Everything Runs on "Mexican Time"

**Disclaimer...having issues with the ~ that goes over the "n". Got it on the first one. Please know that the rest of them should have them also.**

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From the world of Palm Piolts, Blackberries, overscheduling and deadlines that were due "yesterday!" to the world of Mañana.

It was a total shock to the system even after coming to visit my inlaws for 7 years. We were familiar with the saying but the things you encounter as a vacationer vs. the things in everyday life are quite different.

So what does that mean? The "World of Manana"? Manana translates to the word "tomorrow". Let me give you a few personal examples to help you understand.

My first experience was when we needed to fill the gas tank at the house. Vaughan talked to Jorge who called the gas company. He told me that I needed to be around the hosue all day. "What? You mean just the AM or the PM, right?", "No Judy. All day". "Um. Okay. I hope this is just a gas company thing".

They didn't come that day. We called and he said "oh, manana"

They didn't come the next day either. We called and he again said "oh, manan"

They finally came on the 3ed day at around 4pm.

Outside of having to go pick Connor up from school I was not doing much because we had just moved here so it was not a huge deal to hang around all day. A little repetitive but I had stuff to do around the house to keep me busy.

My next shocker came when I had to take out oldest dog, Alexa, to the vet. I called, they said to come in at 9:30 the next morning. I thought this morning appointment sounded great as nothing around here really opens until 10 or 11am. Since I was starting to get the hang of this "late to everything" unwritten rule I showed up at 9:40. The vet was not there yet. "Un ratito" said the lady behind the counter to let me know that the vet would be here "in a bit".

I sat down and played with Alexa, I looked all around the waiting room area, we went out front to see the turtle...clock check, 10:40am. "Un ratito" I was assurred.

Alexa rolled over on the floor to take a nap and I found things in my purse to keep me busy. I text messaged Vaughan...I searched through all of the features on my cell phone...I inspected every crack and dirt mark on the floor.

At 11:15 the vet walked in. Now I know to take a book with me when I go.

For house visits you don't make more than one appointment per week. For office visits you prepare to be there for a few hours. Making this even more difficult is the fact that not everyone and every office run on Mexican Time so you just never know. When you do have someone scheduled to come to your house and you call them at the end of the day to find out where they are they offer no apology just "Oh. Si, manana".

That covers appointments. How about social meetings and gatherings? Let's say you are planning to meet a few friends for dinner at 8pm (still a little early for most locals here) you can expect to see them around 9 or 9:30pm. Why? Because that is just the way it goes. I figue that they had an appointment to get there washing machine or something fixed 2 days ago and the guy finally showed up 30 minutes before they were going to leave the house to come meet us. :)

Got an invite to a birthday party? If it starts at 1pm don't show up until 2:30 or 3pm. I am serious! My first experience with a Mexican Birthday Party was for a classmate of Connor. We got the gift all wrapped up, woke up Avery early from her nap, tossed the stroller and swimming stuff in the car and went to find the place.

At first I thought we were in the wrong spot. There was noone at the palapa but I did see a few balloons and a table with a party cover on it. Did we have the time wrong? The day? The place? Oh, wait, here comes the family. Maybe everyone went into the house and now they are coming back out?

No. We were the first people to arrive and we were the only people for the next hour while the family set up. What the heck was going on?!?!

I had no snacks or food for the kids and I could tell that we here HOURS away from any being brought out. Finally they put out some chips and cheetos which my kids devoured. We had arrived at 12noon-when the invitation said the party was starting. At 4pm we HAD to go. Connor was having fun but fading from lack of food. Avery was a complete wreck because we woke her up early and she was starving. We missed the pinata, we missed the singing. We missed the cake. We essentially missed the party....because we arrived on time.

Lesson Learned!

So, after 2 years of living here we finally get it.

Manana...tomorrow.

We have not totally adjusted yet but we get it. Maybe we will adjust....

....manana

.....maybe manana.

Swine Flu in Playa del Carmen

I had great plans of coming back and posting about our second week of Spring Break here but...it didn't happen. The short version is that the kids had enough of Camp Counselor Judy and decided that screaming at each other while taking a swing was more fun. We did go to the beach and the pool as much as possible to avoid cabin fever. Avery enjoyed trying on Connor's goggles and we both had fun turning Connor into a sandcastle on the beach.




I did get to meet my second cousin for the first time. She and her family were here on vacation with another family so we had them to Ajua for dinner. We had a great time watching all of our kids play and talk together. Too funny that we all had to be in Mexico to finally meet!



