5C's Que Pasa

I first became aware of how difficult things were becoming on the Isla in mid April because of Covid – 19.  Dallas ( my contact on Stone Island ) had raised as much as he could through his personal contacts and others already on the Isla. He was able to give out 50 packages of food to those in need on April 17th. I decided to reach out to my blog readers on April 14th asking for donations.  You can read that here http://www.contessajewall.com/oldblog/2020/04/14/can-you-please-help-the-isla/.  Based on the very generous response of my wonderful blog readers, I thought why not also send this out via a direct email to every single person that I had an email address for within the RV parks and to others who winter on the Isla in a variety of rentals. There were many who I had not been able to contact and eventually on May 5th, I was able to send out a donation request through the RV park email coordinator to those who might want to make a donation.

Each food package contains one kilo each of rice, beans and flour, plus pasta, a container of tomato paste, one litre of oil and of milk plus fresh tomatoes, potatoes, onions and carrots. Starting with the May 1st food package a kilo of  Masa to make tortillas has been added.  It is not shown in this photo.

Fortunately there are many hands to help prepare the despensas.

It is a huge amount of work for Rocio and Dallas to purchase the food, get it delivered to their home and to bag it and then deliver it to those in need.  Rocio goes out into the community and checks in with the leaders in the various parts of the Colonia and the rest of the Isla as to who in is great need of food. Each week families are varied as to who gets a despensa based on their immediate need.  Even for Dallas in these times of social distancing it is a challenge to get to the bank to withdraw cash to pay for the food. Sometimes he has to go everyday as some days the bank only gives out so many pesos. There are others who help with small donations if they can of food or even a few pesos. Plus there are many who come and help package the food every week. The fishermen are going out everyday and donate fish to those who want some. It is my understanding that there are also a few others who are out giving food to those in need in the Colonia including Carlos ( again I do not know him ) who runs a type of soup kitchen. The community is coming together to make sure everyone gets through these very difficult times. Once Dallas provided formula and diapers to a newborn.

So happy to have their food package.

In response to an article in a Mazatlan newspaper that mentioned how the local government had forgotten those on Isla de la Piedra, the mayor of Mazatlan arranged for a one time donation to 100 families on the Isla.  That despensa included 1 package of Tostadas, 1 package of pasta, 1 roll of toilet paper, cooking oil, frijoles, some sugar, some rice and a few eggs.  Too little for too many in need.

Dallas says that “a lot of Mexicans here on the Isla say thank you thank you thank you and God Bless. We have had many stop us and tell us thank you and God Bless over and over. We tell them it’s because of the trailer parks and others that have donated.”

The past few weeks Rocio has been giving out tickets for the 130 food packages and has asked people to come and pick up their despensa at their home.  It is taking too much time and too much fuel to drive from home to home.  It has worked out very well.  The first week folks were crowding in but now they are maintaining a certain amount of distance between each other and many are now wearing masks.

This was taken this past Friday.  The chicken is in the green bag.

Thank you Rocio and Dallas for your very hard work.  The following is a 17 second video that Dallas took this past Friday as they prepared to start giving away the despensas.

At this time it looks like we will be able to give another 130 food packages out on May 22nd and Frank is very generously providing 130 chickens to go with them.  Dallas thinks that there should be enough money left to do a final 130 packages to give out on May 29th.  Frank is going to see if he can get some donations from those currently on the Isla to pay for the chickens.  Come May 30th there is no more money left to buy food. With the odd donation they will feed as many as they can.  According to Rocio the price of rice and oil has gone up as well.

Both food packages.

This will be posted on my blog on May 19th as well as emailed to everyone who gave a donation that I have an email address for.  Thank you all so very much.  Your donations have brought me to tears many times over the past five weeks.  I never dreamed that together we could raise so much to feed so many.

Everyone was so excited to see the Snowbirds. For my American readers they are the equivalent of  your “Blue Angels”.  Here at the park we would see them passing over us as they came from Kamloops to Penticton and onto Peachland and again when when they returned from Vernon back to the airport.

Sadly their flight was cancelled due to low cloud cover but they were still planning on passing over once they left Comox.

They left Kamloops about 11:45 for Comox, on Vancouver Island, a base that they use from time to time.  Sadly something went wrong within seconds of take off and the plane ended up crashing into a residential area.  Both occupants ejected too late and hit the ground ( roof tops ) and tragically Captain Jennifer Casey, a Public Affairs Officer, died. The pilot, Captain Richard MacDougall, sustained non-life-threatening injuries. A shocking and huge loss for Canadians.

I read about the tragedy mere moments before Colin and I set off for our daily walk.  We talked about the crash and wondered what would have happened if they had left at 10:00AM as planned to come to our area and airport.  Would this still have happened?  Instead they did not leave the Kamloops airport until 11:45AM and the worst possible happened.

This is the third female death from the Province of  Nova Scotia within a month.

On Land, at Sea and in the Air. In less than a month Canada has mourned the tragic loss of three courageous and patriotic Canadian women who died while proudly serving their country. All hailed from our beautiful sister province of Nova Scotia and to all of their families and friends in the Maritimes and across the country, we grieve with you as a nation. We will always remember Constable Heidi Stevenson, RCMP, Sub Lt. Abbigail Cowbrough, Navy, and Captain Jennifer Casey, RCAF.

Meanwhile here today in Kelowna a group wanted to get together to honour the tragic death of Captain Jennifer Casey by doing a Snowbird Tribute flyover. They did a single line formation of 10 aircraft and two helicopters.  You can read about it by clicking here. Pilots in the Vancouver area did the same thing with forty aircraft at 6PM tonight.

