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.
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