Covid Explained: Simple Guide to Make Travel Decisions — Part 2
Ted Fahy and Priscilla Taylor are traveling with us to Chiapas in February 2022. We’ve been having back and forth conversations about traveling as safely as possible during COVID. Ted is a retired pediatric physician and Priscilla is a retired pediatric nurse practitioner. I invited them to write an occasional commentary about COVID, concentrating on […]
Three Steps Closer to Oaxaca
I now have a signed contract for the sale of my Durham, NC, condo after two months on the market. Patience is a test in so many ways. We have struggled, endured, survived this last year when many haven’t. I remind myself daily that this is a blessing and carry on. Now I can begin […]
Oaxaca’s EnVia Foundation Gives Out Masks
We know it takes a village to make a difference. And Oaxaqueños and gueros know how to do this. Last month I asked Jacki Cooper Gordon, who volunteers with EnVia Foundation (and is also president of The Oaxaca Lending Library), if she would receive a box of 100 face masks to distribute to them. Of […]
Words of Gratitude for Masks: Oaxaca Mask Project
Cristy Molina Martinez is my eyes, ears, hands and feet on the ground in Oaxaca. She is a teacher who lives in Teotitlan del Valle. She has been working to make and distribute masks throughout the Tlacolula Valley for the past two months. She writes me almost daily with updates. We are making and distributing […]
Donors Help Send Medical Supplies to Oaxaca Health Clinic
We branched out from masking making and distribution last week by raising funds from four donors to buy a Welch-Allyn vital signs monitor for the Teotitlan del Valle, Oaxaca, health clinic. Village volunteer officials contacted me with this special need. I reached out to readers and received immediate response from Kate Rayner, Toronto, Canada; Claudia […]
Oaxaca Face Masks for the Good
In the despair that has gripped the United States of America in the last week that peels away once more deep-seated and unresolved racial disparities and undue police force that plague us, I have found succor in focusing on The Oaxaca Mask Project. These times demand us to be proactive to make change for the […]
Generosity Knows No Boundaries: Oaxaca Mask Project II
We put out the call on Monday, May 25, that we were starting Phase II of the Oaxaca Mask Project. On Tuesday, May 26, an article in Mexico News Daily featuring the project appeared, written by journalist Janet Blaser. Oaxaca blogger Shannon Pixley Sheppard, View From Casita Colibri, reposted our Monday cry for help. You […]
Phase II, Oaxaca Mask Project, Starts Today
COVID-19 cases are rising in Oaxaca and the villages. This week’s news reports closures at Abastos Market (Central de Abastos), the huge central food distribution center in Oaxaca city due to high rates of disease. People are testing positive in villages in the Tlacolula Valley. Concern is rising. Demand for face masks is stronger. We […]
The Oaxaca Mask Project Report #7: Donate by May 15
Tomorrow, May 15, 2020, we are accepting last donations for the time being to make and distribute masks to Oaxaca and the villages. I’m taking a break until we see if there is more demand. Thanks to all who responded earlier this week to The Last Push post! Many of you made second and third […]
The Oaxaca Mask Project Progress Report #4: Getting Masks to Villages
Thanks to the 58 donors of The Oaxaca Mask Project, we are making and distributing masks beyond Oaxaca city, getting them into villages. Seamstresses we are working with have made or are in process of making 1550 masks. We have received $3,636 to date and all of these funds will be spent by Thursday this […]
The Oaxaca Mask Project: Sew and Give to Keep Oaxaca Safe
Dear Friends: If you sew masks in the USA, I am expanding The Mask Project to ask you to mail me masks as a donation to keep Oaxaca safe. Our intention is to give out a FREE mask to all who will wear one in the city and surrounding villages — market and street vendors, […]
In Oaxaca, Masks Now Mandatory and Need for Food
Yesterday, Oaxaca government announced that the use of face covers is mandatory throughout the city, that all public squares, where the greatest number of infections occur, will be sanitized, and that police will enforce social distancing to prevent concentrations of crowds. They continue to encourage isolation. This is good news for Oaxaca. More face masks […]
In Oaxaca, Stories of Hope: Face Masks, Food and Dogs
How to feed impoverished people has always been a challenge in Mexico. Now, with the ravages of coronavirus destroying fragile infrastructure, street corner businesses, and tourism that feeds Oaxaca’s economy, needs are even more acute. Here are a few stories about people rising to the occasion to help. Face Masks and Distribution Getting masks is […]
COVID-19 Report–Shutting Access to Mexican Cities and Towns
Shutting down Mexican cities and towns. Good idea? Can it be done? I hope you had a safe and uneventful Easter Sunday. Jacob and I took a Sunday morning drive out to the Port of Los Angeles, San Pedro, for a change of scene — protected and secure. It reminded me of Marlon Brando’s 1954 […]
COVID-19 Report from Puerto Peñasco: Gretchen Ellinger
Puerto Peñasco is a Mexican beach town on the Sea of Cortez, across the Arizona border on the Baja Peninsula. It is very close to Tucson and Phoenix. Many US citizens from the southwest have vacation homes here and some, like Gretchen Ellinger, are permanent residents. Washington Post: In Mexico, beach towns block access during […]
Report From the Front: Oaxaca’s War on COVID-19
There’s a war out there. The enemy is invisible. The outcomes can be devastating, especially for those with underlying health issues. Diabetes is the number one killer in Mexico. In Oaxaca, among the poorest states in the country, diabetes behavioral research (2016) points to how people with the disease will turn to traditional folk medicine […]
Oaxaca Speaks: COVID-19 Report #3 — Elsa Sanchez Diaz
Elsa is a family member. She is my goddaughter, married to my godson Eric. I’ve known her for 14 years. She is pure Oaxaqueña, born and raised in the La Noria section of the city. In addition to hearing from people who look like me, aka foreigners, I think it’s important to take the pulse […]
Flattening the Curve. Comic Relief. Mexico Next?
Coming to California from Mexico was going to be a family reunion. All that changed in a flash. I arrived at my son’s in Huntington Beach after diligently sanitizing every airplane surface I could touch. My hands are raw from washing and sanitizer. Small sacrifices. Every sniffle and cough is alarming. I’m hoping it’s allergies. […]
Sudden Event: Street Dog Births Two Pups Behind Casita
This was NOT in the plan. I was going to leave Oaxaca on July 20 unfettered. Wind things up. Pack the bags. Go. Now, there is a Mamacita Perra (female dog) and her two pups camping out in the campo behind the casita where I live in Teotitlan del Valle. I discovered them a week […]
UK Medical Student Talks About Health Care in Teotitlan del Valle, Oaxaca
Edd Morris grew up in the United Kingdom (UK) on the Wales-England border. He just finished medical school in London, England, and decided to return to a Spanish-speaking country to volunteer in a community service project before going on to a two-year hospital residency back home. He has a passion for people and community health. […]
Oaxaca Clinic Receives Medical Equipment Gift
This week Federico Chavez Sosa and I made a visit to the Teotitlan del Valle, Oaxaca Centro de Salud (public health clinic) to present a gift of five stethoscopes to the clinic doctors. The gift is from Dr. Deborah Morris, MD, PA-C, academic coordinator and the Methodist University Physicians Assistant Program in Fayetteville, NC. The […]
Multicultural Learning Experience for U.S. Nursing Student in Oaxaca
“I loved it!” Kathy Ray, a bachelor of science in nursing (BSN) student at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, spent two weeks volunteering in the rural public health clinic in Teotitlan del Valle, Oaxaca. The learning experience was invaluable. She developed what will be, she is certain, lifelong professional relationships with local […]