Category Archives: Health

May 13, 2020 · 7:00 am

Mother’s Day in Mexico in the Time of Coronavirus

In Mexico, Mother’s Day is a big ta-doo. There are early morning serenades, flowers, family gatherings, and in the event that a mother has passed on, trips to the cemetery. Moroleon has specifically forbidden these activities this year.

That doesn’t mean some families didn’t carry on as usual anyway, though it was more clandestine. It’s not like there is any real way the prohibition can be enforced.

Take for example the fact that the churches have been closed in town. At least one group has moved their services out here to La Yacata. So every Saturday evening we hear some chanting, singing, and even some trumpet blowing from the house at the corner. I think it might be an Episcopalian group. We practice social distancing and reroute our dog walk during services, so I can’t be sure.

Since parties are a no-go in town, again, family gatherings, including Mother’s Day celebrations, were moved to La Yacata. The dogs didn’t get their afternoon walk on Sunday because of all the roving children and drunk adults.

Which brings me to another matter. Moroleon has enacted La Ley Seca (the dry law) which is in force usually only right before an election. All sales of alcohol were prohibited in town beginning May 8 until May 30. Yet, people still found a way to get enough alcohol to get liquored up.

There is a potential shortage of alcohol looming because the beer manufacturers were declared non-essential and closed in April. The very determined, however, will be able to get pulque which the old women still make in nearby La Barranca.

Moroleon followed the prohibition of alcohol sales and serenades with another one-two punch. All non-essential businesses must close, including the textile factories, on May 11, until the end of the month. Without the textiles, well, Moroleon is in big trouble financially.

These prohibition and closure dates are based on the premise that the peak contagion for COVID-19 will happen between May 5 and 11. Yet, now, the date has been changed with the latest figures to May 20 although social distancing requirements are supposed to be lifted on May 17 in most of the country and on May 30 for the rest of the states.

What this means is anyone’s guess. For now, the number of confirmed cases and deaths is still rising in Mexico. Medical personnel is the highest at-risk population. In fact, 42% of the patients in the state of Nayarit are hospital workers, which is worrisome. The actual death toll in the epicenter Mexico City may be much higher than reported.

And yet, there are still conspiracy theorists even in Mexico. One hospital was stormed by about 300 people in an apparent “rescue” attempt believing the virus to be a government plot to kill people. Medical personnel is still being attacked and murdered as the supposed harbingers of death rather than essential workers.

With all these shenanigans, Mother’s Day in our home was a quiet affair, no different from any other day. We’ll stay home and ride out the pandemic one day at a time, however long that takes.

2 Comments

Filed under Cultural Challenges, Health, Mexican Holidays, Safety and Security

Tagged as coronavirus, mexico covid-19, Mother's Day in Mexico, mother's days traditions in Mexico, restrictions covid-19

April 30, 2020 · 7:14 am

Prepare-athon 2020

Today, ironically enough, is National Prepareathon Day. Based on the state of the world recently, I would say that some further preparation is in order. Of course, that’s like closing the barn door after the horse gets out, or in this case COVID-19, but perhaps there’s still time to buckle down and get’er done.

The US government even has a calendar to help you focus on one disaster at a time in your prepping efforts. April’s event is National Financial Capability Month. Now there’s another irony. Unemployment around the world caused by the COVID-19 quarantine is at never been seen high.

I’m not a scientist or economist so I won’t get into the debate on what our lives will look like after COVID-19, but I’m betting that quite a number of people will be making drastic changes. Caution, self-reliance, and a revival in basic survival skills like gardening will most likely surge.

Of course, there are always those guys that are protesting the inability to get a haircut right now, because that’s a priority. Shagginess is always a precursor to civilization collapse, you know. I expect their lives won’t change much in the after-world.

Here in Mexico, the government has said that social distancing will be in effect until the end of May. States vary on enforcement and quarantine activities. Some states have closed their borders, like Michoacan. While neighboring Guanajuato is doing business as usual. Experts predict the peak contagion here from May 2 to 8, but that date seems to change regularly.

