Thanks to all of you who encouraged me on that DS PTSD thread I started to come on this trip from the US to Mexico again over Spring Break.  What with having fainted and gotten a concussion that put me in the hospital overnight the week before the trip and then the onset of this coronavirus outbreak, I really doubted whether I should come down this time.

But today the visit came to a head.  I'm planning to retire from my community college come July 1, 2021 from 40 years of teaching.  Because of the cost of living, all alone I can't afford to retire in the USA, and my health is so bad at 61 years of age that I need to retire at 62.  So since I grew up as a missionary kid in Mexico and Uruguay, from 2016 to now I've been coming to Mexico preparing the way to retire here.  I bought books and read up on retiring in Mexico, and from what I read I tried Cancun, Guadalajara, Mexico City, and San Miguel de Allende before settling on San Cristobal de las Casas in the state of Chiapas by the Guatemalan border.  It's the cheapest city in Mexico to live in, it's safe, and it was founded by the priest who came to America with Columbus, so it's got lots of history.

I spent this week riding all over in taxis looking at apartments to rent.  I plan to rent it now, then bring stuff down to it on trips down for the summer and winter break, and then move in come that blessed retirement date of July 1, 2021.

It didn't go well all week.  Last night I complained to a friend that I was going back to the US empty handed, and he said to try an apartment I'd looked for this past Tuesday but had been unable to find.

I did what he said, and lo and behold, I couldn't find it because it was on the grounds of a convent.  I worked once as a Protestant hospital chaplain in a Catholic hospital in Chicago. So though I'm not Catholic myself it's perfect for me to have an apartment on the grounds of a convent.  I was concerned that leaving any apartment empty for months at a time would invite burglars or squatters.  Plus, I want to buy a little motor scooter to keep in an apartment down here, and that could invite theft.  

It's a tiny one bedroom house in a ground level duplex, which is important to me because I don't do stairs well due to neuropathy in my feet due to kidney damage when the Seroquel I took for my war child combat PTSD nightmares met my diabetes.  I've lost over 100 lbs in the last year and got off of the cane I used for walking for 8 years, but it would be best to live on the ground floor.

Not only is this apartment at the right level for me not to climb stairs and not only is this apartment so safe that I can store a motor scooter in it when I'm away, it's also cheap.  Get this:  I'll be paying US $159 per month, with electricity, gas, water, and Internet included.  Oh, and it's FURNISHED.  The nun who handled signing the lease with me asked me what dishes and pots and pans I wanted (!) and what bedclothes I wanted, too (!).  Holy cow!

Once again, I'm deeply grateful to you all for encouraging me to come down on this trip to Mexico in spite of my hospitalization the week before Spring Break and in spite of this coronavirus outbreak.  I had a hunch there must be some reason I was supposed to come anyway, and call it kismet, karma, luck, fate, God's will, or what have you, this is reason aplenty!  YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY!!!!

I paid my rent in advance up to my next trip and bought a plane ticket to return from May to August.  For that I didn't need to ask your advice, I got this.  Thoughts and prayers that this coronavirus outbreak calm down by then are welcome still, though, for us all.  As for me, I thank you all truly for your encouragement here.  In spite of the coronavirus outbreak, I fly back tomorrow with a song in my heart and a smile on my face about my new holy home.  :-)