation to wages, and believing that having a full belly is the same as being well fed. Those who have already been completely crushed by the pyramid, expect what a good neighbor can offer them in a greater gesture of humanity the more sacrificed, that saves them from the danger and humiliation of eating the garbage.
