Haves and have nots

Things they have in Mexico / things I'm gonna miss.

I've been pretty lazy with this whole blog thing since arriving in Mexico. I've noted things down and taken many many photos but I haven't actually got around to uploading anything. So here goes. I thought I'd continue being lazy in the first post in DF (Mexico City) by writing an unfinished list of things that exist in Mexico and things that don't (which will be updated throughout the course of the year as I make more discoveries and decide to miss things that I never even think about when they're available to me - think lucozade and vegetable stock, yes they're mostly food related).


Warning: this will be long, but it is a list so just read a couple if you're feeling lazy like me.


Things that don't exist in Mexico (as far as I can tell)

• Ikea
• Decent chocolate at a reasonable price - I might have to retract this one after finding 'French style truffles' 1kg for 135 pesos (£6)
• Pimms
• Electric kettles - think metal kettles on the stove
• The concept of standing right on escalators in the metro, waiting for people to exit public transport before entering, moving out of the way when someone is walking faster (e.g. more than a mile an hour) than you. 
• DIY - ok maybe this is an exaggeration, but despite having many Home Depots, the concept of DIY is lost on most Mexicans because you can usually hire someone to do a better job in much less time. This takes a while to adapt to because we Brits like to try our hardest (usually to fail miserably) so that we can feel like we've achieved something like a painted wall, put-up flat-pack furniture, a flourishing garden etc. 

Things that do exist in Mexico 

Please understand that some of these ridiculous observations do not in any way detract from the fact that I think Mexico is incredible, however I just can't help but notice...

• £7 per litre Bacardi
• Too many types of chilli to count
• More types of salsa, refried beans, mole, tortillas and chilli sauce than you've ever laid your eyes on.
• People selling anything and everything everywhere. In the metro, on the street, in a restaurant. And when I say everything I mean it, anything useless you can imagine you can find. While on my commute in the metro I've seen people selling snacks, cough sweets, pirate CDs, plastic spoons - these were surprisingly popular, English language books, bike bells - you name it they've got it. 
• Cheap food always within walking distance.

5 peso (25p) tacos

My favourite taco stand to date - which has suddenly disappeared :'(

• 24 hour OXXO to buy late night treats and drinks, tortillas, cheese, milk etc. just don't expect to find anything green here - you can't buy vegetables from you local shop. 
• Local food, flower and artisanal markets with free samples of in-season fruit or freshly cooked tacos, barbecue (lamb), quesadillas etc. 
• Things that look like the really thing but really aren't e.g. Maple FLAVOUR syrup, vanilla FLAVOUR essence. 

Yummy artificially flavoured maple style syrup

• Bacon covered chips.

Butcher and Son's bacon covered chips and Gin and Tonic in hipster jars

• Strongbow!!! (The only cider they have)

Supermarket shop at Soriana

• Barbacoa - slow cooked (like underground for 24h) lamb

Barbacoa in Hidalgo state

A service for everything, and I mean EVERYTHING. This list will be extensive and will probably end up dominating this post. I'm utterly amazed at how little Mexicans actually have to do for themselves - so when I find out they don't have some things like... I'm actually a little surprised. Services exist as there is not enough formal employment so most of these workers live off tips ranging between 5 pesos and 50 pesos (£1 = 22 pesos).

• Valet parking - at shops, restaurants, tourist attractions.
• Bag packers in supermarkets - don't worry about separating the cold/heavy food or rushing as things fly off the conveyor belt as they'll do it for you. They'll also provide you with a plastic bag per every 3 items and a pamphlet of weekly offers - recycling is not a priority. 
• House cleaners - no one cleans their own house. A cleaner's tasks can include: cleaning, washing, ironing, food shopping, cooking, washing up, ordering water and probably things I'm still unaware of. 
• When you go to the beach do you think you sit on a towel on the sand like a savage? No! Of course not. You pay a group of guys 300 pesos (per group) to run around getting you chairs, tables, umbrellas - pretty much anything you could want to shield you from the sun/sand. Waiters will also come to take your orders and bring you strawberry caipirinhas. Feel free to blast your speakers out from under your umbrellas and be prepared to constantly reject offers of massages, fried food, children wiggling their bellies and any useless nicknack you can think of. 
• Parking assistance when not needed - thought you were pretty good at parallel parking? Nah. Never good enough. In pretty much every street and carpark there are people to 'help you park' e.g. guide you in to huge spaces where you always accept their offer so as not to get your car scratched in return for your lack of tip. If you're really nice (tip well) they'll even save you a spot on a public street so no one else can park there. 
• When you get a ticket from a carpark that you have to put in the machine at the exit to open the barrier are you expected to reach your arm out of your car window and insert the ticket yourself? You've realised the trend, nope. Someone is usually standing there to reach to your window, take your ticket and insert it into a machine 50cm from you without you having to move a muscle. I saw this upon exiting the airport and that's when I knew I was in Mexico. 

