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Bill Dunn of the Yarmouth Rotary Club was our guest and speaker on October 11. Bill was part of a team of 11 from District 7780 who traveled to Cuba in April of this year. The trip was led by the Rotary Club of Exeter NH who were awarded a District Grant to install water filters in several communities across Cuba. Rotarians from Bridgeton, ME, Exeter, NH, Kittery, ME, South Portland Cape Elizabeth, ME and Yarmouth, ME toured the western part of Cuba for seven days in early April.
The group was in Cuba on the 50th anniversary of Castro shutting down Rotary in that country. Rotary does not allow clubs to obtain or retain charters in countries with no freedom of assembly. While there, they could not promote Rotary, but they could answer questions. Bill told us that the state departments of the two countries had different agendas for their trip. The US wanted them to engage directly with and work with local people. The Cubans wanted to promote tourism. The did a bit of both in their time there.
Each traveler packed about half of their suitcases with medical supplies where were sorted for distribution. Some of the team worked with a local plumber to install filtration systems in three communities, while others on the team visited the local hospitals to distribute the medical supplies. They found that hospitals had plenty of doctors, but had limited supplies. The filtration systems were installed in locked rooms, with spigots outside of the rooms with Rotary signage. The first system took them 3 hours to install, the second 2 hours, and the final system took 1.5 hours. Three additional systems were sent to other communities.
Transportation was a challenge throughout their trip. Sometimes the arranged transportation did not arrive, so alternate plans had to be made. In Cardenas, horse drawn carriages were the norm as car parts are hard to come by. In Havana, they saw many old US cars, although many of those are owned by the government.
The established tourism industry caters to Europeans and Asians who had not been banned from travel to Cuba. Their final stop was in Havana where they toured the Hemingway Museum and took in the night life. They visited the famous Tropicana night club, where Bill was pulled on stage with the dancers. The entertainment that evening was two hours of non-stop music and elaborate costumes.
Bill Dunn (L) holding the book he signed for the Walker Library
with Christine Johnson
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