Another Sunday in the Ajijic Plaza

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I don't know what these boys were doing to the baby. Babysitting???

 

 

 

 

Olive watching a u tube video on my I pad

Olive always likes to sit near me when I am on my I pad.  I decided to try to get her to look at what was on the screen so I put on some u tube videos of cats and kittens. She seemed to be very interested in this video of a cat boxing with a dog. Maybe it was giving her ideas about what to do to Chico in the future. 

 

Mother and her children on the local bus

I am going to a series of lectures on Saturday mornings about health care and other issues dealing with living and dying here. On my way home I was sitting near this Mexican woman and her children. They were so beautiful and inspiring that I asked if I could take their pictures. They agreed, and the kids loved seeing themselves in the photos. I have been reacting very negatively to Trump becoming president, as have millions of others all around the world and this family cheered me up. 

There was a rally here and a march to support the women's march in Washington but by the time I got home from the lecture I didn't have enough energy to walk down there. This morning I woke up wishing I had gone. Maybe it would have helped with the depression and fear I have about what is going to be happening to the United States and the rest of the world because of Trump being president.  So here are the photos of  the bus family.  Chldren, they are so precious. They are our future. We must do everything we can to protect them. I hope my fears about Trump are unfounded. 

 

 

 

There were so many children sitting with their mother that this little girl was sitting next to me. It cheers me up just to look at these photos. I hope they make you smile too.  I love living here and riding the local buses and meeting the Mexican people. I feel very blessed. One more comment about this family. I don't know what their financial situation is or anything else about them except the love I see between them all. To me, THIS is what Quality of Life is all about.   

My morning grocery cost at the local store

It has been a long time since I have put on the cost of my groceries. I like to shop at my local grocery store. It is open every day of the week. So here is a photo of what I just bought. 

 

I hate to have to admit to some of the junk that I eat. But here goes. Half a gallon of milk, ( I am still feeding the little kefir grains and they like a lot of milk,). Two large beautiful apples that I take to the spa when I swim. Two bananas, three tomatoes, one cube of butter, six fresh eggs, one dark chocolate dove bar, one bolillo bread in case I want to make a sandwich, in the two plastic bags on the right are bacon on the lower right and above it is a slice of ham. I also have some fresh homemade string cheese which is in a plastic bag just below the milk. And two instant lunches that I have been eating a lot of lately. I like to mix the string cheese in with it and maybe some veggies. I have been too lazy to cook much lately and this works great. And then four large black plastic garbage bags.  The price of all of this? 170 pesos. Which in American money this morning is 7.91535 dollars. So almost eight dollars total. Not bad. Not bad at all.  

So why does the local store give credit to so many of the people who shop there? I just looked at the minimum wage here. It went up on January 1st of this year from 73.04 pesos a day to 80.04 pesos a day..  Now that is about half of what I paid for my groceries this morning. I know many Mexicans make more than this minimum wage. But still, this local store caters to a lot of Mexicans who cannot afford to get through until their payday without credit for their groceries. After reading this, I don't feel quite so happy. I feel sad for my neighbors who are struggling and especially now that the price of gas has just gone up twenty percent. I wonder, how do they make it financially???  And then my second question is this: How would I make it financially in the United States these days with the prices of everything so high? 

Morning Thoughts

I have been very interested in Health Care here since I have had a lot of health issues. I have had four surgeries since I moved here ten years ago. I almost died before I got to the hospital for the last one which was just a few months ago. I am writing an article, maybe two articles about what is available here and the differences between IMSS and Seguro Popular. I have had IMSS every since I came here and I have written extensively about all the problems I have had with it. The only time I used it was to try to see a doctor at the clinic to get a referral to see a specialist about a bad knee. After four months of trying to see a specialist, I finally gave up. They gave me such a run around that I couldn't and wouldn't do it any longer. But I have not yet decided to give up IMSS and not pay the yearly fee which is due in March for me. Because I believe they are the best for major emergencies. They have a great heart speciality center in one of their hospitals in Guadalajara. Seguro Popular does not do heart surgeries. Anyway, there is a lot of information and I am still compiling it.

It will be put on Accesslakechapala.com when I am finished. I still have more information to gather for it. 

In the meantime, my knee finally healed after a year of swimming and exercising it in the hot pools in San Juan Cosala. 

It is getting warmer outside and Sundays are always nice at the Ajijic plaza. I will take a walk down there with Chico. I believe the best health care is exercising and eating good fresh foods. But things happen. When I first came here I had a torn and twisted meniscus.That was operation number one. Then I fell in the lake and broke my ankle.Operation number two. Then  I had to have my thyroid removed because the doctors thought I had thyroid cancer. Operation number three. And last but most expensive and life threatening was my gall bladder removal after getting blood poisoning and sepsis. I paid for all of these operations, even though I had IMSS....  The total cost was around 18,000 maybe 20,000 dollars. So you see, health care is a very important issue for me. I just can't afford to keep paying out of my own pocket for all the operations. So far, IMSS hasn't been any help to me at all. But a major heart surgery would be beyond my means to pay for personally. So I will once again pay for IMSS.....

If you are at all interested in health care here, you may want to read my article or articles when they are published on Accesslakechapala.com. I will let you know when they are finished. And I am still looking for helpers to go to the hospitals and stay with expats. They have to speak both Spanish and English and have the time to stay in the hospital to help. Let me know if you have someone in mind or have that person go to the Access Lake Chapala office on Colon and put in his or her name and phone number for the list we are compiling. Thanks...  And have a happy Sunday.