Influenza...

We found out about the stupid Swine Flu on Sunday morning, when we went out to the lobby to meet up with the group before going on another excursion. Our professor was hurriedly emailing people on her computer, apparently talking to the embassy, Linfield, and the Instituto. Not really knowing what was going on, Abby and I asked Charlotte what was happening, and she filled us in: Swine Flu. Alot of cases in Mexico City. Has killed people. Wonderful. But for the most part, we weren't really worried until we got back from our excursion that day and checked the news online. It started to sound worse and worse, with Obama declaring a state of emergency and raising the threat level to a 4, and then later to a 5. And although it's a curable influenza and at least 20,000 people die every year from the normal flu in the US, my biggest fear was getting sick in Mexico, because I have absolutely no faith in the Mexican health system. There were stories of ambulance drivers turning people away because the flu is contagious and they didn't want to get it... there's a joke at least in Oaxaca about the hospitals... If you go in, you won't come out. Hospitals are the last resort for many people, because disease circulates so much more in them. And I'm sure that the reason Mexico City has been hit so hard ("hard" could be debatable... it IS the 3rd largest city in the world, so the 506 cases, and only 19 deaths, that are there now really don't put a dent at ALL in their population) is because it's MEXICO CITY. It's one of the most polluted cities I've ever seen and the amount of people living in poverty is overwhelming; it's likely that most of the people who are sick just didn't get good health care.

But anyways, the point is that when we first found out about all these details on Sunday night, some of us were pretty worried about it. Our parents had been watching the news also, and of course they freaked out and called our school and demanded that we come home early, before we could get sick. We had to wear masks the next day, and the amout of people wearing them had doubled. So because we were stressed about this whole event, Kieren, Marina and I decided to go get comfort food for dinner, aka pasta drenched in cheese and olive oil, which was sooo good! Then the check came. And we had an argument about getting our change...

“Puede darme cambio?” Kieren asked the waiter. She wanted change.
“Si, cambio por favor?” I said, chiming in. I would also like to break my 200 peso bill.
“Si, claro.” He said, patiently waiting.
“Bueno,” Kieren said, “Un ciento, una cincuenta, dos veintes-“
“What??” I said, switching to English. The waiter looked at us, confused with the sudden switch of languages. “Kieren, you do NOT need 2 twenties and a 10 peso thing.”
“Yes I do. I want them.” She looked at the waiter and tried again, “Quisiera dos veintes-“
“KIEREN! You do not need that. Just get one one-hundred and 2 fifties.” I said.
“WHY.” She said, looking at me. The waiter was watching us as if we were playing a tennis game.
“Because that’s too much work! Just get the 2 fifties.”
“No I want my twenties! I need smaller change!”
“FINE.” I said. So the waiter went off and took our 200 pesos for change. Poor guy. I think it's hilarious to hear people arguing in another language, extremely quickly and with lots of hand motions and stuff, and then calmly turn to you and speak your language, then go off into an argument again in their language. It made me laugh thinking about how we probably looked to him.

When we arrived at the hotel, someone yelled at us from the balcony upstairs to come up. So with a sudden feeling of slight dread, we walked up the stairs, and the first thing we saw was Charlotte and Olivia with tears running down their face. I instantly felt like someone punched me in my stomach- the first thing I thought was Oh god Alli actually has the flu... She had been sick with what we believed was food poisioning for the entire day. But Ramsay told us, as the rest of the group looked on somberly, “We’re going home. The IPO has recalled us and they want us to come home in a week.”
I looked at her, stunned. I didn't think we'd actually get sent home. Yeah, I've been missing home and yeah it would be nice to see my family and Tyler again, but I never thought we'd actually go home early. I was still shocked when I told my family over Skype, who started freaking out with excitement. I could only sit there and stare at my computer screen. One week left in Mexico. I thought we had 3. I had prepared myself for 3. And now, BAM! It's one. It was crazy, because I didn't feel sad or excited... just shocked... for several hours.

In spite of this Swine Flu threat, we continued on our journey in Chiapas to Palenque. Palenque is WAY different than San Cristobal... it's actually IN the jungle. It's extremely hot and humid and the trees are definitely jungle trees... when we went on our excursion, I continually said, "Look! Real jungle vines! I gotta take a picture, we're in a REAL JUNGLE!! Because there are VINES! And REAL monkeys!" We went on a boat ride on the river that separates Guatemala and Mexico. I was basically in Guatemala at one point, because I was touching the water that was on Guatemalas side of the river! We rode on the boat up the river until we got to this archeological site, where we saw Mayan ruins and climbed more pyramids, of course! Then we went to more ruins, rode around in the van all day, and finally made it back to our hotel. The next day we WERE going to go to Palenque, some AMAZING mayan ruins that would have been wonderful to see, but it was closed because of the flu. DANGIT. My professor was so upset about it, because she's been wanting to see it for so long, and we were so close, but we couldn't go. We all felt pretty let down about it. But we had a 16 hour bus ride to look forward to later that day... we left Palenque at 5:30 pm and didn't get back to Oaxaca until 9:30 the next morning.

I feel better being back in Oaxaca. I spent the entire day yesterday with my host family and their friends. The kids played with me all day; we chased butterflies with nets for awhile, and then Santiago took my hand and led me around the yard and the garden for HOURS. One time when I tried to sit down with the adults and talk with them, Santiago got really upset and mad at me, and all he did was pout on his dads shoulder. I felt so bad that I got up and was like, "Do you want to fly again with me?" Earlier we had been swinging and he kept saying, "I'm flying! I'm flying!" And then his face lit up and we went and played more. My host dad later was talking to Santiago and asked him, "Is Ashley your girlfriend or mine?" and Santiago said, "Mine!" So all the adults there had the joke going that I was his little girlfriend... My host dad kept calling me "Nieta," which means "granddaughter". Oh ha ha people. But really, kids are the same everywhere. The girls all acted like movie stars and giggled together and liked to be dramatic, and Santiago just stumbled around like all 3-year-olds do, interested in everything. Poor Constanza started bawling when I had to leave, because she must have known that I'm going back to the United States soon, and she was devastated that she wouldn't see me again. "Te quiero, te quiero! No quiero que salgas!" Roughly translated to, "I love you, I love you! I don't want you to leave!" And all I could do was hug her and stroke her hair and kiss the top of her head, because what else could I do?? I did say that I'd see her again, but I dont know if that's true. It was the saddest goodbye I've had to say yet here in Mexico. I get pretty attached to kids, but who WOULDN'T just fall in love with Constanza?

So... now I have 4 more days left in Mexico, and I want to go out to the bars one last time but I dont want to get sick and have the people at the airport keep me from getting on the plane to go home. I feel like there is so much more I wanted to do before leaving, but now I can't, because all the things I want to do include crowds, like going to Hierve el Agua (the hot springs), watching a movie in theaters, going to the market again (which I will most likely do anyways because I LOVE the market), going to the bars and dancing... Stupid swine flu ruined everything. I'm getting a bit more excited to come home just so that I can see everyone again, but I'm going to try to enjoy these last few days in Mexico as much as I can!