I could never have imagined one year ago that I’d be writing this today quarantined in my beautiful place in Mexico. There are so many unknowns around the world, but my main question has been wondering if and when the border might close and if I should make a run north. So many of us traveling families have had to ask these questions, and our stories of “escaping” either back to a home country or to a site that feels safe in terms of health care and family, are everywhere.
I must admit I love this quarantine time. Aiden and I have stayed put, developing a maybe not so healthy routine of videos, eating pints of ice cream and jars of nutella, playing hours of catch in the front yard while chatting about the day, and staying up too late. Aiden says he was made for this.
My strategy has been to self-isolate in the great hope that I WILL NOT GET SICK. Having spent a lot of last year in the Mexican medical establishment I really do not want to enter it again, much less with hundreds of other people equally suffering.
I’ve had deep yearnings to go back to Santa Fe and be near mountains, but also absolute revulsion hearing about the incredible lack of federal leadership and the bubbling up, like some kind of infection, of quasi freedom fighters willing to put everyone they encounter at risk, and with no concern for a failed state health system– all in the name of some self-righteous self indulgence. Or maybe they just really needed to hit TJMaxx. This is the part of COVID that terrifies me. Of course I don’t want people’s freedoms taken at any time, but I also have seen that personal responsibility isn’t much of a thing in the US.
While there is so much unknown about this virus, the practice of self–isolation and masks does seem to help slow this spread, and at least help medical workers who every day are putting themselves at risk to help us all survive. If you work at a hospital or have a loved one who has fallen ill, you know well that every. Single. Bed. counts. I hope those freedom fighters – or whatever they think of themselves – can fight for equal wages, for better health care, for help for small businesses, and sane leaders.
So here we are stuck in the middle of this great unknown. I for one, have so much hope that it’s a time to rewrite what we know and how we think we need to live. I’m already part of this great movement of families who have uprooted and radically changed their lives and their thinking about how we have to work and educate our kids. We are remote workers, creatives, single moms or families of ten. We have all decided that what we were fed growing up might not be the only meal available. I hope others will come and reset this table with us. We have this great opportunity to continue this great experiment in slowing down, working from home, slowing our materialistic striving, and allowing the environment and the beautiful creatures in it to heal.
With this in mind, I’ve joined with a wonderful colleague and fellow traveler Clint Bush to launch a podcast about these traveling families. Remote work was a thing long before COVID, so we wanted to hear the stories from people who have vital tips to share on several fronts. They’ve been homeschooling and worldschooling, and working remote from around the world for years.
We interview these traveling families, far and near, on how they get work done, why they travel and how they started, and how they educate their kids. In a few early shows, we also explore how they’re surviving COVID-19. Several interviews look at people’s experiences away from home and caught in strict lockdowns.
One family is quarantined in Spain, and their kids were just last week allowed outside the house for the first time in almost two months. Another family was in lockdown in Bolivia, another in Italy at the very beginning of the virus surge. Still others are in a watch and wait position, wondering where to go, especially if one no longer has a “home”.
I hope you enjoy these interviews. Please give feedback on what you’d like to hear more of, and how we can make these podcasts even better.
I have loved hearing each person’s story of travel, adventure, resilience and work. I hope you will too.
Listen Here! https://wewillwander.com/02-living-abroad-in-spain/
Like us on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/we-will-wander/id1488363285#episodeGuid=ebda2c85-e8b8-45ba-9693-d464d1f7b9a2
Adventuring A to Z 