October 17, 2011

Our first full day in Cuba begins with strong and very sweet Cuban coffee.  The morning is filled with a contextual panel presentation by 3 leaders in the disability field in Cuba: a physician who provides an overview of the public health system; a psychiatrist who addresses screening and intervention, and an educator who describes the education system.  The Cuban approach to public health described today appears to rest heavily on prevention; speakers acknowledged that the population's heavy alcohol and tobacco use are serious public health issues in the country. The afternoon contains a presentation by a representative from the "institute for friendship with the people" extolling Cuba's Latin American School of Medicine, which provides  medical training to people from developing countries. On a walking tour of old Havana we stop for a mojito in a a very lovely place frequented by Hemingway.  (As we stopped in a whole in the wall place last night that was also frequently visited by Hemingway, I begin to suspect that he frequented many places in Havana.)