Hi, Reader

I'm writing to you from Oaxaca, Mexico, where we arrived on April 10th.

Backing Up A Bit...

Before Phil and I arrived here, we spent 10 days in California, seeing friends and family and attending a wedding. Our friends Hannah and Scooter had a beautiful wedding on the Queen Mary in Long Beach. We had a great time, and we looked FABULOUS.

We even got to spend the night on the ship, thanks to the bride and groom offering us the room that came with their wedding package, which was SUPER kind of them!

PS. Folks say the Queen Mary is haunted, but the only thing I was haunted by was how paper-thin the walls between the rooms were. 😂 I heard full-on conversations between living humans behind solid walls while lying in bed on that big ass boat. Very spooky. 👻

Now, Back to Oaxaca 🇲🇽

To be honest, our arrival was rough. The apartment we had rented through a local service for two months was not what we had agreed upon, and the property manager was extremely unpleasant to communicate with. She was not interested in helping us in the slightest. I know myself well enough now to know that a place lacking natural light, a comfortable place to sit, and a property manager who actually cares about their tenants would crush my mental health.

So, we ended up deciding to take the hit, pay for this place with no refund, and find a new place to stay through Airbnb.

We really don't want to support Airbnb these days with how negatively they've been impacting locales around the world, but the truth is that many of these local property management companies lack accountability, and there's no recourse when things go wrong, as they did here.

As much as I hate to say it, at least Airbnb offers some level of accountability (although this is fairly limited, too, since Airbnb views guests as the product and those renting property as people to whom they are providing a service). All this is to say that it can be very hard to find reputable people from whom to rent spaces to stay without paying through the nose for it and ultimately contributing to gentrification. Capitalism strikes again.

🔨 STOP! HAMMER TIME. 🔨

I wrote this piece back in October, and it has been getting a lot of attention on Medium. It will only take you three minutes to read about why You Should Not Support Israel, Period.

PS. Did you know the watermelon 🍉 is a symbol of resistance for Palestine? If you want to know why, you can read about it here. But the TL;DR is that Israel started forbidding the display of the Palestinian 🇵🇸 flag decades ago, so with watermelon resembling the colors of the flag, Palestinians began protesting with the fruit rather than the flag. It still comes in handy for displays of support today, with social media algorithms punishing those who use the Palestinian flag.

Toe-No! 🦶

Warning: this next part is kind of gross.

The other issue I've had to care for since arriving in Oaxaca is my toe. At the end of our stay in Curaçao last month, I injured it by slicing it open on a rock at the beach (😬). Between then and now, I have played disc golf twice, taken five different flights, and gotten my steps in most of those days, so I admittedly wasn't going easy on my poor foot finger.

By the time I got to Oaxaca, my toe had become swollen and painful from an ingrown toenail to the point that my doctor friend was concerned.

Thanks to his advice, I went to a local podiatrist here who very gently removed a piece of my toenail (cringe, sorry) and bandaged it up. I went back to see the podiatrist a few days later, and she said it's looking much better now! Yay!

FOOD

This is the reason I wanted to come to Oaxaca in the first place. Oaxaca is the culinary capital of Mexico, and it's been high on my list to experience for years now. It has not disappointed. We have been eating very well.

Top Left: Shrimp salad with avocado and grapefruit
Top Right: Shakshuka
Bottom Left: Vegetarian tlayudas
Bottom Right: Enfrijoladas with eggs

I am also falling in love with the art scene here. There is a healthy culture of resistance here in Oaxaca, and it shows all over the walls of buildings. But I'm going to wait until next month to show you my art finds (and collect more)!

We will still be in Oaxaca next month when you hear from me again!

One last thing: there's a drought here right now, and water must be rationed. While we have certainly been affected, the people affected the most by this are already the least resourced people in Oaxaca — Indigenous folks and those living in poverty. These things are important to know as a guest using their precious water supply.

Thanks for following along with me,

Writer | Marketer | Activist | Humanist | Digital Nomad

​