Mexico in Lockdown

Although there are businesses still open, those include fewer and fewer “non-essential” businesses, as governments in Mexico try to lock things down more in “phase 3” of COVID-19.

The southern part of Mexico City is currently the “red zone”, as the reported numbers of patients who are infected continues to rise. And as expected, it’s not just the illness itself that is causing problems. (Oh, and to add to the constant news cycle here, Mexico City is also dealing with a measles outbreak!)

Above: Men with head-to-toe light blue personal protective equipment (although their hoods are not always up), sprayers and tanks of disinfectant clean public transportation vans and buses at special check points in Ixtapaluca, while passengers are given hand sanitizer.

If businesses are open, they’re only letting in one person at a time, and they must be wearing a face mask. Physical distancing, however, is not much of a success (as you can see even in the pictures above!). At a local grocery store, they finally tried to enforce “one-way isles”. I quickly discovered that if you follow the arrows, you’re bound to be running against the traffic! 😀

Another challenge is that, even in Mexico City, people often find themselves without running water. Kind of hard to do that constant hand washing – and antibacterial gel isn’t exactly in great supply.

Locally, the fire department has been setting up mobile hand washing stations in places like open-air markets, so that people at least have the option while they’re out and about. (In case you’re wondering, thankfully the water situation in our house has been a lot better than in the past.)

News reports are starting to come in that many hospitals which were set aside for COVID-19 patients are already full – including our hospital here in Ixtapaluca.

Only a few days after mass business closures, the completely expected is occurring – people are pointing out that if they can’t work, they can’t eat. Hashtags that are trending on social media now include #SinAlimentos (without groceries) – especially trending around dinner time – and #MexicoConHambre (Mexico is hungry). It doesn’t take a month off work to see the results, in a country where many people still deal only in cash and may not even own a credit card.

I remember well that stage in the earthquake relief when you realized that the needs were huge, and you could only help a few people. A very few, compared to the huge need. Just how to help our communities and how to reach out – we’ll need extra wisdom for these things in the weeks ahead.

Small things, but still things we’re trying to deal with – some technical difficulties. Not long ago the computer we usually used for church media purposes died. Next, our main desktop computer died. Now, our laptop is showing signs of its age. Another odd challenge is that – although we paid our electricity bill from earlier this year – although we brought proof that we paid to the office – the payment is still not showing up in their system. So every time the power goes off (and it’s been rather more often lately), we wonder if it’s being “shut off” by the electric company.

But – so far so good! 🙂

We are looking forward to continuing our institute classes on Saturday (especially because we had to miss the last class), and to a special “adoration service” on Sunday. It’s good to have reasons to learn, and even celebrate, as we continue to seek the Lord together to see how He directs us.