México was a HUGE mistake.

So my next post was going to be about my time in Mexico and the super fun things I did in the first month. But scratch that.

I am so annoyed  and fed up right now at what I have just been through that I’m gonna have to post this one first. I’m going to get into the REAL stuff.

I’m going to start by telling you all a little story as to why I am fuming whilst writing this.

Today (Friday 19th), I went to Moneygram to collect money which I sent to myself. Reason being because my card I have in Mexico has been blocked. I get to the supermarket which has Moneygram and one girl asks me for my reference number and a form of ID, both of which I have. She then passes it on to another woman who puts the info that I gave them into the computer. I wasn’t paying attention because it's a pretty standard procedure that I have been through before.

Suddenly, this woman comes to me and says it has already been received. She says that someone else has picked up my money from another branch. How is that possible? I sent it to myself. So it’s IMPOSSIBLE for someone to have done this, especially when you need ID to receive it. She then proceeds to tell me that I have to sort that problem out with moneygram or the person that sent the money - who is myself. I literally almost switched.

But, I composed myself and continued to try to explain that this was impossible. This was one of the most difficult things because I didn’t have the grammar and vocab to explain my situation. I was literally reaching for google translate on my phone to find the words to say this. Even after this, the 2 decided to ignore me and went on to serve another lady - baring in mind my issue was left hanging.

Once they finished serving the lady, I went forward and let them know I was still there waiting and should try again because I needed to go. I rewrote the number and waited for them to try again but instead they started to serve ANOTHER person! That was the second person they put ahead of me. I couldn’t believe it. By this point, I had been waiting about 30 minutes whereas the 2 people put ahead of me were in and out in less than 10.

I literally had to call up my mum to scream my frustration with her because I couldn’t communicate myself to these people. My mum is generally a calm person , but she wasn’t having it. I was shocked (but laughing inside) when she said “No! Call the police! They can’t do this. CALL THE POLICE!” I was glad she could relate but I wasn’t going to call the police and risk getting arrested for the wrong reasons.

So, the woman tries again and to her embarrassment, it worked. Finally. I could get my money and leave.  This whole scenario was over…

...Or so I thought.

Really, it only got worse. She asked me for my ID again and started to look at it. And I mean LOOK. She spent 5 minutes looking at the passport then the computer screen then back again as if she was a border control immigration officer and I was a criminal on the no fly list.

Why was she over analysing my passport like it didn’t belong to me and the name in the passport didn’t match what was on the screen? She even turned to her colleague pointing at the picture in my passport as if to question whether or not it was me.

I had had enough. I asked her (again, reaching for google translate LOL) what’s the problem? why are you taking so long?  She then goes on to ask me to confirm my date of birth.

I. LITERALLY. FLIPPED.

I started speaking Spanglish like I never have before. The reason I flipped wasn't just because she asked me to confirm my date of birth. It was because she didn’t ask either of the 2 people that she put ahead of me ANY questions, she made me wait by ignoring me for 30+ minutes and spent all this time analysing my passport just to ask me this.

I told her she had no right to question me and that she didn’t treat either of the people before me like this way so why was she asking me questions. She replied with a smirk on her face saying my passport was different. DIFFERENT.

The manager came and a man standing behind this woman spoke through his radio as if to call security on me. However the manager stopped him and asked me what was wrong. Thankfully he spoke English so I could explain everything that happened. In the end the manager continually apologised for how I was treated and I left with my money, pretty annoyed.

See, my main issue here was not just that they told me my money had been received and that they were ignoring me. It was how I was being treated and that I couldn’t even communicate myself in Spanish in the way that I wanted.

The purpose of telling you this story was to highlight exactly the things that I have experienced here in Mexico and unlike what the title of this post says, coming to Mexico wasn’t actually a mistake. I believe it has been SO necessary as an eye opener, where I have been faced with challenges that I probably never would’ve encountered had I decided to live in Spain for my year abroad. These challenges and trials are things that I will be going into in more detail in the next few posts.

Trust me you’ll want to find out.

In my view, this event happened in relation to the things that I have seen, encountered or personally experienced over my time so far in Mexico.

The first of my challenges has been the language barrier. My Spanish level on arrival was only ever enough for that “hola, cómo estas” type small talk. Coming here and throwing myself into full speed Spanish has definitely been a massive learning curve and a big challenge that I am still overcoming and taking day by day. Lowkey, I still can’t speak Spanish but ask me again September 2019 and we’ll see.

There are also other challenges and adversities that have, really, I mean, REALLY tested me. Different extremes and levels of the abuse of power, status, colourism* and gender inequality are all things that have been thrown at me like a ton of bricks since being here especially being a WOC.

This week was an insight but I’ll be letting you in on the real madness in the next few weeks

Hasta pronto. ;)

*I say colourism instead of and not racism because this is specific to the culture in Mexico, but will explain that too.

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