Communism came to my country when I was 3 years old, most of my life I was in a bubble of privilege without even knowing it, thanks to my parents, obviously every year the economic situation limited them and strangled them more, I never lacked food, a roof, even vacations once a year in the interior of the country.

In my adolescence, I began to have the notion that things were no longer the same, I heard the word "inflation", I saw that some products were no longer in the country because the companies had left, I saw how they expropriated companies, houses, even small businesses. Not to mention devaluation because it is one of the worst in the world.

Now as an adult I remember these things and it makes me admire my parents more for how they have fought and continue to do so, and how they kept my brothers and me safe for so long.

I remember being at the university, lunch time, I was sitting in the dining room with 4 classmates, I took out my food which was chicken, black beans, ripe plantains and rice, I remember very vividly how they all looked at me with surprised faces. and one of them said to me "Do you know that this is a rich person's food?" I stayed silent, I didn't know what to say, I did know that the country was going through a critical situation, but I didn't think that many of my colleagues classes could not have a full meal or could not eat 3 meals a day. I was not "rich" my father was a taxi driver and my mother sold clothes.

By the time of 2014, it was becoming increasingly difficult to obtain basic products. There had been a shortage of some products for years, but it was not as strong as it started that year.

I took care of my siblings (I'm the oldest) while my mom left at 9pm to queue outside the supermarket to buy food the next day at 9am when the place opened, just to buy 2 kilos of rice, 1 kilo of flour, a package of toilet paper. And so on, she had to do it 3 or 4 times a month to be able to buy only 4 items, one day it could be deodorant, another day sanitary pads, noodles, toothpaste, diapers, shampoo or 1 kilo of chicken. The pharmacies were the same story, lines lasting 10 hours or more to buy some medicine, and if you were lucky enough to be able to get what the doctor prescribed, luck was mostly not on your side.

Let me not forget to mention that when you went to the supermarket or pharmacy you could NOT buy the amount you wanted of any product, for example: x day rice arrived, you were only allowed to buy a maximum of 2 kilos, sometimes only 1 kilo.

You may ask me why only go to the market or pharmacy once a week instead of trying several times? Well, there was an "order", you could only go to the establishment by the terminal number of your identity document, in my country it is called an ID. I explain: Monday: for people whose ID ends in 0 and 1 Tuesday: 2-3 Wednesday: 4-5 Thursday: 6-7 Friday: 8-9 Saturday and Sunday without attention to the public.

In 2015 the government implemented something called "fair pricing" but I want to leave this for another post because it is too long.

In 2016 I emigrated, I have never set foot on my land again. My dad emigrated the following year, to a different country from where I am. So I have my dearest family divided into 3 countries.

Sometimes when I talk to my mother she tells me that she has been waiting in line for 2 days to fill the car's gas tank.

If you do not want to wait in lines for food, medicine, gasoline or another product, you have the option of paying the corrupt military to give you a place further forward in the line. My country hurts me.

I saw how several acquaintances went from being large or medium-sized people to having severe malnutrition, emaciated, marked bones, it was very cruel to see them like that. Many people have died from malnutrition or starvation.

In my country there are many mango trees, sometimes it was the only thing a family ate, mango. Many parents did not eat to give even one piece of bread (literally, just one piece of bread) to their children... and so on, I can continue writing about different cases, such as sleeping until noon to avoid feeling hungry in the morning or going to bed to sleep. early so I don't have to have dinner.

For many years there have been protests and many young people have died, who only had stones to fight, while the military bought by the government massacres the country with their weapons.

The health sector doesn't even have to be mentioned, they don't even have cotton. So describing what happens inside hospitals would be sadistic.

When I emigrated, it was a blessing for me to be able to buy an Oreo cookie or go out to eat ice cream. In my country I could no longer afford those "luxuries" as the years went by.

Many families started cooking with firewood because getting gas is an ordeal.

Electricity? Water? Sometimes you don't have it for several days. The government began to call the lack of electricity "electrical reasoning", while there there was a time when they cut off electricity for 4 hours per sector. There was "sector A" where they turned off the electricity from 6 am to 10 am, "sector B" their hours were from 10 am to 2 pm... and so it continued "sector C", sector D"... In 2019 I did not I was able to communicate with my family for days because the entire country went without electricity for more than 3 consecutive days.

I tell all this from my experience living in communism. I have many more things to write, but my daughter is calling me to play.

Thanks for reading me this far. I would like to know, do you know or have you lived in a communist country?