Sunday, and another week of No School

Mini-church at our house 3 May 2009

Our church had "multiple campuses" this past Sunday, as we met in smaller groups due to the Flu A(H1N1) outbreak.

I don’t know what it was like everywhere else, but we had a great time here.  All right, the music left a little to be desired, but I didn’t have sufficient time to practice.  Or maybe I thought I had enough practice when really I didn’t!

However, we did have a good time of prayer and had a discussion about sharing the Gospel, particularly in times of crisis when death is more on people’s minds than normal.  It’s always so helpful to hear different people’s perspectives and experiences of sharing with others.

And in Flu News…

The government announced that they would try opening restaurants (many have already reopened), many businesses are going back to work now, then higher education (which I think reopens today).  School for the younger kids is to be further delayed, however.  Hannah and Nathanael won’t be going back to school until Monday.

The World Health Organization continues to hint that they’re going to declare a full pandemic.  I think in part they’re trying to give advance warning so that no one thinks the end of the world will have come, and in part they’re still watching to see how the flu spreads in communities where it has been detected (especially as people start to let their guard down).

And though things aren’t fully back to normal here, people are starting to let their guard down and wear fewer facial masks (or maybe either because they have less confidence in them, or because they’re sold out EVERYWHERE!).

However, as people go back to school, parents and teachers are being given strict guidelines about cleaning schools.  It will be interesting to see how "normal" life is, even after school starts.  Everything is way behind, there is a rumour that school will be extended into the summer (a problem for us, since we’ll be gone).

Apparently Mexico has lost at least a couple billion US dollars from this shutdown, an in the long run it may be much more.  Some individuals (including some of our friends) are really struggling from lack of business.

And the virus?  As before, no one is sure what will happen in the weeks ahead, and especially into next winter.

Good news…

The good news is that I got our passport applications in on Monday.  They are due to expire during our summer travels.  The Canadian embassy was only taking emergency applications due to the flu outbreak, but because of our travel plans and the fact that we need them to renew our visas in the summer, I was able to join the select few who could enter the embassy and submit my paperwork.

There’s a backlog of passports to be done, but they think ours will be done in time (!).

Empty chairs at empty tables
Tony Romas in Mexico City
Mealtime, Monday 4 May 2009
(take-out only due to flu outbreak)