So since we’ll be hunkering down for a spell yet, I thought I’d offer A to Z Reasons Why La Yacata is the Place to Be in Any Disaster: A Prepper’s Guide to Mexico FREE for the next few days. Although the book covers serious topics like pandemics and economic collapse, it also discusses things like zombies, because what’s an end-of-the-world scenario without zombies? (Again, I am SO thankful COVID-19 isn’t a zombie producing virus).

Anyway, it’s a lighter read than my newest contribution to the prepper non-fiction genre, A Woman’s Survival Guide to Disasters in Rural Mexico: A Framework for Empowered Living Through Crisis which was written with the challenges women face in Mexico in mind.

Meanwhile, we’ll be keeping up social distancing on the ol’ Flores ranchito. Who knows? Maybe I’ll have a new book to release shortly. At the very least, I’m determined to get that 1500 piece puzzle done.

Quarantine Thoughts

Moroleon, GTO under quarantine

You’d have thought with our quest for self-reliance in La Yacata that we’d be prepared–or at least more prepared than the general population. Maybe you’re half right. We aren’t worried about the 4% increase in the CFE bill. We understand that toilet paper really does grow on trees (and which leaves to stay away from). We know how to pay for things at the ATM so our internet won’t get cut off, although I have to admit, that process was rather complicated to learn.

We also aren’t strangers to entertaining ourselves. I have my piano, my son has his guitar and classwork and we have books and movies and puzzles and even video games, along with our animal kingdom to entertain us with their silliness. My son has become quite the helicopter dad when it comes to the Puppers. I swear, at least three times a day he calls me over to the door to tell me what cute thing Fred or George has done (or was frustrating thing Terry has done).

We also have several projects in the works so that my husband isn’t lacking for activities to do either. More on those as we finish them up over the next month or so.

What I’ve noticed is that my hypervigilance when it comes to pandemic survival technique strikes when I least expect it. For instance, I was watching The Tudors the other day and sandwiched between the gratuitous sex scenes and religious debates, London was hit with a pandemic of the “sweating sickness.” Curious, I tried to do some research on it and it turns out scientists still don’t know what caused that particular, deadly malady. The disease up and vanished after running rampant from 1485 -1551.

So, watching the series, I took particular note of what survivors did. Guess what–quarantine seemed to be the name of the survival game. People left London in droves, heading to remote country estates if wealthy or suffered in crowded, unsanitary conditions and died if they weren’t.

Then I went through a period of binge-watching The Walking Dead. I have to say that as stressful as this pandemic is, I am so thankful that it hasn’t spawned zombies. Anyway, the survival techniques that previously I chuckled at, are now analyzed for ideas that I can implement in La Yacata. The communities that were created, like The Kingdom, the prison cell block, The Hilltop and that factory thing that Neegan set up, well, they all had their pros and cons. My back garden (which will be described in agonizing detail in an upcoming post) was inspired by Rick’s prison compound.

Then there is the idea of isolation that has been on my mind. A few months back, my book club read the book A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles about a Russian aristocrat sentenced to house arrest in a hotel across from the Kremlin. How he not only endured but thrived in his new life is well worth a read.

I am mourning some of the activities I had been looking forward to. My son turns 18 next month and I had been planning on getting his IFE, both his US and Mexican passports, and helping him open his first bank account. I even hoped for a trip to Tennessee in October. All of these are on hold now. I nearly despaired when I read that things might not get back to normal for two years. But then, I have to remember, that we can only live in the present. What may or may not happen in the future is still so uncertain.

So today, well, today is enough. I’ll talk to people struggling with their own issues around the world in my English classes and I’ll write an article or two for money. Then I’ll water my plants and marvel at the miracle of nature or read a book or work on a puzzle or play the piano or call my mom. I’ll make something from our small stockpile of pasta for lunch and decide how long I can put off going to town for more food. This evening I’ll watch a movie and look at it through a survivalist lens again and bug my husband about that next project. And it will be ok.