Everywhere you look around here, people are using masks. Yesterday in Walmart, I saw a mom strongly “reminding” her teenage son to keep his mask on. We wore them on the airplane to and from vacation this week, too.
So, the question everyone is asking is, “Does wearing a mask work to help me avoid swine flu?” It depends on who you ask. According to this AP article, The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said there is not a lot of evidence that masks do much good, and have pointedly not recommended their use by the general public. Swine flu is thought to be transmitted in much the same way as seasonal flu, by touching something with the virus and then passing it to the nose or mouth or through coughing or sneezing.
If nothing else, it helps us avoid putting our hands to our face and in our mouth, which we KNOW helps fight the spread of swine flu.
I’m not sure if wearing it in your car while you drive (especially alone) is going to do anything. Nevertheless, in Mexico, it’s common now to see tons of people wearing the masks. In fact, there aren’t any at our local Walmart. They have sold out. Everyone is using them. It’s the newest fashion statement here in Mexico City.
What is big enough to shut down the two largest religions in Mexico: Soccer and the Catholic Church? Mass has been canceled in Mexico City’s National Cathedral on Sunday, soccer games were played without the usual crowds of thousands in closed and empty stadiums.
The Secretary of Education canceled class in Mexico City, the Federal District, and San Luis Potosi for more than a week. The Mexican government’s treasury department has even allocated almost half a billion dollars to fight it.
What could be big enough to cause this mayhem? The answer: Swine Flu.
The CDC website says, “CDC has NOT recommended that people avoid travel to Mexico at this time.” In fact, there have been no swine flu cases reported in Mexico’s beach resorts, which are hundreds of miles away from Mexico City.
While it’s not recommended to visit Mexico City right now, most of Mexico is not (yet) affected. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be cautious when deciding to visit Mexico or not.
How to protect yourself from Swine Flu
Inside Mexico has a great post on how to protect yourself from Swine Flu, which includes some no brainers, such as washing your hands, avoiding hospitals unless absolutely necessary, and limiting physical contact.
The Seminary has canceled class until May 6th. Our church has suspended all activity this weekend as well. We had already planned to go out of town, so it’s not going to affect us too much. We are taking the same precautions as everyone else, which is just basically avoiding a lot of contact with other people and washing our hands like crazy.
Many of the Seminary students travel all over the city and country for their weekend work at various churches, so they might be affected. Pray for this sickness and the country of Mexico right now. It doesn’t look like it’s going away anytime soon.
Swine flu is something that we will be wondering about for a while. Please keep praying for our family here in Mexico.
Mexico is a very religious country. It really shows during “Semana Santa, or “Holy Week”. You can really learn a lot about Mexico’s traditional Roman Catholic beliefs on Good Friday.
Mexico City is the home of the largest re-enactment of the Way of the Cross in the world. For months, people in Iztapalapa prepare for the re-enactment of the Passion of the Christ (click here for the official website in Spanish), and they have done it since 1843.
More than a million people visit the delegation on Good Friday to watch the processional and the crucifixion of Jesus. I heard on the radio today that there were about 800,000 people there when it started. There were probably another 200,000 who showed up by the time the man representing Jesus made it to the hill they use for Golgotha.
One of these days I’ll go and see it first-hand, but this year I just watched it on TV. It was covered all afternoon on local television stations. Here is a little I recorded while watching.
Basically, you get on a large, flat, covered boat with your group. There’s a table in the middle where you can eat. You pay to go down the canal, and while you’re on the canal, there are lots of things you can do.
You can stop and go to a restaurant. You can order food from the floating vendors. Or you can pay mariachis to play or listen to marimba music. You can also stop on the side and shop for plants and flowers.
It’s a lot of fun. Check out the video. If you can’t see it in this post, check it out by clicking here.
We went to Xochimilco, Mexico, today with Randy and Lynn. Here are a few pictures:
We had a lot of fun. Nathan and Ben were good on the boat and shopping at the markets.
The adventure wasn’t over, though, when we left Xochimilco. The traffic was HORRIBLE on the way home. It took a long time to get back, and that was multiplied when the gas light came on less than half way home. We did finally find a gas station, and the traffic let up when we got closer to home.
I made this video back in June of 2006 and posted to our vlog. It’s a mix of Google Earth and video I’ve shot all over Mexico City. Hopefully, it will give you an idea of what Mexico City and our life here is like.
If you’re reading this in an RSS reader, click here to view the video.
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