Living at Lake Chapala in Mexico

Good morning.

Llife is starting to return to a "new normal". The clothing is being given away, the evacuated are living with family or friends or going back home. The children at Ninos an Jovenes are heading back, local schools hope to reopen next week.

Live is returning to a "new" normal.

Just like anywhere that disaster strikes and Mother Nature reveals her force, our surroundings have been permanently altered, and hopefully so have we—remembering that each day is fragile and precious.

This morning we're hearing and seeing helicopters passing overhead again. Today it's an unsettling feeling. In 17 years here, I'd only heard or seen a helicopter at Lake Chapala once or twice—until last Wednesday—when helicopters came to Lakeside over and over to pick up injured from San Juan and ferry them to the airport. Since then we've heard the copters a few other times, even though the rains have slowed down, the government continues to monitor the condition of the damaged mountain above San Juan Cosalá.

We realize that without loss of live and with the worst of the damage fairly localized to include no more than 25 homes totally destroyed (combinging the village of San Juan Cosalá and the Raquet Club) that while this event has been nearly all encompassing to us for a full seven days, it's a drop in the bucket compared to many of the disasters that have occurred around the world in the past few years.

That in itself is awe-inspiring. My first thought was how can we help them all? Then I realized that we're doing just what we're supposed to?we're helping to take care of our own and sending addition relief to events far from home when necessary and when possible.

The stories are endless. One local business couple grabbed as much cash as they could lay their hands on (a LOT) last Thursday and went to San Juan (the village) walking from block to block to visit all the families they've come to know—folks that have done construction, former and current employees and their extended families, etc. and simply left a gift of cash in each household.

Other folks, currently in the states, sent word to remove the blankets from their own beds, the towels from their bathrooms and the food from their cupboards and take it all to the distribution center.

We've read here of the San Juan and Jocotepec residents continue to hundreds and even thousands of meals per day, with no clear end in sight. We know a doctor who dropped everything and dashed off to San Juan to help the injured and sick on the day of the storm. Now, he tells me, all of the medications in his pharmacy are available without charge for patients in San Juan—for at least two weeks.

Chapala
I finally saw a copy of the weekly local Spanish paper—El Charal—last night. On any other day of the past few years we would have been dismayed by the results of the storm in Chapala—there was an area several blocks wide and long east of the bus station that flooded with 20-40 inches of water.

One photo shows a car on it's roof in the center of the street, others show the badly eroded arroyo and folks scooping mud from their living rooms.Yet, Chapala has barely received a mention in all of the things we've read and what has been posted here.

The losses and clean up there has just seemed insignificant there in comparison to San Juan—yet some of those folks discovered that their belongings were water and mud soaked and clothing, belongings and school books have floated out of the house and gone who knows where.

The tip of the iceberg
In spite of all the good news, folks going home and school nearly ready again, the more I think about this event, the more I realize that we have only touched on the tip of the iceberg.

Yesterday I even read on a webboard word to the effect of, "San Juan Cosala is ok now—most of the mud is cleaned up?now we have to concentrate on the folks in the Raquet Club." Now if they had been talking about clearing streets or basic utilities, that would have been a true statement. Unfortunately in context it read as if San Juan is all better now—and I know that isn't true.

The Mexicans in San Juan are special people. Their ancestors were the first human settlers at Lake Chapala. In those old days, they learned to make clay pots and then to cook in those pots suspended over holes in the ground through which the steam from the hot springs escaped. They developed a organized society and when the region became overcrowded with their people, they split off a band who moved to the east and settled near a spring and called it Axixic which means "Spot from where the water flows".

These folks are proud—proud beyond our understanding. Too proud for charity or anything that smacks of it. Proud enough that we've known for some time about a woman in her 80s that was living under a blue tarp in an enclosure behind another house, because she wouldn?t go to an old folks home or "live off of someone else".

While I've seend great advances in San Juan in the past 10 years, the village is still very different than Ajijic or San antonio or Chapala or Jocotepec. The folks are doing MUCH better financially than they were even 10 years ago, but there is still a more obvious poverty there than is readily visible and widespread in other Lakeside villages.

Normally when disaster befalls a Mexican couple, their extended families shore them up and get them through it. The family members working in the states send money, the family members here share whatever they have—be it money or beans, and they work their way through it, a bit at a time.

This time, in many cases, the entire extended family has the same trouble and the help coming from the states is going to be spread thin. They need us, and others, but may too proud to show it.

I read yesterday a report of folks going through bags of clothing left along the highway. There was some discussion about if it should have been done in this fashion since the official news is that we were asked to take all clothing to the distribution centers in the middle of town.

Still, I have to wonder if perhaps "found" clothing is easier to swallow than the charity at the church and community center. The most interesting thing about that whole report and the few photos that accompanied it spoke volumes to me about the dignity of our Mexican neighbors.

Those folks walking from the several large bags of clothing were each carrying what seemed to be 2-3-4-5 pieces of clothing. No one had grabbed the bag and run off with it. No one had their arms loaded with goods. They took what they needed, could use and left the rest for others.

Going Back to School
We've been thinking about some of the things that will be needed next—and foremost among those things will be the school uniforms, book, supplies and other things kids need for school.

Children can attend school without uniforms in Mexico, but we all know how looking our best means that it is easier to achieve--and for kids that's even more important than it is for us.

Mexico ensures a free education for all children through sixth grade by providing the buildings, paying the teachers and sometimes the furnishings. It is up to the community and parents to do the rest, including textbooks, maps, school supplies and uniforms, as well as annual fees.

In an article I last fall for Living at Lake Chapala http://www.mexico-insights.com/ last fall, we itemized these costs and discovered the total for an elementary student is about $150 US per year.

Putting it in Perspective
For my maid, that $150 US is two months' pay (for my house) per child! For folks North of the border, that's equal to giving up just ONE Starbuck's coffee drink per week for a year.

Bringing Light to the Storm
Two families quickly moved into a "new" normal last week. In the thick of all that mud and confusion and trauma, the mobile hospital unit from the University of Guadalajara Autonoma reports that in addition to treating 15 folks with hypothermia and all the bumps and bruises and broken bones and those with spider bites, they helped dar a luz (bring to light) two new babies on Wednesday.

Living a New "Normal"
The landscape is forever changed in parts of San Juan Cosalá and the mountains up above. The lake bottom at San Juan Cosalá is also forever changed—filled now with rock and debris. It is going to take months and years for the folks affected to get their lives back on track and their homes back to "normal".

Our help may be needed for months to come—in ways that the Mexicans decide it is needed, not in the way that we think it "should" be done. It is going to take time, and lots of it for the repair of houses and walls and homes and peace of mind and senses of security. The great outpouring of help and love will help some forget part of the pain.

I hope this event has also changed all of us—in ways that will shine from us for years to come. I hope we can finally understand that each day, each moment could be our very last. Our world, our town, our home our life can change in the blink of an eye. This is my lesson from this event, and from 911 and from the Tsunami and all the other disasters of the world.

I want to remember to tell the ones I love as often as I can. I want to remember to not turn my back on anyone and to treat everyone as though this is our last "normal" day.

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Judy King is publisher of  Mexico Insights' Living at Lake Chapala, a monthly online magazine for people interested in Mexico's Lake Chapala region, in the state of Jalisco.

Judy, a 16-year resident of Ajijic on Lake Chapala's north shore, conducts weekly newcomer's seminars, shares her expertise about Mexico in her monthly online magazine, and in the "Mexico Lindo" column for the Lake Chapala Review.

Judy also is a speaker for local organizations and visiting tour groups about the Lakeside area and Mexican customs and holidays.