A Relaxing Weekend At Home

Sorry I haven't been blogging much. This past week was full of drama and stress! Nothing to do with COVID-19, thank goodness. It had to do with my pets!

First crazy thing that happened was last Friday, my cat Queso fall off my neighbour's roof into their yard. When I first picked him up, it appeared his back was broken. His back legs weren't working at all and he was in a lot of pain. But by the time we got to see a vet (that's a whole other story), he was fine. It was so weird! He came out of the cat carrier at the vet's and ran to hide under a table. I was shocked! The vet examined him and said that maybe he had dislocated his hip but it had popped back in. She gave him so pain killers and sent us home. We scheduled a follow-up appointment for Monday morning.

Queso relaxing at home after his ordeal. He is a big boy. He weighs 12.4 pounds!

 Which leads to the second bit of drama. On Monday as I was taking Queso to the vet, three of my dogs escaped! Gus, Honey-Bear, and Moo-Moo got out of the gate and raced off down the road. I knew that I couldn't catch them because they always think it's such a fun game to have me come after them, so I just got in a tuc-tuc and took Queso to the vet.

When I got back from the vet's office, Gus and Honey-Bear were waiting at the gate to be let back inside. But Moo-Moo was not with them!! I figured maybe she got distracted by something or someone and she would come home soon. But she never did!

For the next FOUR days, Bert and I searched the town over and over. Bert biked up and down all the streets, up to the bridge and down to the Lake. I walked until my thighs chafed, calling out and whistling while people stared at the crazy gringa. I posted Moo-Moo's picture in all the Facebook groups for Panajachel and tagged all my friends to share. But no one had seen my Moo. 😟

I was a freaking MESS. I cried all day every day. I was so mad at myself for not catching her when she first escaped. But at the time, I was more worried about Queso and his weird disappearing paralysis, so I just figured the dogs would come back and it would all be fine.

By Thursday night, I was losing hope. A friend suggested that I make paper posters and offer a reward. Another friend graciously allowed me to use her phone number so she could answer the calls in Spanish. I prepared the posters but it was after curfew so I was waiting until the next day to find a shop to print them out. I shared the virtual poster on all the Facebook groups again.

Friday morning my friend called me. Someone had seen the poster online and said that there was a white & black dog hiding in their workshop. It had been there for days but it was too scared to come out. I got directions and rushed out with my leash in my hand.

I arrived at the shop, a metalworking place I was familiar with, and the guy led me to the back. Under a weird piece of machinery, a dirty Moo-Moo peeked out with fearful eyes. OMG it's her!! She was so terrified, she was shaking, but when she realized it was me and we were going home, she started jumping all over with her happy smile. The guy laughed and took our picture. I gave him a reward of Q300 -- basically all that I had in my purse -- because I was so happy!! (Q300 is about $55 Canadian or $40 American. WORTH IT!)

The picture of Moo-Moo that I used in my missing posters.
She is just the best dog! She is the only dog that I consider "mine".
All the others are available for adoption, but not my Moo!

Which brings me to the title of my post -- a relaxing weekend at home. It's not only relaxing because all of my fur babies are safe and healthy but because we really have no choice about staying home. Ha ha!

The cases of COVID-19 in Guatemala have been ramping up quickly, which is actually the normal course of this disease, but our President kinda panicked. He is actually a doctor so he's taking the pandemic very seriously.

Anyway, on late Thursday night, he decided to lock down the country. We already have very strict rules here but he ramped it up by saying that NO stores could be open this weekend, except local tiendas. People could only go out from 8 am to 11 am. And also people couldn't use any sort of vehicles to go anyway; they had to walk.

So basically, we had 3 hours in the morning to walk to our local cornerstore, buy anything we needed, then we had to get home. CRAZY!

Someone posted this on Twitter! The lockdown rule said "no transportation with neither two nor four wheels."
Well, horses don't have wheels!! 

The prez also said that next week would be more restrictions and then the weekend after that would be full lockdown 24 hours. The schedule was so confusing that people were making charts to help understand when we could go and where.

"New Presidential Decrees"

Of course, the new lockdown measures created a storm of controversy ... online. People ranted all over Facebook. Conspiracy theories and insults at the President and ridiculous "what if" scenarios. Armchair fanatics typed their fingers raw with their doomsday predictions and negativity.

But in reality, people just dealt with it. There was some food buying panic in the city, but here in Panajachel, people just put on their masks, walked to the tienda, bought their beans and rice, stopped for tortillas from the ladies who will never ever never cease making them, no matter what happens, and then everyone went home to spend time with their families, listen to music, do some gardening, play with their dogs, and wait for the President's weekly address tonight at 7pm.

So that's my update for this week. I'm lucky that my online work has started up again and I have money coming in. I am grateful that I even have some extra to donate to the local people who aren't as lucky. More on that in a future post!

Take care, faithful readers. As we say in Guatemala, Juntos Saldremos Adelante! Together we will get ahead. 😊

Some Perspective From Guatemala During The COVID-19 Pandemic

Yesterday was a tough day. I ended up crying in the back of a tuc-tuc on the way home from running errands.

Was it because I was feeling sorry for myself? NO. One hundred freaking percent NO.

It was because there are people in my town who have no food. They go to bed hungry. Their children go to bed hungry.

There was a 60-year-old man who walked 4 kilometers from another town to beg for something to eat.

Every day, I see grandmothers gathering sticks at the side of the river so they can make a fire to cook beans.

People line the roads with white flags to signal that they don't have anything to eat today.

And I come to freaking Facebook & Twitter & the news and stupid first-worlders are rioting cuz they can't get a haircut.

PEOPLE HERE ARE STARVING. Do you understand that?

They can't order pizza to be delivered. There is no stimulus money. They can't work from home...cuz they don't have work at all. Their kids aren't online doing school on their freaking iPads -- they're begging in the street.

"Wah wah wah, I have to wear a mask! Wah wah wah, I can't go to the mall. Wah wah wah, I wanna go to the beach."

Shut the f*ck up.

And send money ⇨ Mil Milagros - A Thousand Miracles

BONUS FACT: Guatemala "only" had 617 homicides in the month of March, down from 800 last year. To put this in perspective, Canada had 651 in a whole YEAR.