00:00Blackouts in Cuba are nothing new.
00:03But since U.S. President Donald Trump imposed an oil blockade in January, they can go on
00:09for days.
00:12Previously, blackouts lasted a few hours and were often scheduled.
00:17Now residents have to plan their lives around short and unpredictable bursts of electricity.
00:25Electricity arrived. Let's run. Now I don't know anymore. It arrived at 2pm today, but
00:34tomorrow it can arrive at 10am. The other day it came at 3pm, and I rushed to cook beans.
00:44Residents are starting to adapt to life in the dark. When the power comes on, people
00:51stop everything, even waking up in the middle of the night to do basic chores.
00:57We had electricity for two hours, so you take advantage of it. You wash, clean, cook, try
01:04to get the water to cool down.
01:06People are being forced to adapt, buying household power generators to pump water, or installing
01:13solar panels. Others use solar-powered vehicles since petrol is also unavailable.
01:21Cuban lives have become harder. Before, I cooked with gas. Now I have to cook with wood. We used
01:28to have water in the pipes all the time, and now we have to load it into bottles. The life
01:34of Cubans has become difficult, hard and sad.
01:41The US blockade may be aimed at pressuring Cuba's government into political change, but the worst
01:47effects are being felt by average Cubans.
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