News Americas, NEW YORK, NY, Fri. Sept. 7, 2018: In one Caribbean country, latex condoms are being used for more than just safe sex.
Reuters News reports indicate that some Cubans now use condoms to fish, ferment wine, fix punctures or tie up hair.
In an economy many must survive on an average state wage of $30 per month, Cubans have become masters of invention.
Especially since condoms, both those domestically produced and imported from Asia, are in relatively bountiful supply due to the Caribbean country’s focus on sexual health. A box of three condoms costs just one Cuban peso.
Sandra Hernandez, a stylist at a Havana hair salon, uses them as hairbands, Reuters reports while Welder Heriberto Lopez throws inflated condoms carrying baited hooks for fishing.
At concerts and children’s birthday parties, condoms are blown as large balloons while Orestes Estevez, who makes wine, used them to cover bottles of grape juice.
The rubber inflates and become erect as the fermentation releases gases; when it collapses, the process is complete. Estevez then sells the wine in his garage.
