My good friend Colleen, fellow Fulbrighter and a talented writer to boot, was published in the New York Time this past Sunday. The topic? While Mexico City has returned to post-swine flu normalcy, a month ago was a far different story…
Congrats, Colleen!
Zach and I stumbled across this little scene the other day, and luckily he happened to have his camera with him.
Fun with Swine H1N1 Flu
Filed under: Photo, Update | Tags: Acapulco, animals, DF, flowers, food, Guanajuato, swine flu, transportation, Veracruz
Somehow the year has gone flying by, and I find myself with only a few weeks left before I head back to my other home, Chicago. While I haven’t quite left yet, the nostalgia is already kicking in, big-time…
Partial list of things I’m going to miss about living in Mexico City:
1) My Mexican family (if they don’t kidnap me to make me stay, as they often threaten)
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4) The weather. As much as bad weather doesn’t bother me, I’m going to miss knowing that every day the weather will be perfect.
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7) My neighborhood taco stand, and the sweet, sweet tacos campechanos it serves up.
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15) Neighborhood fruit stands (and other markets of all types). The Chicago farmers markets are great, but once or twice a week in summer doesn’t quite match every day all year, and low low prices. Plus, there’s no mangos or dominicos in Chicago.
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22) Guanajuato, Acapulco, Jalapa, and countless other cool cities to visit within a 5 hour bus ride.
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37) Bugambilia, Jacarandas, and all the other flowers that are everywhere in the DF year-round.
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44) The Metrobus. Having to wait more than 30 seconds for a bus to come is going to be a rough reminder of US public transportation.
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102) Boing de Guayaba, the startlingly addictive bright pink guava drink available at taco stands and convenience stores everywhere.
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1,345—1,347) (Tie) Toss up between mosquito bites, air pollution, and lack of Ethiopian food as what I will miss least
Fun Mexican Word: Tapaboca – Literally “cover mouth”, the tapabocas craze kicked off several weeks ago when swine flu hit the news. While their use has dropped since the end of April—perhaps because people calmed down about the “pandemic”, perhaps because pharmacies and hospitals ran out of them—they still are a fairly common site on the street in Mexico City.
Picture: La Granada waterfall. I’ve already posted several pictures of this, but as it was one of the coolest things I’ve done in Mexico up to this point (or maybe just the coolest thing I’ve done recently, but whatever) I think it’s earned the right to show up multiple times on the blog.
La Granada
Something I miss (aside from all of you, of course): Oak Street Beach. I expect to be playing Frisbee there the evening after I return. June 2, you know who you are.
Something I like about DF: The lizards that I see every day scampering away as I walk by their sunning spots. (If you’re interested, that’s #256 on the list from above)
Saludos,
See you Chicagoans soon,
k
A long walk in Mexico City today (Del Valle to the Basilica) revealed a city still largely quiet and shut down from the swine flu outbreak, but far less affected by the accompanying irrational panic outbreak. Restaurants, while not serving seated customers, were open for carry-out. Stores and shops, while largely empty, were open. Street markets were set up for business, pilgrims were headed to the basilica, and the tapabocas, Mexico City’s new favorite fashion accessory, seems to have fallen largely out of style. While still a far cry from the bustle and chaos of a normal Mexico City day, there are very clear signs of returning normality and sanity. After my 4+ hour walk, my major health concern is no longer swine flu, but my sore feet.
…of all this swine flu stuff. Hopefully not sick with all this swine flu stuff.
Anyway, two more funny links on swine flu and then I officially stop paying attention to it, at least for a day or so.
First US death:
“‘This is obviously a serious situation, serious enough to take the utmost precautions,’ Mr. Obama said” – NYT
Flu reaches Chicago?
