Many of you have been reaching out to make sure we are okay down here and to ask how things look in our neighborhood. While Mexico is a couple of weeks behind Canada and the US, we are facing the same situation, the same questions, the same directives and the same fears as you are dealing with north of the border.
As of today, there are 94 cases and 3 deaths in Jalisco, which is our next-door neighbor. In our state of Nayarit, there are 8 cases reported and 1 death. But we are being told that Apr 2-19 is when our trajectory will rise. We have been given the same STAY AT HOME orders as you have. Schools have been closed for 2 weeks, public gatherings have been shut down and hospitals are ramping up in preparation. There are, however, some dynamics that are unique to our location, our culture and the economic situation that look different. For instance:
- Tourism: We live in a tourist area and the majority of local people work in that industry. I read that 70,000 hotel workers in this bay were laid off this week. Restaurants are closed, empty beaches have no customers for the wandering vendors and people who spend the winter and spring months entertaining snowbirds are juggling on empty street corners. The busiest week of the year, Semana Santa, has been canceled. People here are panicking, and many small businesses have simply refused to close. Social media posts begging people to stay home are bombarded with the same angry comments, “If I don’t work, my family doesn’t eat.”
- Social Assistance: While the government has started talking about helping, there is simply no infrastructure or systems in place to do so. If you are a family of 10 living in a tiny one room shack made of tarps, who even knows you exist? Who is coming to give you help?
- Economic reality: Many people here live day to day. When I say paycheque to paycheque, I am not talking about enough for a month. Many workers here are paid weekly, some even daily. And that daily wage might only be minimum wage, which is just over $100 pesos – that’s $5 US dollars a day. They work to get enough to live for a few days. In my community, many don’t have stocked pantries, full freezers or emergency funds. Many don’t even own a fridge. To be told to stay home for a month, or even a week, is not possible. To be out of work for months, is devastating. The threat of contracting an unseen virus seems much less scary than the threat of watching your children starve. People here are scared, and it is not of Covid-19.
- Fiesta Culture: I am quite sure Mexican people have built in genes that compel them to sing and dance and hug and laugh and PARTY all the time. They are not created for quarantine. At all. Last night I took Nacho for a walk, and just a few doors down from my house, a neighbor was holding a party for a 3-year-old. At least 60 people crammed in an empty lot and spilling onto the street in front. Music blaring. Young families with their children. Crowded around tables piled with food. As if they didn’t even know we are fighting to wipe out a deadly virus. A party for a 3-year-old who probably couldn’t care less. This is going to be hard for my fun-loving Mexican friends.
So we are fine down here, relaxing in our garden and walking alone on the beach. This morning we took our breakfast to the beach and watched a whale just off the shore. It is very strange, however, to see so few white faces around. It has been another sharp reminder that this is indeed our home now. As so many friends scrambled to find flights north, we settled into our own cocoon of safety.
But we are concerned for our neighbors and have begun to look for ways to help. Our golf cart rental business is shut down, but we have used our carts to pick up leftover food items from tourists heading home. Our carts spent a few hours Sunday evening driving our local church leaders around town delivering 100 meals to people in the community who are already facing shortages of food.
Bloom Church from Regina sent us a donation and we used it to put together 25 bags of staples to deliver to people we know are already starting to suffer.
I know you are struggling, and your city has needs too. But if you want to share with what we are doing here, this is what $20 Canadian ($15 US) will purchase:
- Macaroni – 220 g
- Rice – 900 g
- Pinto beans – 900 g
- Black beans – 900 g
- Milk – 2 L
- Tuna – 295 g
- Chicken stock – 490 g
- Tomato Sauce – 1 L
- Apples
- Oranges
- Cucumbers
- Carrots
- 1 whole chicken
This will feed a family for a few days, maybe a week. If you send us that amount, we will purchase and deliver the bag of groceries to a family that is hungry. You will be a part of what we are trying to be down here – a refuge of hope in a place of brokenness.
So stay safe friends and family – we’re only a video chat away always! We will all get through this and just maybe, the world will emerge as a kinder place, where we truly cared for ‘the least of these’.
When you move to another country – a really different country – traditions change and that can be hard. Over these past 3 years, I have tried to hold loose those things that no longer work here and to cling to what is truly the most important. I have been willing to exchange cold air for hot breezes, crispy snow for soft sand, hash brown casserole for chilaquiles, Christmas carols for tuba banda music. This year we put up our tree and covered it with the family heirloom decorations we have been hanging since our children were babies. But everything else was different and it was fantastic!
In early Fall, our youngest daughter Brett suggested we travel somewhere different for Christmas this year. She was planning a 5-month trip through Mexico, and although she could easily fly to our home, she really wanted to show us a place she had grown to love. Her boyfriend would be there and our oldest would fly down from Canada. Oaxaca. Let’s all meet in Oaxaca this year. Every part of our Christmas tradition would be different, but we would be together and that is the tradition that means the most.
Carmelo has been dating Paolo for a year or two. When he first approached her dad to ask for his blessing to marry Paolo, Dad said “It is too soon – she is too young. Let’s wait a bit”. Carmelo respected this advice and waited until Dad gave him the green light. Immediately the engagement was on and now, just 4 months later, it is the wedding day of these two amazing young people, the boda.
On Wednesday, we went to nearby San Vicente to attend the 6th Grade graduation of Isabel and Laurentino. This time we were asked to be the Padrinas, which are similar to Godparents. In Mexico, children will have many different adults throughout their lives who will be considered supporters or mentors. At important milestones such as baptisms, graduations, even weddings – families choose madrinas and padrinas to stand alongside the children to show love and support for them. At the graduation ceremony, we each sat behind our graduate and walked with them to the front to get their diploma. I love the symbolism of that – we support from behind, we walk alongside. I admit I looked around today – the only white English speakers in attendance – and wondered what on earth we are doing here – with this very poor community, with this family, with the orphanage, with Mexico in general. Maybe this is it – we are offering love and support and encouragement from behind, walking alongside our newfound friends as they find their own way. When the ceremony was over, we told Isabel and Laurentino that if they finish High School, we will help them fund university. I am giving you fair warning – it’s a few years off but I will be asking for your help when that day comes!
Marthita and her husband Gregory are pastors at the church we attend – they are some of the first friends we made here and their children Elly and Gady are excited to welcome a new baby brother. This baby was not easy to create and he was so loved and wanted before he even was conceived. The ladies at the church planned this fun garden party and it was just a beautiful evening with delicious food and baby boy decorations and lots of gifts for little Mateo.
Last night I attended another shower – this one for sixteen-year-old Ibet who is also about to have another baby boy. I say ‘another’ because Ibet is also mom to 3-year-old Kevin. The first thing that struck me is that we played all the same games as we had played at Marthita’s shower. I guess these are traditions. Considering I was the only English speaker at this shower, it was a relief that I kind of understood what was going on as they were wrapping toilet paper all over Ibet, writing on her face with lipstick and taking away nametags whenever anyone crossed their legs. They had done all the same things to Marthita at her shower. Although I had pretty halting conversations with the other young moms and their children, we laughed a lot and I felt like I was welcome, although maybe not totally accepted. I think they weren’t quite sure who the heck I was or what I was doing there – but Ibet had invited me 4 or 5 times and I knew it was important to be there to support her and Kevin and the new little one. It is not going to be an easy road for this young family and I struggle every day to know how to best help them. For this week, a few tiny blue clothes and a stroller which will double as his crib is what my heart told me they needed. I could be wrong. I just hope they know they are loved and can accept that they are deserving of that love.
Karen Moves to Mexico 