DF | Dennis Poulette

Swine Flu 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.

What is Swine Flu?

Swine Flu is the talk of the town in one of the world’s largest metropolitan areas. It is a weird strain of the flu whose “combination of genes had not been seen before in flu viruses in humans or pigs.” You can’t get it from eating pork. But it is dangerous. So far there have been more than 1300 cases of it in Mexico with more than 80 deaths. You can read more about swine flu at the CDC website.

Is it safe to travel to Mexico?

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 Mexican government has also put out a bulletin with recommendations on how to protect yourself from swine flu.

How does Swine Flu affect the Poulette Family?

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 City Headlines – September 23, 2008

Here are two things that happened today in Mexico City that you might find interesting.

Bus Crashes into Escaped 5-ton Elephant on Mexican Highway
Mexico City feels earthquake that registers 5.2 on the Richter Scale (English translation) – don’t worry, we didn’t feel it

Poulette Family in a Green Taxi

I was playing around with Photoshop and put our family in a green Volkswagen taxi. The “vochos” are a typical sight (without our family) in Mexico City.

Here’s the photo on Flickr.

A Day in Xochimilco

Yesterday, we went to Xochimilco with our friends, the Torberts, their family, and Joel, a missionary in England (who used to live in Mexico City). We had a great time on the boats, listening to Mariachi music and eating quesadillas and other great Mexican food.

Xochimilco is a great place to go (despite the traffic to get there from the north end of the city), and it’s really fun if you want to experience Mexican culture.

Here are some pictures of Xochimilco, Mexico.

Click a thumbnail to see a larger image

It cost us 160 pesos to rent the boat for an hour, and the vendors come alongside you in their own boat selling drinks, food, and entertainment. It’s like a Mexican Venice. We had a blast!

VIDEO: A Day in the DF

Here’s a quick video of Mexico City (the Distrito Federal, or DF). Included in it are sights in the zocalo, the Angel of Independence, the Palace of Fine Arts, the Monument of the Revolution, and others.

Watch it on Blip.