Saturday visit and stroll to the Book Fair

Last weekend I travelled to Artemisa to see my mum and sisters. It was a pleasant visit, although the incessant power outages in Cuba put anyone off. A five-hour blackout on Saturday forced me to go to bed early, and when the sun had not yet risen, another blackout that lasted until mid-morning. But let's look at the beautiful part of life and ignore what has already happened.

On Sunday I got up early, because I felt the fresh smell of dawn, I prepared my coffee as I do every morning. Coffee at that hour is necessary to wake me up, I sat in my favorite chair and took sip by sip to enjoy it, bitter and careful not to burn myself, because it was very hot. I think it's the time I enjoy most during the day, and it gives me a chance to think about what I'm going to plan for the day.

As soon as we had electricity, I set out to write about this trip. I had a lot to do at home, but luckily my husband had already anticipated helping me in the kitchen, so I was able to gather the details about my trip to post now, here, in Weekend Experiences.

The first thing I did was to visit my mother, spend some time with her, listen to her complaints, which she always has about this or that which she dislikes or also what she likes. As I am the eldest daughter, she sees in me her support, although my sisters take care of her a lot because they live very close. I understand her in part, but with patience she understands, the times we live in are very difficult for everyone, imagine with the age she is.

The International Book Fair was held in Artemisa, which already had its main venue in the Morro Cabaña fortress in Havana, and my province was selected as a sub-venue. For reading lovers, it is a great opportunity, since they don't have to go all the way to Havana to get their favorite books. I decided to go there and spend some time surrounded by people.

I noticed the public's interest in looking for books by Cuban and foreign writers, what caught my attention the most was the number of children looking for children's books. There were coloring books, craft books and other books for young people. The youngsters were looking for detective novels, science fiction and others of interest to them, as well as romantic literature. The tastes are very different.

Brazil was the guest country in this edition of the fair and brought more than six thousand books and its most outstanding writers. As you can see, local artisans offered many useful things for children such as school supplies, like mechanical pencils, pencils, drawing sheets, pencil ornaments, folders, notebook covers and other materials.

I sat down to rest for a while and watched how a grandmother had bought some books for her grandchildren and was explaining to the child with her how she would distribute them to the other grandchildren. She was telling him how to take care of them. I was intrigued and asked her if she had been a teacher, to which she replied that she had and that she was now retired.

That afternoon I felt happy, but always with a mixture of nostalgia for not having been able to have my grandson by my side and also to buy him books like that grandmother did with hers. What's more, I didn't buy any books, because I have many at home that my daughters have left behind, and I have thought of donating them to the town library. I think they will be more useful there than keeping them in storage.

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_{All images are my property
Translated with DeepL.com (free version). I also used Grammarly to improve my writing.}