No Sir, don't even think of straining your arm  trying to reach the machine, let me do that.

• People to put petrol in your car. Mexicans actually don't know how to put petrol in a car. You drive into the petrol station, wait (for as long as it takes) for someone to come to your car, tell them how much you want to fill your tank and they do it all for you. Then you wait, for as long as it takes once again, for them to scan your credit card and get you to sign the receipt - chip and pin hasn't quite made it here yet. 
• Police guiding cars at traffic lights even when the lights are fully functioning and generally more effective.

Additional section (because I thought it necessary) - How to shop in Mexico

• If you have bags when entering the shop you must leave them at the 'coatcheck' type area incase you might sneak anything in them without paying.

• Choose your shop. Whilst Mexican supermarkets are good for most generic things and have a wide variety, as you would expect, don't both heading to Soriana for anything too exotic, instead treat yourself to a trip to City Market aka. Mexican Waitrose. It's very exciting for food-lovers and apparently they even do free wine tasting on Thursday evenings - still gotta try that one. 

• When buying bread in Mexican supermarkets you must pick up a metal tray and tongs, collect all the bread/ pastries/ general baked good you desire and queue up to have them all weighed, priced and packaged. Even if the bread is already packaged, it is likely to be unpriced and require the same method - otherwise you'll be caught out at the till and made to return to the bread counter to have it checked.

• Fish and packaged fish in supermarkets. There is a frozen fish counter where nothing is already weighed or priced. Much of this fish is prepackaged in vacuum packaging and yet you still have to queue and hand it to the man behind the counter to weigh and price each piece of fish. Apparently this is due to changing daily offers which mean pre-pricing the fish would be ineffective.

• When buying alcohol from a locked cabinet (pretty much anything over $5 can be kept in a locked cabinet, which initially I was clueless about how to access, and quite frankly am still wary of asking and looking like an idiot) you wait until the end of your shop and then - as far as I can gather - request said alcohol at the till. Someone goes to collect the bottle and brings it to the till for you to purchase. 

• Similar to alcohol, to buy ice you must request it at the till as it is not in the main store and is usually kept in a locked freezer near the entrance/exit.

• Whilst walking around the shop it is likely you will be stopped and asked questions by other shoppers as if you work there - I'm not quite sure about why this one happens but so far I've been asked about a blender, a whisk and one I forgot. 

• When paying for your shopping unless you have a points card, a car in the carpark or need your phone to be topped up you should pretty much say no to everything they ask. 

• Pharmacy/Chemist - ask pharmacist at counter for advice/medicine. Go to a different till, queue and pay. Go back to said pharmacist at the other part of the counter, collect medicine and get receipt stamped. FYI, as well as selling medicine, Mexican pharmacies also sell coke, chocolate and crisps. 

• Idea - Idea is the Mexican version of Ikea but around double the price and worse quality. Whilst services are cheap, stuff is not. If you want furniture I recommend you A. bring it with you from the USA - people seem to order stuff from Amazon to hotels and drive it back, B. buy it on the street corners - I've seen wardrobes, animal skins, chairs etc. or C. have it made - it's probably cheaper than buying flatpack and doing it yourself. 

• On that note, to avoid crazy high costs for furniture, clothes, toiletries, foreign food, shoes, books, electronics etc. carry as much as you can with you on your way in because stuff is expensive. There is no amazon or eBay (Mercado libre is your next best bet) and the cheapest/ simplest desk on Segunda Mano (Mexican Gumtree) is 800 pesos (£40). 