“A probable case of swine flu has prompted the closing of a North Side elementary school for at least two days” – Chicago Tribune
First identified case, a 5 year old in Veracruz, but still no closer to finding the source:
“I was very bad” – Edgar Hernandez, NYT
“We have more questions than answers,” – Dr Miguel Angel Lozana, Chicago Tribune
Knee Jerk Reaction of the Day:
“Egypt, for its part, began a mass slaughter of all 300,000 pigs in the country in an effort to fight swine flu – although no cases have been reported in the country.” – BBC
Best summary of atmosphere in Mexico City in a single quote:
“‘The customers are scared stupid – they don’t want to go out,’ said hairdresser Esther Gonzalez” – BBC
Once this is over, can I get a t-shirt that says “I survived Swine Flu! DF 2009″?
I enjoyed getting Northwestern’s public health program email about swine flu today. Funny to read about ‘taking precautions’ where you are actually in the center of the outbreak rather than hundreds of miles from the nearest identified case.
Comedy Central’s take on Swine Flu
Got quoted (along with Mari) in the suburban Daily Herald today. They decided saying that I live in Chicago wasn’t acceptable (it’s the suburban paper…) so they stretched and pretended Rockford was suburban Chicago.
Having a “survivor’s meeting” tonight, i.e. planning to have a beer on the roof with some friends. DF buddies, feel free to join.
Source of the Swine Flu identified!
Bad news: It’s spread too much to be contained! CDC is recommending against unnecessary travel. Nobody is really that sure what is really going on with the number of cases in Mexico.
Good news: It’s way less dangerous than bird flu. WHO is still cool with Mexico travel. You can still eat bacon.
Economic crisis, drug wars, swine flu, earthquake… it’s been a rough time for Mexico City as of late. Apparently us Fulbrighters haven’t been the only ones making apocalyptic references (though perhaps the only ones doing it jokingly):
“I’m scared,” Sarai Luna Pajas, a 22-year-old Mexico City resident, told the Associated Press news agency.
“We Mexicans are not used to living with so much fear, but all that is happening – the economic crisis, the illnesses and now this – it feels like the Apocalypse.” - BBC
On a more positive note, however, here’s a little more Vincente Fernandez with a popular cantina song called “Estos Celos” (roughly “This Jealousy”). (EDIT – The actual video was disabled, so here’s the same song with some random weird performance, which only makes it better)
Now that Mexico City is in full end-of-the-world lockdown mode thanks to the swine flu, various rumors are starting to swirl through the population. While I can’t claim to have heard the majority, I’ve definitely heard several, ranging from “believable” to “possibly started by a highly delusional psychiatric patient”.
A sampling:
1) “Mexico knew about the swine flu far earlier than official word came out, but chose to delay making it public because Obama was visiting.” - 9/10 on the believability scale, i.e. likely. It’s certain that Mexico government officials knew something about the flu prior to late last week; they’d been tracking an uptick in cases since late March. The real question is did Obama’s visit affect their decision to take public action? Quite plausible. Swine flu is, after all, nearly as contagious as Hope.
2) “The narcos are behind this because it keeps the soldiers busy (handing out masks etc)” – 3/10, i.e. quite a stretch. While I’m sure the narcos aren’t complaining that the Mexican Army’s #1 priority is guarding the Metro against coughing people, I really doubt that a bunch of hick drug-runners found a way to release a potentially deadly virus on the city for their own benefit.
(unrelated, there was an earthquake just now…)
3) “More doctors have died at IMSS (social security health system) and others have now refused to go to work.” – 6/10, i.e. outside possibility it’s true. While their may be cases among doctors, they are the first in line to receive medicines and are closely monitored due to their contact with patients, making them far less likely to die. What’s more, the disease has only been confirmed as killing 20 or so people so far (though another 50-60 are suspected) out of 1,400 cases, so despite the panic, it’s not particularly deadly. Finally, while there might be a small number of health care workers who are avoiding the hospital out of fear, I’d like to keep a little higher opinion of our profession and say most experienced doctors aren’t going to run away from their job because of the flu. (EDIT: looks like I spoke too soon, they are now saying 149 people have died of suspected swine flu, all between 20-50 years old)
4) “The US army released the flu in preparation for a coup d’etat and martial rule, with concentration camps being prepared for the infected.” 0/10, i.e. bat-shit insane. No further comments necessary
