Today, I got a voice message from a friend in India and it reminded me that I officially left Mumbai one month ago. Yep, it was only one month ago today that I hauled my butt out of bed at 3 am to catch a flight to Istanbul and then on to Zanzibar. On March 4th, I blissfully spent my layover wandering through Aya Sofia and the Blue Mosque relatively oblivious about what was going to unfold. I knew that coronavirus had wreaked havoc on life in China but so had so many other viruses. 92,000 people had been infected at that point but 80,000 of those were in China. However, at that point, I was more concerned about catching my flight and whether or not I was going to be a good teacher than I was about COVID-19.
A Huge Mistake?
School in a treehouse 
One of my best students
I know that at this point, some people would say that I should have paid more attention and that I was stupid for still traveling in Zanzibar. In hindsight, maybe I was. But it is hard to imagine what would have happened in I had stayed. I had already given up my apartment in Mumbai, I had no job and my work visa was expiring. As most Americans would attest, going “home” wasn’t really an option either (and it effectively became less and less so with every passing day.) when you were unemployed and more importantly, uninsured. ( I am pretty sure that at this point the entire world knows what a disaster our healthcare system is so I won’t go into it here.) When India’s borders closed, they did with little notice. While I am hoping that I would have had enough friends to have a place to stay, that is never certain. Hotels closed, Airbnbs shut down and foreign tourists in India that found themselves trapped in India were effectively thrown out into the street.
The two weeks that I got to spend teaching in Zanzibar were great. My fellow volunteers were friendly (although they were all from Turkey which proved to be quite a big issue in the end) and the setting was absolutely gorgeous. I was a little concerned about what I would do for months on end there but figured that once I started making friends, it would be fine. The students were very sweet and eager to learn and my schedule was going to allow me to scale up my online teaching hours.
Should I Stay or Should I Go?
As we now know, things were going to take a major turn for the worse. I began to get more and more concerned about the spread of COVID and the apparent lack of understanding that people seemed to have. (You can read more about here.) Finally, when it felt like I had either to put an escape plan into action, the NGO decided to close their projects and I booked the first flight I could get on to Mexico (which at that point had become my only viable option.)
Gracias Mexico!
When I arrived in the Cancun airport and cleared immigration and customs, I can honestly say that I have never been that relieved in my life. I had made it into a “safe” destination in a country that I was relatively familiar with and at least had some contacts scattered about. I received a lot of criticism from people for not going back to the US and choosing to go to a 3rd country instead but it is really important to consider the circumstances. I have worked in tourism my entire professional life. Tourism is one of the industries taking the biggest hit right now which means that job prospects in the upcoming 6 months or so are slim. With no job and the high cost of living in the US, it is already difficent. Now imagine having to pay $350 for insurance each month on top of that (the cheapest one I could find) and still having to pay a $6000 deductible on top of that.
So now, I find myself as an economic refugee in Merida, a pretty little colonial city on the Yucatan Peninsula. During my first week here, you could still walk around relatively freely and I spent a few hours each morning walking around looking at buildings and sitting in the many different squares. Like most colonial cities, there is a main square with a beautiful old Spanish church with criss-crossing walkways lined with benches that are generally filled with people all hours of the day. I would quickly grab a coffee at a local convenience store (while being safe of course) and sit on a bench and watch the world go by. Since Mexicans are incredibly friendly, it was hard to self-isolate when people would constantly come up to me and wish me a Buenos Dias! Restaurants and shops were still open and although I was self-isolating, it was nice to see that life was going on as normal.
Then the 2nd week hit and things started to get more serious as Mexico’s cases reached the high triple digits and then into the 1000s. Restaurants and shops closed and more and more people started staying at home. I am at the start of my 3rd week here and the streets are quiet and the police roam around the city. Yesterday, I went for a walk and was stopped by the police and given a bright blue face mask. The day before, I tried to go for a long run and ended up finding what felt like all of Merida’s police officers standing near the main square with guns. Needless to say, I ran home pretty quickly after that.
How To Pass the Time?
My favorite local shopkeeper, Mario 
Avocados every day!
Before anyone starts to criticize me for going outside, please keep in mind that I am in a tiny studio apartment alone that isn’t even mine. That means I have none of my own stuff, no little projects to help me pass the time or things that I need to reorganize. I don’t even have a kitchen where I can practice making bread which so many people seem to like doing. It is incredibly lonely and a drastic change for someone who is used to being out and about all day. To put it in perspective, I think I have spent more waking hours at home in the past two weeks than I probably have in the past 6 months combined.
I have already rearranged all of the furniture in my AirBnb (much to the owner’s chagrin), started working on the puzzle that I bought at Wal Mart, spend hours each day working on different little things on my laptop and am speeding my way through the Spanish lessons on Duolingo. I do “live” work out classes that are put on by my gym in India and have virtual happy hours with friends all over the world. In some ways, I feel very connected to the outside world. I am catching up with friends that I rarely get to see, I am trying to learn skills that will help me achieve the life that I want. I get to think of the future while simultaneously looking back at my past. I can attempt to ignore the present which is actually a pretty rare luxury.
I am going to try and embrace this new way of living. I am lucky enough to have savings and I make just enough money to pay my day to day expenses by teaching online. I am in a safe, beautiful city with friendly people (and very cheap avocados) who are just as anxiously waiting for the time when this is all over. And when it finally is, I am sure that Mexico will put on one hell of a fiesta!
This is a fantastic blog post! Loved reading your experiences, and happy you made it to a safe location at just the right time. Thank you for sharing.