He was captured by the lens of the program Secret Nature of Cuba with a cart in which he transported the food of the children suspected or confirmed with the COVID-19, as well as the doctors and nurses of the Pediatric Hospital of San Miguel del Padrón, "La Balear", in Havana.
Las Tunas, Cuba.- The mask, the gown and the cap allowed only his eyes to see, but upon learning that he was a teacher, the team did not miss the opportunity to reveal his face.
This is how we discovered Humberto Almaguer Sánchez, a geography professor who was in the front line, in the line of the brave people who close the circle to the virus. He tells us that he was born in Puerto Padre, but that he lives in the town of Guaranal, in the district of "Jesús Menéndez." He spent his professional life there, until in 2013 he was promoted for his results as a methodologist of Geography at the National Pre-University Department of the Ministry of Education.
This course received the mission of directing the Carlos Manuel Calcines Pérez Senior High School in the municipality of San Miguel del Padrón. When the school year was suspended in March due to the progress of SARS-CoV-2 in the country, he decided to join the contingent of volunteers who support the health institutions.
He was there from May 6 to 20, surrounded by stories that he will later be able to transmit to his students, because in these times there is no better lesson for the future than those of love and solidarity that thousands of Cubans have given, inside and outside the Island. During those days that was his school, with a very different routine from the chalk and notebooks, which lasted for 14 hours a day, in which he transported the food from the kitchen-dining room to the door of the classrooms.
"I always complied with the established protocols and the required biosecurity measures, such as the permanent use of the mask, the cap, the gown and the gloves; plus frequent hand washing and disinfection of surfaces with sodium hypochlorite or alcohol solution. The work was hard because we started at 7:00 in the morning and finished around 9:00 at night," he tells me through the chat.
"I never had direct contact with the patients and their families, but I kept greeting them and conveying confidence from the door, especially to the children. The daily practice in the sick room was very consecrated, although I could not enter there I know about the humanism and professionalism of the medical staff in charge of the care of the suspects and confirmed patients of COVID-19".
As a good teacher, Humberto has been very attentive to what is happening in his educational institution through the telephone and social networks, nothing is alien to him and he will return there proudly when everything passes, which he hopes will be soon. "I have also been very aware of the guidelines issued by President Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez, our Minister of Education and the press conferences given by Dr. Francisco Durán".
The two-week regulated quarantine is about to end and he confesses to me that if you need him again he will be there without a second's hesitation. What struck him most about his stay in "La Balear" was that the Cuban state, despite the country's difficult economic situation, allocates many human and material resources for the care of patients and their families, something he was able to see for himself.
Soon Humberto will return to the pre-university, to prepare the resumption of the school year. After the PCR, which will confirm that he is not a carrier of the disease, he will meet again with his colleagues and together they will prepare the new materials, according to the curricular adjustments that have had to be made because of the pandemic. Many classes have yet to be given to this young teacher, who has a whole professional life ahead of him, but none will be as vital, as human, as the one he has given these days by his example.
