Thursday, March 14, 2019

Gordon had a rough night with intestinal issues. He was dizzy and weak as well, and was hoping he could just rest and feel better.

I went with Elliott and Cathy and Mariano to the Cafe Del Angel for a pleasant breakfast at an outside table. It is owned by a Cuban fashion designer, Jacqueline Fumero. At one point Mariano had to get up and move the van because a garbage truck was trying to get down the very narrow street. One of the umbrellas of the cafe had to be moved, as well as a baby in a stroller at a table. I really don't know how he got the truck through without scraping something, but he did. I tried my first Café Bombón, espresso coffee mixed with sweetened condensed milk. It was interesting, but sweeter than I prefer.

From there we went to the Ballet Nacional de Cuba to watch a rehearsal. We climbed to the third floor which had a balcony overlooking the rehearsal space. The female teacher was just getting ready to start the barre exercises with the male members of the ballet. We watched the whole rehearsal, and despite the language barrier we got a good sense of what was going on. The teacher would point out mistakes and chastise individual dancers if they didn't get the steps right. Very interesting. We weren't supposed to take photographs, but I managed a couple of not very good ones.

We went back to check on Gord who was laid out in bed and not in great shape. It was decided we would take him to the international clinic used for foreign visitors. It was a good thing. They got him on IV fluids, anti-nausea medicine, and brought him down to a private room where he and I stayed for a few hours. The room was quite nice, with a flat screen TV and a private bathroom with walk-in shower and two sets of towels with two sets of shampoo, soap, gel. If he had needed to be there overnight, I think I could have stayed there too.

While we waited it out in the room, Cathy and Elliott and Mariano were running around making arrangements. Elliott correctly determined that Gordon would be more comfortable in a hotel with an elevator and a restaurant, rather than our walk-up apartment, so he was able to get that booked. I think it was about five when the doctor came and discharged Gord. He was still pretty weak, but much improved from earlier. I had to go down to the pharmacy to get his prescriptions filled and then to the billing area to check out. The only thing we had to pay for was the medicine which came to $20. The rest of the bill, which didn't amount to much more than $100, was being sent to the airline to pay. (You can't enter Cuba without health coverage and you purchase that through the airline.)  I didn't get a copy of the invoice, but I did have to sign what they did print for the airline, and I watched the invoice print out on a daisy wheel printer. I noticed when we were visiting the sociologist the other day that she and her husband had very old desktop computers. It made me sick to think about all of the computers and printers that I brought to the electronics recycling day last October that would have been a godsend for anyone here.

Mariano picked us up and the five of us went to the apartment, packed up our things, and went to the new hotel, NH Capri in the Vedado area. I got Gordon settled in, and went down to talk to the chef about ordering food from the very limited diet listed on the sheet from the doctor. I thought he understood and after a few calls for clarification they eventually sent up something he could eat. Gord wasn't very hungry yet anyway.

I met Cathy and Elliott for a quick dinner at a place across the street from the hotel and then went back to the room for the night.