México, te adoro 💚🤍❤️

It’s been a while since I’ve written here and I think about it daily. Just to check in, wanted to say hello world, I’m still here.

I’ve spent the past weeks bouncing between creative projects. Building my first website after finishing my web development bootcamp. I really really want to get it published by the end of this week 🤞🏾. I’ve made some random videos for my Youtube channel. I’m building an inventory of video projects to post and slowly but surely working towards building a creative identity. I’ve been dealing with some stomach problems for a couple weeks, which has knocked me out of my fitness regimen, but I was getting noticeably closer to doing my first real pull-up after 3 weeks of solid calisthenics practice. I look forward to getting back to that when I’m recovered.

I have just under 1 month left here in Mexico and I’m really going to miss this era of my life that I’ve spent here. Looking back, it feels like forever ago that I was just arriving to Tulum in February. Being here, I’ve been able to focus on my growth and go all-in on things that I actually care about with very little in my way. I completed the web development bootcamp in just under 90 days. I learned how to use a new editing software and started making real videos for Youtube. I’ve read 8 books. I haven’t been as chatty and practicing my Spanish as much I expected, which isn’t great for my goals, but feels ok for the time being. I have a feeling I’ll have plenty of opportunity in the future to practice my Spanish.

Mexico has treated me very very well and honestly, I love this country. I know, especially as African Americans, we tend to carry this fear of being treated poorly, but thankfully I don’t have that fear. I have had zero negative experiences here for my skin color. On the contrary, people here have been extremely kind and welcoming. One day, I got caught in the rain and ducked for temporary cover under an awning outside of someone’s house. The door was open and this woman was cooking and selling gorditas out of her house. She saw me standing there and told me “pasa, pasa!”, inviting me in. I gratefully sat and struck up conversation with her (I learned her name is Mari) and several customers that ambled in over the next 30 minutes or so. One woman gave me a list of sites to see, told me about a parade happening the next day, and gave me her phone number telling me to call her if I needed anything. When it seemed like the rain wouldn’t slow down, Mari went and brought me an umbrella from a back room, which I returned later. Now that I think of it, she isn’t the first person who offered to straight up give me their umbrella. After touring the Museum of Puebla, the tour guide literally gave me his lunch when I told him I was going to go get food. To be honest, I didn’t want his lunch and I told him so, but he insisted that I take it. He also tried to give me his umbrella. So yeah, people here aren’t just friendly, they’re kind. Obviously this isn’t everyone in the country, but I have yet to meet one person who’s treated me with anything other than absolute kindness. Even the grumpiest looking abuela or rowdiest looking youngster on the street will smile and say, “buenos dias” or “buenos tardes” when you pass by. It’s funny picking up on how the rhythm of speech varies between demographics. The way older women say “buenos dias” has a soft, warm quality to it while men say it in a more peppy, energetic kind of way. Also, being called “mijita” (my little daughter) by an elder woman here is like having your soul wrapped in a warm blanket. Anyway, Mexicans are great. I love them and I think they love me too.

I’m also really appreciating exploring nature here. I’ve noticed that nearly every day when I’m out walking, I end up stopping to take pictures of flowers, plants, insects and birds to look up later. Some plants look familiar. I’ve even seen weeds that I got so used to plucking from the Earth in Naivasha, Kenya where I struggled to pronounce the expression “ng’oa magugu” (pull weeds) correctly. I’ve found tobacco plants and the plant that produces the poisonous compound, ricin, that any Breaking Bad fan will know to stay away from. The ubiquitous mesquite trees here remind me so much of the acacia trees I saw everywhere in Kenya. Mexico also has a lot of Jacaranda trees in its interior, cooler regions – large trees bursting with beautiful purple flowers I instantly fell in love with in Kenya. The Kenya – Mexico connection is strong. I’m glad Lupita Nyong’o has gotten to feel and know both places well and draw the unlikely tie between the two countries in peoples’ minds. Without her, I don’t think many people would consider Mexico and Kenya to have anything to do with each other. Having spent time in both places, I can see why she seems like such a cool, down-to-Earth person.

Yesterday morning, I was taking a walk through a park and struck up a conversation with this man who was clearly very excited to see me, as I’m clearly not from around here and might as well be wearing a t-shirt that says, “FREE ENGLISH PRACTICE”. In our conversation, he spoke English and I spoke Spanish. He told me he had lived in the US for 23 years and still doesn’t feel confident in his English. I thought his English was really good, honestly. I hope that within the next 5-10 years, I’ll be feeling fully fluent and confident in my Spanish. I don’t want to feel how that guy did, but I know if I continue on this extremely self-focused personal development track, I will end up exactly that way. So as I prepare to move to the next location on my journey, I expect to naturally ease into at least a little more social interaction. Things keep seeming to fall into place and I expect them to continue this way as I continue to show up in the most natural, authentic way I can. I’m so grateful to be in a place where I genuinely love my life and am excited to see what each new day brings.