Although I had not visited in two years, my Cuban ‘family’ made me feel like I had never left. The emotional reception blew me away. It made me wonder how I could have skipped a year between visits.

In a roomful of screaming kids, birth control is something that might come to mind, but

THE FAMILY has gone through some changes since my last visit. Mostly for the better I have to admit, even though my buddy and original connection to the family is no longer a part of it. The bicycle taxi driver, who befriended and brought me into the family, broke up with Ellens’ mother Elda.

God bless my pal Pedro, he was certainly a fun-loving guy but to put it kindly, hard work was not his best friend.  Samuel, the new man in Elda’s life has had a stabilizing effect on the family and has brought many improvements to their crumbling old apartment. (Mind you, every building in Havana is old and crumbling!).

The extended family in the apartment includes in-laws and a cousin or two. The two eldest daughters are no longer at home full-time and their grandfather (Elda’s father) passed away very recently at the age 90.

THE APARTMENT renovations are an ongoing do-it-yourself project spearheaded by Samuel and carried out by family and friends. Poco a poco, little by little, as they can afford the materials.

It is amazing what they have done with cement and scrap iron. Floors/ceilings have been added to divide rooms with an extremely high ceiling into two separate floors. A bathroom was added and the original bathroom is now getting an upgrade. But the nicest change for me since my last visit was addition/creation of a separate unit! I am staying in my own private apartment. 

Although I enjoy the contact with my Cuban family, I could only tolerate the extremely close quarters for so long.

MY LITTLE APARTMENT is a modest one-bedroom, two-story (actually one and a half story as I explained before) unit that is actually much nicer than the main apartment.  It even has a hot shower. But I am not sure if the little trickle of hot water is worth risk of electrocution that I face every time I throw the switch or try to adjust theflow. I got quite a jolt the first time I tried to adjust the flow while in the shower… The apartment is a black market rental that brings substantial income to the family compared to the minimal Socialist wages earned by the employed family members. Tourists find the place through a loose network of ‘jineteros’ or hustlers (literally jockeys) that get a commission for the business they bring. The daily rate of $20 is more than the monthly salary of a worker.

MY FAVORITE family outing is a ten-block walk to Coppelia, the communist version Baskin-Robbins, minus about 27 flavors. It has to be the worlds’ largest indoor-outdoor ice cream cafeteria. It spans a full city block with two lines forming on each of the four sides.

I know some you of are thinking: Mark, you’re in Havana, home of the most sensuous people on the planet--and all you got to tell us about is going out for ice cream?? What gives? Okay, okay… So there was an unexpected romantic re-union between Ellens’ Godmother and me. But it has not been my custom to kiss and tell (but I guess I just did!) so if you want more details you’ll have to read the book. Ha! I hate to be left with “To Be Continued…” but there you go. The book is due out in October and it will be a work of fiction, with me retaining all rights to plausible deniability.