Magaly. (2 of 3)

Magaly is a petite, 30-something woman who manages a casa particular.  She is hard working and intelligent and keeps the details running smoothly.  She’s the person I went to when I needed something…if it was pineapple, she knew which market to go to… if it was black market eggs, she knew who was selling.  Her family was from a town 10 hours away and she had come to the city almost 10 years ago to work.  She now has a boyfriend in Italy who visits a couple times a year, and she works 7days a week, 12hrs a day.  One day when I came home rather late, she was lying on the couch looking very ill.  On an inquiry, she told me she had so much stomach pain she could not walk.  I asked about feminine cramps, but she insisted it was something different.  I told her, as best I could in Spanish, that you shouldn’t play around with abdominal pain… too many organs sloshing around in there.  But she couldn’t leave the house, and insisted it was something she ate and it would lessen. A day later she felt better, two days later worse, and four days later she was in emergency surgery.  She stayed in the hospital for four days and returned home with a banana-size scar across her lower belly.  Although a little anemic, she was fine. The doctors warned her to be careful, if she had not come in when she did, she would have died.  Over the next couple of days, neighbors and friends showed up at her door with red meat for her anemia, and soon she was more or less back to herself.  She paid nothing for her medical attention, emergency surgery, and hospital stay.

About a week and a half after the surgery, she was still recovering and was headed back to see the doctors who had saved her.  She showed me the presents she was bringing them in appreciation.  A nice sweater for one and I actually can’t remember the other gift.  I later learned that presenting your doctor with a non-monetary demonstration of your appreciation is the norm.  While doctors cannot receive financial compensation, gifts are a way for the Cuban people to care for their doctors, and to show appreciation.  

The idea is actually quite heartwarming.  Often people cannot do very much and they give soaps or food items.  My cousin told me she once received a clove of garlic from a patient, and another time a huge Papaya.