By Eddie Aldape, CBF field personnel
In our small town of Albacete, we have served people from as many as 30 different countries. While the majority come from North Africa, we have served some from as far east as the Philippines and everything in between along with just about every Latin American country. With time, they tend to gather into groups by nationality. One is the group of Cubans we are serving in Valdepeñas.
Most of them still have relatives in Cuba, and they share the decaying situation that no one seems to be talking about. Shortage is in everything from medications to food. As the result of storms that have destroyed crops, the people of Cuba are desperate to provide simple things that most of us take for granted.
The Cuban diaspora returns to Valdepeñas every other year to maintain the family property within the family. Upon arrival at the airport in Madrid, one can easily spot the airline traveling to Cuba. Most of the passengers will check in as many as 10 bags which contain medication and the things required to survive. They will spend more than 24 hours at the airport, sleeping on the ground, waiting for the counters to open so they can check in for their flights. This is one time it pays to be Cuban because they are the only ones that are allowed to import all those items into the country.
People donate their unused prescription medications and mail it to a specified location. It is then sorted out by trained volunteers and checked for expiration dates. In this group, everything that is collected will be distributed to churches throughout Cuba and will be dispensed by doctors to treat the people in that community. If no one is going anytime soon, the items will be packaged and sent by courier. During the entire process, including transit time, the receiving churches are in prayer so that everything can arrive. We mailed Christmas cards two and four years ago and we are still receiving cards as undeliverable. Prayer seems to do the trick because up to now, everything has arrived.
Some of the packages also include coffee, cookies, bouillon cubes and powdered milk for the elderly in the communities. The local churches look after the elderly, and this provides them with something they can give as a treat. On one of the suitcases, we included candy for the children of the church. It was reported back to us that the ones that were more excited were the adults. We are all familiar with the phrase, “It takes a village,” well here it takes the diaspora.