swine flu, no electricy, and no water is far less f.u.n.

So after a completely chillaxed weekend, life came back and slapped me in the face last night. As Mazunte is pretty isolated, we really didn't hear anything of the swine flu until we got to Pochutla, which is a little bit of a bigger city, where we caught the mini-van back to Oaxaca. What we heard in Pochutla was just that there was a horrible swine flu epidemic or something like that, but no real details or facts.

We got back to the city around 9PM, and were greeted by police forces roaming the main areas of the city and face-mask-wearing Mexicans everywhere. We walked back to my apartment, dropped off our stuff, and immediately went to the office so we could get online and see how bad it actually was.

As I'm sure every other connected person in the world knows, the swine flu is out and about causing panic in most parts of Mexico. It was a little scary coming back and reading about everything all in one sitting. This morning things are not looking nearly as scary, although work-wise, it kinda sucks.

Oaxaca has been relatively unaffected by the swine flu, with 8 diagnosed cases and 1 death so far. The schools throughout all of Mexico are closed until May 6, and that goes for almost everything else as well - my guitar classes, my language classes, intercambios, etc. It's kind of like I'm on lockdown - I get to come to the office (because it's literally half a block away from my apartment) and back to my apartment. Though the risk isn't high, we're supposed to avoid large groups of people (basically everywhere in Oaxaca), try not to eat out too often, etc. etc.

Again, it's not nearly as scary now that I have a better idea of what's going on, but it's really taking a toll on ProMexico. As of right now, we're not shutting down, but most of our May programs have been canceled by our partner universities (we had about 50 students and faculty arriving May 2, as well as 2 interns arriving May 6). Our June programs are currently in limbo, as our site director wants to see how this all plays out over the next few weeks.

So between the swine flu and all the news about the drug wars going on recently (none of which has really affected Oaxaca, which is in the far southern region), ProMexico has been having a rough year. We could use some positive press about now...

And with that, I am off to answer the 1,076 emails that sit in my inbox, most of which are about swine flu. Oh, and I still have no water. And the electricity in my apartment has mysteriously been shut off for some reason. Yikes. Send me some good vibes this week. I have a feeling I'm gonna need all that I can get.

Peace.