After Semana Santa (Spring Break) Connor went back to school the following Monday and Avery went back on Wednesday. I enjoyed spending time with them but I was looking forward to making phone calls without having to stop and ask the kids to quit bothering each other. And a visit to Wal-Mart minus the kids always goes faster when you don't have to leave your cart to take everyone to the bathroom and then go back through the store to put away the things that the kids have grabbed that you didn't realize were in the cart.

I had lots of meetings and planning to finish up as I am the lead planner for a Medical Mission coming May 4-8 and a 5k race on May 10. So the kids went back and I was focused on getting things done. Then we get a murmur of some flu thing that might be a problem in Mexico City. Okay, noted....flu in Mexico City. Big deal. People everywhere get the flu every year.

Planning continues. Race bibs being printed. Meet with the director of Angel Notion (http://www.angelnotion.org/) who is letting the doctors of the Medical Mission use the clinic and partner with her doctors. Meet with the Race Committee to finalize donations and sponsors. What? This flu is called the Swine Flu and they are worried b/c they know nothing about it and people are wearing masks in Mexico City? Businesses are closing? Man! What is this flu thing?

Planning continues. Registration forms and posters for the race are being printed. Visit the shirt printer to see if he can do our shirts. Double check with the hotel, Luna Blue (http://www.lunabluehotel.com/), and the various restaurants that have offered food and lodging for the doctors for free. Purchase this & that for the race registration process.

SCHREEEEEEEEEEEEECH!
That was the sound of Mexico....ALL of Mexico...coming to an amazingly fast halt. Swine Flu.

I am sure that most of you heard on the news about all of the closings in Mexico City. Well, here in Playa del Carmen where we had no reported cases they were playing the "better safe than sorry" card. Here are a list of some of the restrictions and rules that came out in about a 12 hour period.
1. All kitchen staff, everywhere, must wear masks & gloves. Waiters must have hand sanitizer to wipe on their hands every 15 minutes.
2. Schools are closed until May 6, at least.
3. Extracurricular classes that involve sweating and close contact; Tae Kwon Do, aerobics and the like, are cancelled.
4. Three hours after the first mask call they came and said that ALL restaurant staff had to wear masks. No masks were available for purchase here in Playa. They were all bought out so we were scrambling trying to make some so that we could open the restaurant.


5. Any gatherings of more than 80 people were forbidden. For a while we thought we might have to close Ajua anyway b/c we could seat 80 or more people.
6. Cruise lines stopping calling on ports anywhere in Mexico.
7. Flights from Canada were cancelled. People flying on particular airlines were told they had 2 days to catch a flight back to Canada and then they were on their own to find a way out of Mexico.
8. Other countries cancelled flights into and out of Mexico.
9. We wandered around bewildered at the restrictions!

Some things we feel were quick reactions that were not thought through. Like no more than 80 people can be together....you know, like at a 5k race that is outside...but 300 people can still go to Wal-Mart to shop and stand in line together. No one said it would all make sense but it is fun to pick apart what didn't mesh.

So, we are currently all taking a forced "Staycation". The Doctors couldn't come, the 5k Mother's Day Race was cancelled, wedding receptions and services had been cancelled, schools are still closed, there are a few masks around town and there are almost no tourists.

This morning I took the dogs out to do their morning thing. The street in front of our place is normally buzzing with mopeds and taxi cars taking workers to the hotels. Tour vans and buses are normally cruising in to pick up tourists to take them to various jungle adventures, the ruins, or other close cities. The sidewalks are normally busy with workers riding their bikes in and tourists out for a morning jog or heading in to town to do some shopping and lounge on the beach in the middle of town. Normally. Today, one taxi passed headed into the hotel zone and no one was on the sidewalks. No one. Wow!
Normally.
I hope we get back to "normally" soon.
Tomorrow will be the big test on 5th Ave to see how many/if any new tourists arrive.

At a birthday party on Friday some of the mothers and I were joking about how much we used to love the college diet of Raman Noodles, Mac-N-Cheese and beer and we hoped we still liked it since we will all probably be living on the shoe strings again for awhile. We are finding the silver lining where we can and enjoying each other's company. We can't go visit any places really b/c everything is closed so the beach and the pool are great to have. None of us is sick. We are fortunate that unlike many of the locals here, we don't depend only on the money made each day to feed our family. We have hope that things will get back to normal soon.

As the flu spreads we hope that all of our family & friends around the world stay healthy.