Week#24 back in an office again

This week we worked from the Palmas office next to the chapel for the first time instead of from our "home" offices.  Elder Call and I disinfected and flushed the water cooler and a portable heater made the place bearable temperature wise. The internet failed for our first video call, our work around for the audio was Whats App. According to some of our implementing organizations, the internet is more likely to work in the evenings than in the mornings. 

We are starting to receive humanitarian aid project proposals and my task is triage. In consultation with our team, I constructed a simple spreadsheet to score the proposals according to how well they align with our humanitarian aid priorities and our information needs in order to move the most complete proposals forward for recommendations for funding. If we need more information, I engage with the organization and, if need be, help them construct a quality proposal with a high probability of having a positive, measurable impact. Our priorities this year are human heath and mobility, food security, vulnerable populations, specifically migrants, sanitation and potable water, and education.  

We will be in Oaxaca for about a week to finish up two projects from last year including a number of days of wheelchair fitting training with a recipient organization. The organization is responsible to ensure that a wheelchair is an appropriate intervention, an if so, that it is properly fitted to the beneficiary to minimize the risk of pressure sores and other problems that can arise if this isn't the case. We will be travelling by air this time instead of taking the bus. 

News reports are filled with violence, much of it drug cartel related but a lot of it appears to be random - bus travel is no exception. A small-business owner on her way from Veracruz to Oaxaca a couple of weeks ago was marched off a first-class bus at gunpoint - her and no one else. Her mutilated body was found a few days later. It something no one talks about openly and if they do the focus is somewhere else, not where they live.  I read a special report this week in the news that documented government murders of activist from the 1960s up until the early 1980's, the latter being the first time I went to Mexico. The era has been dubbed the "dirty war". They rounded people up weekly, shot them in the back of head - dead or still alive they loaded them into an army plane and dumped them into the ocean. I had previously thought this only occurred in Pinochet's Chile. Even with the evidence no measures have ever been taken against those involved and likely never will. Does it still happen? This is such a beautiful country with such loving people, perhaps in part because life here can be so very short and unpredictable. Death seems only a moment away.

On our way back from the Tianguis on Saturday with the mangos we bought we met a fellow named Jesús. As we walked by him he called out to us in English - this rarely happens. I felt impressed to stop and talk to him. He said was working at Fort Mac Murray in Alberta and was evacuated during the 2016 fires there. He moved his family to Cancun and started a business. Things went well for a time until the cartels approached him to pay what they call, "piso", a tax to have them leave you alone - he said you either pay or they kill you. He paid them CAN$12,000 a month for quite a while. However, a week after making his usual payment, the cartel "piso" collector changed and the new fellow asked for a second payment of CAN$12,000. He refused to pay and instead attempted to band together with other businesses in the same situation on the premise that the cartel wouldn't dare kill them all because then the piso would be zero. Not surprisingly, his coalition building attempt didn't work and he and his family were forced to flee but they tracked him down in Los Cabos. He has large distinct tattoo's on his forearms and both sides of his neck and a pretty cocky demeanour that make him readily identifiable. They hit and ran over him with a car, and seeing him still moving backed over him a second time. He said he looked up just in time to see the backup lights illuminated, and got most of himself out of the way except for one arm. He's very resilient but his family has broke apart after that. He lived to tell his story and is starting over again, hoping to leave to another country. Stories like his are common fare in news reports here. We try to keep a low profile and hope for the best.

On our way back we went through the Pueblito Tecamachalco. As is often the case the sidewalks here become part of businesses - in this case an autobody shop. Even public parking spots become someone's private business as a fellow "reserves" the place for you and watches your car for a small fee while you go about your business. It's very convenient versus driving around and around looking for a "free" place to park. Of course we had to stop for a few tacos al pastor too.

The church monitors and tracks humanitarian aid emergencies globally on a daily basis to position it to be where and when emergency help is needed. Looking at the map the church produces, it is amazing how many earthquakes happen in Mexico at the 4 and 5 Richter scale levels. There were six at 4.0 or above by 8:15AM CST this morning. We leave a key in the door of our suite at all times, especially at night, so we can escape the building in under a minute before the walls come tumbling dow. I also put my water bottle, passport, missionary tag and some cash and a credit card there so we will at least have something to identify, feed ourselves or flee with. Every front door I have ever seen in Mexico is a deadbolt, so unless you have the key the door isn't opening. You don't want to be caught searching for the key in the dark while the whole place is shaking.