I'm still searching for vegetable stock and lemongrass so if anyone wants to help me out it would be much appreciated.

(Since the writing of this blog I have found vegetable stock and I never realised something so simple would make me so happy. Risotto can now return to my life)

flickelsewhere

Donate here with the message EL POZO to support my work in Mexico 

The Aim

   Fundraising for a year in Mexico City combatting Human Trafficking

Establishing a partnership between 

The Sophie Hayes Foundation (UK) 

and 

 El Pozo de Vida (Mexico)

Tackling human trafficking in Mexico and across borders 

Supporting survivors 

Volunteering to Prevent, Protect and Prosecute

See more and support me quoting EL POZO

The Reality

A waiting game

Whilst getting a visa to work in Mexico doesn’t seem to be extraordinarily difficult for a UK citizen it is by no means simple. First you have to find an immigration lawyer in Mexico willing (they should be for the amount you pay them!) to take on your application. Then you play the waiting game. No guarantees of how long the process will take in Mexico, taking your best guess about when you’ll get the visa and whether you’ll actually be able to book your flight.

Whatsapp chasing and confirmation

Luckily, my immigration lawyer works within El Pozo so first mission accomplished. Following up on the application and understanding the costs was a different matter but at least I had a lawyer. So in November I sent off a copy of my passport and personal information and laid the next year of my life in her hands, waiting to hear some news about whether my plan to go to Mexico in January was realistic. After a few too many emails and Whatsapps through mutual acquaintances on my behalf I finally hear that it is being approved in Mexico and I should be set for January! Not relying on Whatsapp as a concrete enough source of information to book my ticket I decided to wait for confirmation.

I received an email from Illiana (my lawyer) the week before Christmas and contacted the English embassy to get an interview and visa confirmation from the UK before everyone got swept away in Christmas and New Year, finally receiving confirmation of an appointment on 23^rd December. At last, I had a date and I could book my plane ticket! Ok so I’m quite far from reaching my funding target (why don’t you guys help me out with that ;)?) but I was fed up of waiting and managed to get a flight deal for under 25s meaning that time was of the essence. So this was the moment, having already checked all the flight deals repeatedly, I opened STA travel and booked my one-way ticket to Mexico City for 29^th January 2015. Let the countdown begin!

Mexican Embassy, London

More waiting

There was still the small matter of obtaining visa confirmation from the Mexican Embassy in London though. So I gathered my passport and documents before work and headed over to the building with the huge flat hanging off the wall to state my case and hoped they’d let me in as had been promised… Then I received a fee receipt and a ticket number, left my passport and was told to come back on Thursday to pick it up. Waiting, once again – this gets old quickly.

On Thursday, I headed back to the embassy and finally I GOT MY VISA!!!

They tell you to bring a spare passport photo and then they
spring a camera on you on a rainy English morning

(FYI this isn’t even the official visa, this is just confirmation that is has been approved and I can pay for and collect it within 30 days of my arrival into Mexico, so the journey doesn’t end here!)

flickelsewhere

Donate here with the message EL POZO to support my work in Mexico

The Next Step

   Moving to Mexico City in 2015 to combat Human Trafficking with El Pozo de Vida (The Well of Life)   

After living in London and learning about trafficking here, I have realised the global and local impact of this crime. There is no doubt that so much more work needs to be done in England and Europe to tackle trafficking. However, having started my journey in Mexico and never really having the chance to make a impact there, I am determined to go back and work directly combatting human trafficking rather than solely researching it. 

The people that I met during my short time in Mexico worked devotedly and tirelessly to raise awareness, to protect vulnerable members of society, to educate through schools and the media, to find and protect victims of trafficking, to prosecute the criminals who carried out these crimes. They offer so much to Mexican anti-trafficking efforts and yet it became apparent that significantly more was, IS needed to really impact upon the eradication of this crime.

