With leader Fidel Castro's health uncertain in early August 2006, Cuban citizens began bracing for what could be the start of rapid political change. Yet much of Cuban life—like this curbside domino contest—continues to unfold at a leisurely pace.

National Geographic photographer David Alan Harvey captured these images on a 1998 assignment on the Caribbean island.

"This is a pretty typical scene for Havana or anywhere else" in Cuba, said Harvey in an interview with National Geographic News.

"There's not a whole lot to do in Cuba for many people, because they don't really have the material possessions or the recreational activities that some other people do," the photographer continued. "But the quality that they do have is the ability to make something out of nothing, and that goes for everything that they do."

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