Too integrated

When you are a frequent traveller you always get to a point where you don’t get surprised anymore by the funny things happening around you. When people approaching you suspiciously, ask you “do you want potatoes?” or “in need of cheese? White one?” as if they were selling drugs and you think it’s a normal black market deal; there it is when you’re becoming too integrated. I could tell you that I had a lot to do and luckily it is a part of the truth, but my silence in this blog is also due to this side effect of the adaptive faculty that enables a human being to flourish wherever he or she happens to fall. But let’s try to be a child (or an anthropologist, others would say) again and be surprised by the normal life of 12 million people in an island lost somewhere in the Caribbean’s far away from advertisement, deep into propaganda, music, patriotism and dream.
Piropo, among other sports such as baseball (beisbal), domino, chess (quarrel with Cubans if you don’t consider these 2 as sports ;-), dance and volleyball, is one of most spread national hobbies. In this case we are talking mainly of a male activity and, being Italian, I have to say that if there would be a Piropo’s world championship Cubans would be at the lead. So, let’s try to take inspiration from a TV program I saw a few days ago and define what a good piropo is. Being optimistic we could say that it is a practice thought to sustain female self esteem through male voiced periphrasis or rather a social practice male specimens express to simulate courtship and gain points (no matter if for themselves or in the eyes of their peers) through induced smiles. Well, here are some examples: 2 girls are going out from a museum, the boy: “What will we do? Pieces of art are escaping the museum!”; a girl in the street after the rain, the boy throws his t-shirt on the puddle to let her pass; and then: boys on their knees in the streets, old men reassuring a woman that they would have chosen the same dress, and finally tons of “que Linda”… well I am talking of the good piropos!
Shopping is not a sprint sport as in our experience, but rather an endurance one: you go to a shop looking for A, they have tons of B you don’t need now, but you ignore wherever B will ever be back again so you buy B, even tons of B if you’re a nervous person. You go to another shop, always looking for A, you may find C or a piece of information pushing you closer to A discovery. So you go further. Looking for A, item you need. You finally arrive where A has been said to be, but it’s not there anymore or if it’s there you just miss a coin of the good money (remember the double currency system) to buy it. Are you ready for another game? Definitely Murphy was a bipartisan jurist!
What else could I say? That there are dozens different types of wonderful Cuban music and I am still far from being able to recognise them all: rumba, son, trova (with or without feeling), timba, cha cha cha, mambo, danson, conga, tumba francesa, fusion… but unluckily the most heard now by the youngsters is the commercial raggueton (I encourage Brussels crowd to ask Alvaro and Vittorio for a munequitos’ demonstration of how to dance raggueton!).
Now, I am finally settled in my little house: a studio in a little tower (to exorcise any princess’ childish delusion) with a small cosy terrace pretty well situated at the heart of Vedado (forbidden…because from there you could easily gain the old town) neighbourhood. I get along very well with the land lady that offers me eggs I still haven’t understood if legally acquired or not. Moreover, thanks to Flora (sigh-sigh!… she’s leaving too soon!) I got to know some normal Cubans and now I have the confirmation they exist I’m eager to discover more.
Many friends are coming to visit me: Federica who’s now in Buenos Aires for a master, Vittorio, Alvaro and Julien, already back to their work in Brussels, and Mauro and Francesco scheduled for Friday. Thanks to them not only these 2 months have passed incredibly quickly, but also I can enjoy things money can’t buy such as olive oil or depilation wax! In spite of these material losses I like being here: it is pretty sure and cultural goods are affordable, you just need to adapt and get integrated. Just be careful, not too much!