Hi everyone!
Check out Kirsty’s story below & her photos! She successfully delivered a suitcase full of medical supplies to local clinic in Cuba! Thank you Kirsty Louise Ainsworth ??? (NJT, U.K)
“We didn’t do the usual thing of spending a few days in Havana and then heading to a tourist beach resort, but instead, after three days in Havana we rented a car and travelled as far West as Pinar del Rio and as far South as Moron and Sancti Spiritus. By doing that we got a great idea of the real Cuba, and saw places that not many tourists get to see. However, the roads West of Soroa were in such an appalling condition they were almost impassable and so I’d suggest sticking to the motorway and the roads leading from it, and accepting that you will have a tyre blow out at some point!
The best thing we probably saw there was Che Guevara’s mausoleum in Santa Clara, which was beautifully done and rather moving with a fascinating museum attached. This was pretty unexpected as it’s not somewhere we had thought of visiting before we came across it on the day.
The hospital was in a very poor state, and it actually looked like no repairs or maintenance had been carried out since the 1950s. There were stray dogs walking around the hospital beds and there was only one emergency doctor on duty who had been working there without sleep for three days (hence his rather miserable face in the photo!). However he was very grateful and the nurses in particular were excited about the supplies, especially the suture kits.
It was important for me to take a suitcase as supplies like these are desperately needed in Cuba and it’s almost criminal that these things are simply thrown away in the UK because they are classed as out of date. To do that when you can see how much good they can do in hospitals and clinics which have no equipment is terrible. I also felt it gave something back to the Cuban people who were so kind and friendly to us during our trip, and it also gave us the opportunity to see another side of Cuba we would not have experienced without taking the supplies.”
