During a worship song on Sunday, the morning after the power grid went down in Cuba for the second time in six days, the preacher of the Renewal in Christ Church in Havana said he had a message to share that came to him in a dream.
Sunlight streamed in through an open window to the right of the raised platform where he stood, as a battery-operated lamp attached to the ceiling shone dimly over the pulpit. A row of desk fans, hanging plugs, line the concrete walls of the shaded sanctuary.
Almost every plastic and metal chair was filled in this small evangelical church, built in two houses near a row of houses in East Havana, which, like most of the city this morning, has no power.
“If you’re thinking of quitting, don’t give up, keep going, keep going,” said Pastor Daniel Cisnero, sweat on his forehead, eyes closed, his voice shouting.
“It’s not time to give up, it’s time to keep walking and hold God’s hand.”
Again and again he said, “Don’t give up hope.”
The congregation crowded forward, arms raised. A man strummed an acoustic guitar as Daymer Alfonso Monterrey, 37, pounded out a hard beat on a cajon, a box-like drum.
“We live in difficult times, as you know, times when our faith is there [tested]. But faith in [God] there is enough,” said Monterrey, in an interview with CBC News after the service.
Sometimes we don’t have anything in the fridges, we live in hard times with power outages…God is above hard times. More than once, he does not have a plate to eat,” he said.
Renewal in Christ Church provides meals to its members on Sundays and runs a food delivery program for the elderly during the week.
“Our church does not only do spiritual work, but we also do social work in our community to help the needy,” said Cisnero. “Jesus preached, but he also met people’s needs.”
Cuba faces an uncertain future as US administration Donald Trump appears intent on forcing the collapse of the island’s communist government with an oil embargo that has exacerbated the country’s existing infrastructure and economic fragility.
Cuba’s aging electricity infrastructure, which relies heavily on oil to generate electricity, is struggling due to fuel shortages. Energy shortages have created a host of problems that plague its public services and drive food prices out of reach for a large portion of the population.
The country experienced a nationwide blackout last Monday that lasted for a little over 30 hours. Cuba’s Ministry of Energy and Mines announced the second strike at 6:45 pm ET on Saturday.
Cuban authorities said on Sunday afternoon that the electricity system in Havana, which is always supplied by neighbors, had returned to normal operation.
Power is slowly returning to Cuba after the country’s second blackout in less than a week. As the UN says the country is facing a humanitarian crisis, CBC News is in Havana, where some have found hope in their community and faith.
Work continues to restore power across the country, authorities said.
The United Nations has warned that the oil embargo could put Cuba in a humanitarian crisis. But the US continues to hold a hard line on the embargo, most recently warning of a Russian boat bound for Cuba.
Trump has been heavily armed for a long time working with Mexico to stop oil exports to the island nation.
Mexico has sent at least two aid packages to Cuba and its government has quietly helped a group of activists allied with Cuba by organizing the supply of supplies to the country by sea and air.
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum gave her personal donation to the Nuestra América flotilla, said Nicole León Avilés, one of the Spanish organizers, in an interview with CBC News.
Sheinbaum’s group, the National Regeneration Movement (Merena), also contributed to the flotilla, along with government lawyers, organizers said.
The US oil embargo on Cuba makes life very difficult on the impoverished island. Gasoline is now selling for $10 US per liter on the black market, and a sharp decline in tourism has decimated the economy with little foreign income.
Avilés left on Friday in a fishing boat renamed “Granma” along with more than a dozen vessels from Puerto Abrigo in Yucatan, Mexico.an the country.
The group says it is carrying tons of aid, including bicycles, personal hygiene items, diapers, powdered milk, non-perishable food and medicine.
They are expected to arrive in Havana on Monday.
Granma is the name of the boat that transported Fidel Castro, Che Guevara and other revolutionaries from Mexico to Cuba in 1956 to begin the armed coup against Fulgencio Bautista.
Some members of the Nuestra América campaign from different parts of the world arrived in Cuba late last week and held a concert on Saturday during a local festival that included the Irish rap group Kneecap.
The band finished their performance just over an hour before Cuba’s electricity went out in the early hours of Saturday evening, plunging the country into darkness.
The oppressive US oil embargo is making life more difficult in Cuba, with electricity, water and fuel shortages leading the United Nations to warn of a humanitarian crisis. The Cuban government gave CBC’s Jorge Barrera first-hand access to a hospital in Havana, where health care providers shared how the crisis is affecting their work.
Soon after that fightingas it is called here, Claudia Hernández, 16, braided the hair of her friend Adrian Duarte, 16, in the light of cellphone flashlights held by two of their friends on the second floor of a low-rise apartment in Old Havana.
Next door, Hernández’s mother, Lisandra Yanes Barrios, 37, placed a battery-operated lamp above the kitchen door, where a pot was heating on the gas stove.
“This has become the norm since you have already resigned from it, you have no other choice,” said Yanes Barrios.
He said the family had 55 liters of water left in two tanks to turn off the electricity. When the power goes out, the water pumps shut off, cutting off the water flow.
Hernández criticized everything.
“We’re used to this,” he said.
The thing that has changed for him, he said, is the importance of an external battery charger for his cell phone.
“I was using less, now it’s more important,” said Hernández.
Yanes Barrios said things will be bad in the country even if there is no oil embargo.
“In my opinion, [the oil blockade] it has nothing to do with it,” he said. “We are forced to adapt.”
On the street outside her building, a little girl was playing hopscotch with a flashlight.
