November 9, 2018 · 7:00 am

A Woman’s Survival Guide to Holidays

Remember how I said that I was writing a survival guide for women moving to Mexico? Well, the project has become enormous. So I’ve decided to publish the sections as separate books so that the sheer volume of information doesn’t become overwhelming.

Today I’d like to announce that the first section of the survival guide is now available at Amazon.  A Woman’s Survival Guide to Holidays in Mexico answers how, when, and why these festivities are observed not from abstract research, but personal experience. Because moving to a new country can be daunting, learning about the patriotic, religious and civil festival days will help you understand some of what makes up the Mexican culture and allow you to become more fully immersed in the amazingly diverse world of Mexico. Viva! holidays

This informative book is available for your reading pleasure on Kindle, as a full colored paperback (which is a bit pricey) and as a black and white paperback.

And in celebration of its release, the Kindle version is FREE for the next few days!

As for my other books……

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The paperback version of  Wascally Wabbits and Zombie Babies: Animal Antics South of the Border has also just been released.  The Kindle version of this book has been updated with a few new adventures.

La Yacata Revolution: How NOT to Buy a Piece of Heaven in Mexico and A to Z Reasons Why La Yacata is the Place to Be in Any Disaster: A Prepper’s Guide to Mexico have had updates recently as well.

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So, that ought to keep you busy while I keep working on another installment of the Woman’s Survival Guide series.  Happy reading!

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November 7, 2018 · 6:54 am

A to Z Blogs About Mexico — Karen Moves to Mexico

Karen Swanson writes at Karen Moves to Mexico, a blog I’ve been following for quite some time now. Her stories about the children at the shelter she and her husband volunteer at are inspiring!

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Like many expats, our dream of living here in Mexico started soon after we started vacationing here.   In addition to the regular tourist activities, we found ourselves repeatedly visiting a Children’s shelter in Bucerias, Nayarit and our growing love of the children drew us here permanently. Now we are daily volunteers at this orphanage, teaching English classes, fostering children and giving lots of hugs.

Well, I called my blog Karen Moves to Mexico because I really wanted to share the whole moving process with those closest to me.  I guess I didn’t foresee that I would keep writing long after the move was over.

This blog focuses on the daily life of my husband and me in Bucerias, Nayarit which is just north of Puerto Vallarta.  It covers our personal experiences, stories from our community and many stories are about the children we care for at Manos de Amor, Casa Hogar.

I started blogging to keep my family and friends from panicking about this crazy move.  I wanted them to know what was happening with us and to be okay with it. But I began to realize that writing was helping me process my own feelings about it all.  As we got more involved in the orphanage and started working with many families in surrounding villages, I began to realize that my heart was full of both pain and joy.  So much poverty, so many problems in the lives of these little ones. But also, so much joy as we connected deeper with each child. This blog became more of my personal journal than a how-to guide on moving to Mexico.  And people began to respond to the stories – offering encouragement and support that was good for me and for my husband.

This was hard – I have so many blog posts about the children we work with and my heart is touched every time I reread one of those posts.  But the post entitled “What I’ve Learned…So Far” is a good overview of my feelings here. That was written last year on the anniversary of our move.  This year’s anniversary post was just written last week “Are We Happy?” and it also is a reflection of my current heart thoughts.

The most difficult has been blogging about some of the crappy things I have seen in the homes of the children we work with.  I want to tell the stories of these moms and dads without judgment – I think mostly they are doing the best they can – but sometimes that is difficult.  I get mad and I get frustrated and that is hard to write about.

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Our best experience has absolutely been working with the children of Manos de Amor.  To give up our fast-paced work lives to invest in the lives of broken children has been heartbreaking but so satisfying.  Having children live in our home on weekends, a little one with an STD live with us for 5 weeks – it has been one of the most difficult things we’ve ever done but so very meaningful.  A lot of my blog talks about what we’ve learned and how we’ve changed because of that so you must read the blog to learn the lessons!

