A story from a recent trip to Cuba, from a traveler of Not Just Tourists Manitoba! <3
“We hired a local guide and taxi driver to take us to El Nicho waterfalls and asked for them to stop along the way for us to drop off supplies, the taxi driver picked out the community. He said it would be the community in most need along our way.
The town was called Crucesitas in the province of Cienfuegas in the Escambray Mountains. We asked people in the village where the clinic was, when we got there we just walked in – it was completely silent, almost errie, but we came across a janitor who was cleaning. He then had to go run across the village to find the doctor for us. There were no patients at the clinic at the time. The doctor was very young and seemed a bit skeptical of these people coming to see him. The guide and driver acted as interpreters for us explaining where we had come from and how these supplies were a gift from the Canadian people. He was quite excited when he opened the suitcase and saw what was in there. When we asked for a picture he ran into the clinic to get his white coat on. We took a picture outside clinic. He was hesitate to take us into the clinic so we said that was fine. It was a small clinic – about 6-8 beds and he was the only doctor. We only had a quick visit with him, we explained that maybe people would come again so we asked him what he needed most – IV kits, examination gloves, scalpels, needles and syringes, masks, glasses and bed lines.
There was a white van outside that the doctor drives as an ambulance. It was interesting that when we left the waterfalls a few hours later, the ambulance was gone and we saw it parked at a house just outside the village. We wondered if our supplies were already in use.
Thanks again for a great experience. We hope to do this again next year. Take care and thanks to you for all you do.”
