I recently travelled to Cuba on a mission trip.  I wrote a 4-part report on the trip that was first published in The Yazoo Herald that I am now reposting on my blog.  This is part three of four.

As mentioned in a previous installment, the Cubans live in what I understand to be a completely socialist environment. All of the economy and industry is owned by the government (factories,
grocery stores, etc) and all human services such as transportation and healthcare are government services. Since the government owns most jobs, most Cubans are employed by the government.
Their salaries range from $10-$20 per month (even doctors make $20 a month) and each citizen is issued a ration card that allows them to purchase limited basic food supplies from the government at a subsidized price. The Cubans have two currencies: the peso and the Cuban Unit of Currency (CUC). They are paid in CUC which is almost a 1-to-1 equivalent to the US dollar. Pesos are used to purchase ration card food and othe
r small purchases, while the CUC is used for most everything else. You would assume that the economics of the country would dictate that prices reflect the income of the typical citizen but that is not necessarily true. My pastor friend recently purchased a 1976 Fiat that cost $11,000 (with help from an American) and Black Jack helped a farmer purchase a tractor plow for approximately $1700. One of my translators must travel from her town to an adjacent town once a month for medical treatment for her son’s cleft pallet. To rent a car for the round trip cost her $30. While obviously there is a black market for purchasing goods and an underground process whereby citizens are able to make more money, it became clear to me that the prices of their economy do not match their incomes, and that makes life very difficult.

I’m typing this sitting at a coffee shop drinking a $2 cup of joe and am struck that this source of caffeine represents 10% of my friends’ monthly incomes back in Cuba. And I’ll probably have another cup. The thought is striking because I realize how much we wealthy Americans in our abundance can radically change the lives of people in Cuba with what to us often seems like excess change. The amount I spend to feed my family at McDonalds is the same amount my friends in Cuba live off of for an entire month. While most of us would agree that throwing money at a problem rarely fixes the problem, it is also clear that the sharing of our wealth with Cuban families can be life-changing. We hired our translators at $10 a day and just by our presence in the country were able to offer them three months of income for the cost of a good steak dinner.

I would be remiss to not use this opportunity to give you a chance to help. I have made long-term relationships in Cuba and Black Jack Baptist Church is committing to continually support the Cuban churches. We are creating a fund to be used to purchase items they need which we can bring from the United States and also cash to give to them while we are there. You can be a part of that by sending gifts to Black Jack Baptist Church and designating them for Cuba. You have my assurances that it will be used to benefit the people and the work of the Church in Cuba.