Just a few months ago we were on our way to Canada pulling a long trailer when a motorcycle driver hit us in Guadalajara.  As happens here after an accident, the insurance agents tried to negotiate a deal but when the injured motorcycle driver refused to accept any deal (he was fully at fault in the accident but wanted to get some $$$ from it) we were told that our vehicle was being impounded and my husband would have to go to jail for 48 hours until court convened.  That was a pretty scary day. After 8 hours, we were let go but the idea of Mexican jail made that our worst day here. Thank goodness we had great friends who were helping us negotiate with the police. That is our biggest takeaway from that day (besides don’t pull a trailer through Guadalajara!) – it’s okay to lean on friends. We’re used to being pretty independent but it’s good to have people in your corner.  Also, we really need to improve our Spanish!

I would tell someone planning on moving to Mexico to give up all your expectations of how things ‘should’ be and go with the flow.  You will be so frustrated if you don’t accept waiting in lines, bureaucratic nonsense and things never start on time. So what? That’s part of the charm and if you accept the fluidity of it all, you will be okay.

I think there will be a time when I will share more of the details of what to do and how to do it here.  Things we’ve figured out the hard way. For now, I’m happy sharing from my heart about what it is actually like to live here.  I hope others are inspired by my stories. not just to move to a new country, but to step out wherever they live and take risks.  Try scary things. Find deeper meaning in their lives. Make a difference in the lives of others. Keep stretching and growing.

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I can be found at:

Karen Moves to Mexico

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November 6, 2018 · 2:36 pm

The Honduran Migrant Caravan in Mexico

Families, women, and children, young girls, teenage boys….these are the desperate and hungry people who make up this caravan of refugees crossing Mexico with the hope of finding safety in the United States.

It’s not an invasion, no matter what the hysterical president might say. And it’s entirely legal. Under both U.S. and international law, those fleeing violence from Central American countries are allowed to apply for asylum in both Mexico and in the U.S.

For safety, these families have banded together to search out a secure place for their children to go to school, play, grow up. This human caravan is reported to have begun in San Pedro Sula, Honduras, known as the murder capital of the world. The group grew to more than 1,600 Hondurans by the time they reached the Guatemalan border. Although Guatemala first attempted to deny the refugees entrance, the government later relented. By the time this caravan reached the Mexican border, it was a group of over 4,000.

On October 19, these desperate men, women, and children were attacked with pepper spray by Mexican forces at the border. Nine children, 18 women, two of them pregnant and six men were injured during the attack. Although Mexico has since allowed the caravan to enter, even issuing 45-day visas with the idea that they should be able to reach the US border within that time frame, the government is not making any official efforts to assist the group. In fact, an arrangement that would have allowed the group to take buses to Mexico City was denied, with many saying it was government pressure that caused the plan to fall through. Although the first caravan has finally arrived in Mexico City despite it all. 

The residents of small towns in Mexico along the route have been generous with their support. Volunteers have been providing food, clothing, and medicine to the refugees. The Mexican President has also made some concessions. As long as these migrants remain in Chiapas and Oaxaca, two of the nation’s poorest states and far, far from the U.S. border, they will be given temporary ID cards, work permits, medical care, schooling, and housing in hostels under the Estás en Tu Casa proposal.

Of course, this proposal doesn’t take into account that some areas of Mexico are just as dangerous as the countries these refugees are fleeing. Or address the fact that the U.S. has commissioned Mexico to keep these migrants from its borders. It is estimated that 950,000 Central Americans have been deported from Mexico in the past few years and there is reason to believe that thousands more have disappeared. The enormous number of mass graves found in Mexico give credence to that. Even with these reasons against staying in Mexico, many have applied for permission to remain. Others, however, are determined to reach the U.S.

There are an estimated 2,300 children in this huddled mass of homeless humanity. Some are ill, all are hungry and tired, yet the caravan moves on step-by-step. These parents must know that the chances of their families being allowed to stay together is remote. Perhaps, their thought is that even if their children are taken from them, maybe adopted or placed in child detention centers, as awful as that may be, there is a chance that their children will survive, something these parents did not believe would happen in their native countries.

So instead of all this mass hysteria, why not take a moment to walk a mile in the shoes of these anxious parents and exhausted children and consider the lengths you would go for your family?

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