Up until this week, teachers had returned to their offices to work online. It has been good to see everyone and the daily routine of riding my bicycle to work has been good for my health. If you walk around campus, it is very quiet. Everyone is working away, safely tucked into their private offices. I took these pictures on my lunch break when most teachers had left for lunch.
This will be our new Actuarial building, behind the Student Services building and across the street from Isidro Fabela. Work is progressing quickly. It might even be finished before our students return.
All of the earth has been moved behind the Auditorium for now.
New classrooms have been built. All we need now are safe and healthy students to fill those seats.
The library is very quiet today but I think even the librarians miss a few hushed voices.
Nobody has shown up to the Meeting Point for quite a while.
What's for lunch today? Nothing! There aren't any long lines either.
We will see all of you again when it is safe. Remember, stay away from stupid people.
Everything changes so quickly. We were all prepared, excited and just a tad nervous about getting our vaccinations this Friday in San Pedro Pochutla with all the other teachers. This morning, William forwarded a message from UMAR saying we could get it done a day early if we left immediately. There was no time to think about it, just move. I packed my backpack with snacks, sunscreen, documents and copies, triple checked everything, heated my breakfast of waffles, strawberries, yoghurt and ham with coffee and oj while I showered and then, out the door.
This could be one long day. I needed that breakfast.
All three of us met at the rendez-vous point for the taxi at the same time. Synchronicity!
Here are Daphne and William, my travelling companions, as we arrived at the vaccination center. I just noticed the funeral parlor in front of us now, the exact place we are trying to avoid a bit longer.
This is the place. San Pedro Pochutla has never looked more beautiful.
On the chance of this being a long exhausting day, I had packed enough snacks to sustain all three of us until nightfall and more documents than I really needed.
There were four well organized stages under different roofs. The first was just to confirm our registration forms had been filled out correctly. Workers circulated the crowd, directing traffic and helping out wherever needed with the forms. Of course, I messed mine up completely the first time but Will had a spare for me and a man made sure I didn't make any mistakes the second time around.
Ricardo was the only other person from UMAR Huatulco I spotted with my camera. Will saw a few others.
Every time a row cleared in the front, we all moved up another row. It was rather fun. We never sat down for longer than a minute. There was no time to get restless or bored. We kept jumping up another row while upbeat music played through speakers.
More arrivals.
In the second station, we presented proof of identity. The pay slips were extra important to prove we worked for UMAR Huatulco. A few days earlier, some people had tried to sneak in with fake documents in Oxaca City.
In the third station, we received what everyone needs as soon as possible.
Look at how brave Daphne is. She might be checking her student's homework on Google Classroom.
This was my moment of truth. I had the same nurse as Daphne. I was thinking how this young woman, who I would probably never see again and wouldn't recognize without her mask if I did, was the most important person in my life just then. She was painless with that syringe. Practise makes perfect and she has had plenty of that so early in her career.
Then it was just a 30 minute wait under the final roof to check for any adverse reactions. There weren't any for me and there still aren't.
This is the exit. From the time we arrived, the whole process took about an hour, including the 30 minute safety wait.
I want to send out a big thank you and an enormous socially-distanced hug to all the people who made today happen. What an amazing job! So expertly organized! So many people taken care of so quickly. Smooth operators!
"This Year" by The Mountain Goats has been one of the songs getting heavy rotation on Youtube with me this year. It's the chorus. Listen and you will understand.
But today, I am in the mood for this:
Again, it's the chorus. It just works for me. It certainly is good to be alive. I might make this one my first karaoke song when it is safe again to share microphones with drunken strangers.
Hang in there, everyone. The future will be better than anything we can imagine today.
Almost three semesters have passed since The Meeting Point began here at UMAR Huatulco. Every Monday, without fail, teachers and students have been gathering at The Tourism Laboratory for an hour of conversation in English over coffee and cookies.
Christmas has been sneaking up on us and December 16th will be our final gathering for the entire decade. Here's an overdue collection of photos of the people who continue to make The Meeting Point happen from the beginning to the present day.
People make the most interesting photos but eyes squint and blink. A fraction of a second can make a regrettable image. As I looked through my Meeting Point folder, I expected I would have to delete every third pic but that wasn't the case. If there were any bad photos, they must have been deleted a long time ago.
The man on the right is Isaac Flores. He's the guy that makes all of this happen. None of this would work half as well without him. He's also our principal photographer and that's why he himself is in so few of his own shots. In fact, 90% of these pictures are his. Thanks again, Isaac.