Published report I co-wrote for SHF

Through the Sophie Hayes Foundation (SHF), London, I have become involved with El Pozo de Vida (The Well of Life) in Mexico, an organisation which prevents trafficking through raising awareness, protects and supports the recovery of survivors of trafficking and supports the prosecution process of traffickers. By going to Mexico in January 2015 I will support the work of El Pozo by raising awareness through social media and providing information to schools, support survivors in their recovery by working in their safehouses in Mexico City (DF), assist them in applying for grants to ensure the project remains sustainable and generally support the team in their efforts to combat trafficking in Mexico. In this role I will lend my skills and knowledge, from my work with Sophie Hayes in London, and learn from the work they carry out in Mexico. I hope, more than simply to lend my time to El Pozo, to create a partnership between the Sophie Hayes Foundation and El Pozo where an internationally joined-up approach to combatting trafficking is initiated and we can learn from and support one another. 

Being in the middle of the Americas, Mexico is a source, destination and transit country for human trafficking. This means that not only is trafficking a significant challenge within Mexico but that this crime permeates its borders and impacts the whole of the North, Central and South America Mexico is often referred to as the ‘Thailand of America’ due to the high proportion of trafficking that occurs here. And whilst the Mexican government has attempted to comply with the American Department of State Guidelines, from their yearly report on trafficking, it has remained a Tier Two country for trafficking meaning: “countries whose governments do not fully comply with the Trafficking in Persons Report minimum standards, but are making significant efforts to bring themselves into compliance with those standards”.

Whilst the initial 2007 Law on Trafficking has since been amended and significantly expanded in the 2012 government’s Law, pushed through largely by the efforts of Rosi Orozco, there is still a substantial amount of work that needs to be done in order for this law to succeed. With the mechanisms for the implementation of the law remaining flawed due to a lack of awareness and training for police and judicial authorities, corruption and a lack of political will to regularly review and improve the law, the need remains great to contribute towards the work of NGOs, charities and other anti-trafficking organisations who gradually create a positive impact. It is through volunteers, academics and committed civil servants that real change might be brought about, that awareness about the crime will improve; that police and border control training will improve; that pressure will be put on the government to implement the law; that corruption will be diminished through mechanisms of transparency and accountability; that victims will be noticed protected and rehabilitated; that this crime will be prevented and that criminals will be prosecuted and brought to justice.

A 'restaurant' that was shut down in DF because of a clandestine human trafficking operation

To make this Happen 

El Pozo is a Mexican charity run primarily by volunteers due to their limited resources and their primary focus on supporting survivors of trafficking with the majority of their funds. In order for me to work with them I have to raise enough money for my living expenses in Mexico so that I can devote my time to supporting the work that El Pozo does. Which explains this blog. If you haven't been able to tell I'm not really one with the words, I promise these will get briefer and include more anecdotes and pictures from here on but I wanted to set out the goal in its entirety. 

So the aim. To work in Mexico for a year I aim to fundraise £10,000 to support my living expenses and flights. This money will ensure that I can devote my time in 2015 (initially for one year) to working with El Pozo, supporting their anti-trafficking projects entirely and establishing/encouraging the relationship between El Pozo and the Sophie Hayes Foundation. 

To fundraise this amount I have created this blog where I will provide regular updates about my time in Mexico, I will apply for any available grants for volunteering abroad, I will approach individuals and groups to present my project and I will hold events to explain the work that I will carry out. I am genuinely passionate about combatting this appalling crime and believe that fundraising so that I can dedicate my time entirely to working with El Pozo will really impact on anti-trafficking efforts, not only in Mexico but through the mutual learning process happening with the international partnership of El Pozo and the Sophie Hayes Foundation. When I go to Mexico I have two choices, either I fundraise enough and can devote my time completely to supporting El Pozo or I fundraise a partial amount of my expenses and have to divide my time between teaching English and volunteering with El Pozo. Obviously my aim is to meet the first goal, however regardless of how I achieve this I will go to Mexico in 2015 and support anti-trafficking efforts of El Pozo. 

On the road in Mexico

A Last Note 

Through this blog I will present the work of El Pozo de Vida in Mexico and the work that I do to combat human trafficking through this organisation. Here I attach links to El Pozo and the Sophie Hayes Foundation to better explain their work and the impact of these organisations in England and Mexico. I also appeal to you to support my fundraising efforts by donating money through Sophie Hayes' VirginMoneyGiving and making sure you put the message 'EL POZO' so that this donation will be used solely for supporting my work in Mexico. 

Thank you so much for your time and support and I hope to update you soon.

Felicity (flickelsewhere)

Donate here with the message EL POZO to support my work in Mexico