Focus on Mexico Blog

 By Tere Ruiz

All the people who live in Lake Chapala have different kinds of beliefs, ages, culture and background. This is such a cosmopolitan place to live in. In Lake Chapala you may have friends of all ages, either locals or foreigners, who come from big cities or small villages, who’ve had education to the highest levels or who haven’t, and everyone comes from different countries. All of these people had experiences unique to just them. Some experienced war; others the birth of modern technology. Most let their experiences shape them; a few may have missed the entire flavor of an experience.

All the people here are very different and yet the same in their attitude of caring and sharing.

I just got an update from one of our Focus alumni talking about some of her experiences since moving to the Lake Chapala area. It made me reminisce about my own move six years ago and how I coped with it. It’s been a very interesting and wonderful journey.

First of all, I had never lived anywhere but Kansas City, MO…I was born there and lived there for almost 59 years. I lived in the last house I owned for 27 years. Obviously, I tend to root where I’m planted. Then I met Bill in April 2002. As our relationship progressed, one day he asked me if I wanted to move to Mexico. Dead silence for 30 seconds, as I assessed my gut feeling about this question…“Will it be okay that he is the only one you know?... “Can you learn to speak Spanish?”…“Will we be able to live on his social security?”…so many questions raced through my mind, but there were no butterflies or queasy feelings in my tummy, so I said, “Okay.” And, that was it.