My mind was yelling and screaming at me: WHEN?!!!
WHOW?!!
Making time out of the regular day 12 hours, juggling in between work, English classes, social life, survival mode life, was kinda stressing. My parents, working their ass off to bring food to the table, as well as us, but still most of all survive day.
See the light the following day.
Milk was getting hard to purchase, so the idea off selling it in powder became a must. No choice.
I remember staying in line, mom and I to get in side the supermarket to run to the place where they were giving away these plastic packages, green, white lettering 'LECHE' (milk in English), you had to hold on tight, so no one else could snatch it away from your hands.
By the time I got home, my hands and clothing were already staining everything, clothes, bags, baskets, everything they got in contact with….
An easy target to be milk-snatched by someone in desperate need of need….
Fun thought, this green ink only stocked to anything but the plastic bacg where it. And packaged for….
Staying in line from early hours, running to the post inside the supermarket to get to the skid where the master cases of powder milk were, scratching my arms in fighting other hands snatching other bags of milk, was insane.
Same story with first necessity food: bread, eggs, vegetables….
Meat, chicken prices went up
Milk…
I'm glad we grew up in the coast, sea food was easy to find but still subject to pricing and availability.
We became seafood lovers….
The best of us, plus the fusion of Latino and Chinese cuisine was born.
Our family enjoyed getting together the last Sunday on every month, or when possible to chat and share recipes and compare…. Great times that are not coming back….
Having said all of that, had many reasons to migrate to another country. As soon as possible, whenever possible!
Kept checking at the embassy, while working, saving money, saving for everything literally, not getting robbed, assaulted or attacked, or bombed, and learning a new language.
For how long?
Curfews were being imposed more often, hard to match because the times run by the curfew always caught you in the middle. Coming back home was dangerous too. Getting shot right on the street….
I could hear the shootings at night…
O. M. G. …
My brother many times arrived home via taxi cab… sometimes just stayed overnight until the next day…
How to leave the country with all these problems going on?!
Protesters
Companies going on strike
Burning of cars and buses
Robberies
Curfew
Insecurity
High prices on everything
Days after days without water
Weeks without electricity
Staying in long lines outside the supermarket without any guarantee that by the time ur turn comes, there will be enough for you…
Or the next 5 people in line?
Kidnappings on the rise too….
In time, the lovely month end family meetings became more scarce, cousins, nephews getting married, other having new members in their family, studying at universities…
Everyone's distancing increased as their lives started to walk on a new path.
I lost contact with many of them….
Wondering about their whereabouts, in time loosing interest, like fog started to loose contact and their lives.
Communication stopped.
Even now, as I write this chapter, no idea of where they are…
Hope they are alive…..🙏