The first night we arrived in
Mexico, there was a giant storm! In fact, it destroyed the wall that Laura had
sat on earlier that night. Of course, I slept through the whole thing and woke
up totally clueless as to what had happened outside!
The storm polluted the ocean water
so we could not go to the beach for the first few days. We spent time looking
at fascinating old Catholic cathedrals. We also went shopping and I bought
gifts for my family. We always had people coming up to us and trying to sell us
something. "No thank you," was our usual reply but they didn't always
understand what it meant. The same people kept coming back to sell us things. I
did buy bracelets from one vendor though.
In the evenings, Laura and I
explored the areas around our hotel. The sidewalks were very high above the
roads and there were no ramps, which made it difficult for me to get down from
and up onto the sidewalks. And with
their driving I didn't want to be on the roads! Luckily I brought my manual
wheelchair, making it easier to travel the streets. The beach was a little
tricky to travel; I moved if someone tilted my chair back and pushed it on the
back two wheels.
I went in the water with everyone.
They each held one arm, keeping me between them, to walk me out into the water.
Afterwards, it was just Laura and me. She accidentally let go of me for a
second, I lost my balance, and ended up with a mouthful of salty water! I
spluttered at Laura, "You did that on purpose!" "No, I
didn't." "Yeah right."
On the last night, we went out for
supper with my family friends at the well-known Senor Frogs. While we were sitting at our table, there was
an old man looking at me. He kept
staring. I pointed him out to Laura; "My gosh Shawna, I can't take you
anywhere!" He came over and asked me for a dance. I declined and he left. He returned later that
evening to ask me to marry him. Once
again I declined his offer and we asked him to leave us alone.
I don't enjoy hot spicy food so I
wasn't too fond of the local cuisine. We
made up for that at Senor Frogs by ordering some ridiculously tall drinks. As
you can imagine, I wasn't feeling too well the next day and spent my time by
the pool before flying the four hours home.
We had a blast in Mexico, from
going to the beach, touring the city, and trying new foods (some that I would
not try again)! It was a great holiday and if I wasn't in a wheelchair, I would
go back. It was hard to get around in a
wheelchair even with Laura and my friends there to help me along. Despite the difficulties, people were happy to
accommodate me. It would be nice to have
this level of service in Calgary but this involves much more than inclusive
policies; it involves attitude changes.
Sometimes I prefer it when people
have a nicer attitude towards me. However, there is a difference between being
nice and babying me with niceness. Attitudes towards people with disabilities
are like a see-saw; you have to balance treating me like anyone else while
acknowledging that I do have a disability that impacts services. It's nice not
to wait in a long line, like in the Mexican airport. I was so happy not to have to wait in line
because I hate waiting in line and it was very long. When we exited the airport, the line had
barely moved; those people were there for such a long time! An airport staff
member was pushing me while Laura walked behind us with the entire luggage in
her hands. Suddenly he broke out into a
run and I looked back to see if she was keeping up; she was sprinting along
with one suitcase and two backpacks!
