I was told I would need to take some items to Cuba to make the holiday more enjoyable.
Certain things are, apparently, difficult to get. Coffee, of the instant variety, for example. Tea bags, Shower gel, toothpaste and….toilet rolls!
Cuban paper of the lavatorial kind has a bad reputation it seems. Not only for its occasional scarcity in the shops but, when it is available, the quality is somewhat lacking.
Now most of the first items I mentioned are available in some stores. They are out of the financial reach of most Cubans though. A bottle of shower gel would be in the region of £2.50 In our money. Not too bad you might think until you realise that this, in a totally government sponsored regime, represents about two weeks wages for a working Cuban.
So, one of the necessities of human life, good toilet paper, is very much at a premium. The paper available, and affordable, to Mr Average Cuba is of the FST type – ” fingers straight through ” in other words. This can be avoided – just – by tearing off many, many sheets, doubling them up, twice, to form a slightly more substantial sheet of paper. Even then the risk of a “digit breakthrough” is very high.
Of course using such a quantity of sheets does bring on high feelings of guilt as you realise that, that for the sake of an enjoyable poo, with no mess after, you have left your Cuban host in penury for possibly the next six weeks.
I kid you not! I will try and describe life in the “barrios” later, but enough to be said at the moment that expected guests may well find toilet paper and soap borrowed from neighbours to ensure adequate supplies for their stay.
The same goes for coffee, tea, milk and, possibly, the extra food required as well. Visitors may well be hosted by a proud and welcoming Cuban household using supplies sourced from the local neighbourhood community.
Such resources to be paid back, somehow, at a later date or in a reciprocal situation.
So being forewarned, I armed myself with many sheets of Andrex quilts from one of the several rolls packed from the UK. It was easy for me to tear off sheets, fold them up, place them in my pocket prior to my stay. These could then be added, as a “thickening agent ” when those times came for personal relief!
It all worked so well too.