We moved to Mexico for a few years and noticed that most people are still using Facebook there, which was interesting. My sons have said Facebook is for old people, which apparently I fall into that category because I still use it. But in Mexico, Facebook is still #1 with many businesses communicating information and interacting with customers through it. Everyone at church and the schools used Facebook, and we were introduced to Whatsapp. Unfortunately, Whatsapp became a sore spot for me. Whatsapp chat groups are created for anything and everything. Church auxiliary presidency? Chat group. Birthday party for kids’ friends? Chat group. School moms’ brunch? Chat group. And not only are there an unreasonable amount of chat groups, but every single person is chiming in their opinions on every single little detail. “Buenos dias hermanas!” was a regular text in the morning, followed by thirty-some more “Buenos dias hermanas!” It’s a nice gesture, I know, but why do we need to tell everyone good morning every day? My phone was either constantly dinging or constantly buzzing.
During one of my trips back to the States I turned off my WhatsApp notifications, and after a couple weeks I decided to check back in to see if there was anything important I missed. Over 700 messages were waiting for me! I couldn’t tell you if I missed anything because I was not going to read through all those chats.
Despite the constant need to share every aspect of everyone’s life with each other over there, we really did love our time in Mexico. We spent three years there learning Spanish, eating new and exotic foods (Ethan and Olivia love pulpo and ceviche), embracing the culture, exploring as much as we could, and learning more about ourselves along with what is truly important to us. We definitely had challenges adjusting to life in a third-world country, and sometimes I couldn’t wait until we moved back to the States. But overall, the experience there is something I’m so grateful for and wouldn’t trade it for anything. Although I do wish we could’ve traded houses with someone else, seeing as that was one of our biggest challenges with all its utility issues.
We left Mexico and moved to northern Arizona 10 months ago, and we are practically counting down the days until we can do another foreign post. There’s too much of this world to see, so why stay in one place if you don’t have to?
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