   

We both had dental exams prior to leaving Canada with a view to our not requiring any major dentistry for the next two years. In spite of our preparations, Sister Schlachter had a tooth ache last week. She went to a dentist here and he found decay under the crown on that tooth. He cleaned it up and she now has a temporary crown until a permanent one can be made and stuck on. She was very happy with the service and we are both grateful things are going in a positive direction. The dentist also cleaned her teeth and took the X-rays himself.  She was there for a couple of hours and it only cost 3000 pesos or CAN$236.  I am still working on the paperwork to submit for our Government of Canada insurance reimbursement. 

The last time we went to a dentist in Mexico was in Mazatlán in 1990. The dentist was a stake patriarch that I knew. He gave me a couple of fillings that I still have. Of note, his drill had open belts and pulleys and sounded like a sewing machine - he didn't use any freezing either which terrified a much younger Sister Schlachter. 

Before we left Canada for our mission I had a filling and in consultation with dentist, and he didn't use any freezing. It was the first time the dentist's assistant had seen anybody not use the freezing, the dentist was almost giddy with delight to do something out of the routine. Part of our conversation that led to there being no freezing was another experience I had in Ottawa when I was having 20+ year metal filling replaced with an epoxy because apparently fillings have a due date. When the dentist got the metal off, he found that the tooth was cracked underneath it, not decayed but cracked. I confessed that I had opened many a bottle with my teeth in my stupider younger days. He wanted to drill to the bottom of the crack and he didn't have the time booked that he needed to freeze me. Instead of booking another appointment he jokingly asked if I wanted to try the filling without freezing, I said sure.  He kept drilling and drilling and as he kept going deeper and deeper, he kept asking me if I felt anything and I didn't, much to his shock and awe. I remember his drill feeling like it was pinning my head to the chair I was sitting in and I was tightly hanging on with both hands, lest the drill slip to one side or the other. He's probably still talking about me. He drilled so far down the crack that the tooth was destroyed and I ended up having to come back anyways to get a crown, my first and hopefully last. In hingsight I should have declined the replacement of my metal fillings. He left the other few I have alone. 

I am still enjoying my BJJ classes. The picture is of the no-gi gang I "roll" with.  I am the old guy on the front row, far left with the blue rash guard. The two instructors are just to right of me after the gal in the red top and they are excellent - although nothing compares with O2 in Lethbridge. The kid on the far right was there with his uncle and not part of the class.

Speaking of no-gi.  Sister Schlachter and I went to an overpriced (280 pesos a person) underground aquarium near the Costco (wonder what it's like during an earthquake?) and then to the free and amazing Soumaya museum which was built, stocked and is maintained by Carlos Slim (According to Wikipedia, from 2010 to 2013, Slim was ranked as the richest person in the world by Forbes business magazine). A goodly portion of the content was from Europe with innumerable paintings and statues including full size marble copies of some very famous ones (i.e., Michael Angelo's David).  One that caught my eye was of two guys grappling. We did a move very similar to this last week, using our shoulder to press the opponent to the floor. It made me chuckle out-loud, remembering the first time that I told Sister Schlachter that I was going to a no-gi BJJ class. Astounded, she said something to the effect of, "your going to roll around naked on the floor with a bunch of sweaty guys?" As you can see in the photo above, we're clothed. However, grabbing onto someone's clothing isn't allowed. I like to think of it as practicing for an altercation at the beach.

Another display at the museum was of every kind of communication device known to man.  I thought my dad would be interested in the telephone display as he used to have as many hanging in his garage in Medicine Hat.

On a spiritual note, I very much enjoyed our class on Sunday as we shared our thought and experiences related to Dallin H. Oak's conference talk entitled, "Kingdoms of Glory" that succinctly and boldly answers the questions, Why are we here on Earth? and What happens to us after we die?