We were out at the edge of our patio next to the lake watching each plane take off.

There were ten planes.

And two helicopters.

I felt compelled to stand there and wave at each one as they passed by.  Yes I had tears in my eyes and it was hard to swallow. So very special for these pilots to do this in honour of the Snowbirds and Captain Jennifer Casey.

I think that is great as it will keep people from gathering in groups over this long weekend ( here in Canada ).  However we are keeping busy doing a bit of this and that.  One thing is that the garden does not need watering.  However as the weather has been cool for this time of year, our garden is growing slower than it should.  Tomato and cucumber plants that we purchased are not doing as well as those that we grew from seeds which is interesting.

I have been meaning to let those who are looking to purchase yeast to try Bulk Barn.  Thanks to blog reader and friend Karen for that tip.

A big whoops. The fellow cutting our grass Friday says that his blade dropped by three inches on its own.  Fortunately we were here and he came to the door. He said that he would continue as it would look funny otherwise.

In repair news, the Jeep is back and looks like new.  Fortunately insurance covered the $2100.00 bill.  The young girl who rear ended us in Vegas admitted to it being her fault so we were lucky there and did not have to pay any deductible. We did have minor issue in that the right turn signal did not work and we had to go back to the shop to get them to put in a new part.  They said it happens often that new parts don’t always work 😯  The only major thing left in the RV repair department is to replace the front windshield that cracked while were in Tucson last November.  We have finally been approved to have it replaced and again with no deductible but we have been waiting two weeks for someone to come from the glass shop to take the required photos for ICBC ( our provincial insurance company ) in order to get the final official stamp of approval.  Colin drove the RV to the glass shop in Vernon yesterday and the photos were taken.  So hopefully within in week we can get the windshield replaced.  Then once back home we can take off the liability insurance held with ICBC  ( and save us a few dollars ) and just continue with the storage insurance that we are paying for separately with Aviva, one of the few private insurance companies here in BC.  Who knows when we will be next traveling in the RV.

We said no as we did not want the entire lawn to have the scalped look. Hopefully the rain will help.

Because of Covid – 19 there are no longer any yard sales here in the park.  May was always the largest with great finds.  While in Vernon last Friday to see the chiropractor Colin stopped at Superstore.  It is huge compared to ours here in Kelowna. He had called in early in the morning and they were holding two packages of his favourite jumbo muffins at the bakery.  You can’t get them at the Kelowna store. I went in with him as I needed to do a bit of walking after seeing the chiro lady. So much space and very easy to do social distancing and very strict areas to line up for check out.  That is where I found two new patio lounge chairs. Ours were getting old looking because of the sun.  I purchased two new ones at $59.00 each. Once home I listed ours for sale at $20.00 each on the private park FB swap and shop page.  They were gone in five minutes.  Colin was cleaning out the shed and came up with a croquet set we bought years ago but never used.  Sold very quickly for $25.00  😀

Our old loungers.  The new ones are the same except more grey and black than brown and black.

In other news the lake was actually down 3/8ths of an inch this morning.  Great news as long as we don’t get too much rain.  One of our neighbours sandbagged their site yesterday.  They don’t live here full time so have not been aware that the lake rise is slowing down.

It is up to you to socialize or not.

Just saw this on Facebook.

I think that this is a fair statement. Getting back to serving the public wearing masks and gloves won’t be easy.

There is going to be a huge learning curve for all of us as things slowly start to open up.

Today we both went to see our local chiropractor.  We are both still suffering from being rear ended back in early November in Las Vegas.  We have waited until now to see someone and it was an okay experience.  Not perfect and I did not feel comfortable the entire time.  She did disinfect the table in front of Colin.  I waited in the car for my turn.  No need to clean that table between us.  Dr K wore a mask as we did but I was not comfortable laying on my stomach wearing a mask so had to take it off to breathe. Colin was happy with his treatment as I was but I was able to zone in on areas that should have been disinfected. I know I am being super careful but now have a list of things I would like changed before our next appointment which will be Wednesday.  More details next week and maybe some photos.

Between my morning computer reading, morning exercises, midday walk, garden watering and some afternoon desk work followed by more knee exercises I am at almost 9PM. I had lunch at my desk today and did not even read a paragraph in my book.

My planned blog was more of a rant against the grocery store we went to yesterday.  Yes, Save On Foods again.  They are close and I thought that we would try then again, I would rather drive 7 minutes than 25 minutes. There was was no security at the entrance.  Colin said that he was behind the deli counter chatting up an employee.  I found people were back to doing whatever such as blocking aisles.  One couple each had a buggy and were side by side discussing ingredients for a meal they were going to prepare. I could not get past and politely waited, finally I did an ahem and said that I could not pass so she moved over but left her buggy to block my way.  A store employee was stocking shelves just a few yards away and observed the entire episode but said not a word.  Actually the store has narrow aisles made even smaller with staff stocking shelves in at least four areas that I has to pass.  One even stepped almost face to face to tell me she liked my blouse 😯

Finally got to the cashier and I asked her if she had recently wiped down the conveyer belt.  She said, ‘oops’, I haven’t, I forgot.  She also did not clean her gloved hands.  She was new, I guess they are short staffed. When we went to leave we noticed that they no longer has a specified in nor a specified out. The entrance was becoming congested.

I am thinking of calling the store to complain.  They were so perfect mid April.  I believe that folks are relaxing their personal standards as things are starting to “open up”.

Meanwhile the lake only rose two inches from 8AM yesterday to 8 AM today.  I think we will be fine although the lake is still rising.

Our third step is covered and we still have a bit to go.  The top two steps are wet because of the waves earlier.

Is this the new normal???