Is Pandemic Living my Early Retirement Dream?

The past two months have been an epic fail for rules, goals, and general structure to my days. Well, I actually did manage to get us out of Tanzania in April, so score 1 for me, pandemic 1,357,875.

We are getting the documents ready to apply for our Chinese visas, so as soon as they open the borders again we can apply. Whenever that may be.

Mexico is planning to reopen non-essential government services on June 1, although restaurants here in Guanajuato are starting to open at 30% capacity. Official statistics have only 14 cases in the city, and two deaths- but testing has been low and it takes two weeks for results to come back. One of the deaths was one of Man who Works’ cousins, in his mid-forties, but no one else in the family has had symptoms.

At least things seem to be more under control than in Tanzania, where the president accused the national lab of falsifying results and has stopped reporting any statistics. The US embassy is warning of exponential spread in Dar es Salaam, while the local government is starting to reopen. Two people I know have tested positive, thankfully both are recovering.

My 89-year-old life-long smoker grandmother with a myriad of other health issues also tested positive in April. She was asymptomatic but her nursing home is the worst outbreak in Kentucky so all residents were tested, yet she somehow seems to have escaped getting sick.

I’m both mentally preparing for a new surge of cases as all these places start reopening but also feeling less stressed than I did a month ago when our own situation was much more uncertain. We are only seeing Man who Works’ parents now but might start carefully expanding our circle soon.

My daughter hasn’t seen another kid (aside from her chaotic preschool Zoom calls twice a week) in almost a month, but actually seems to be enjoying her solitude, talking to herself while playing with stuffed animals and listening to audiobooks while roaming around the garden. Honestly, I’m also doing fine with not seeing anyone - I guess we are both more introverted than I thought.

My regular exercise schedule I could do when I still had a nanny has flown out the window, but both Man who Works and I have lost weight since we have been in Mexico because we are no longer socially drinking way too much white wine (me) and beer (him). There is also a shortage of the major Mexican beers since the factories have been closed, including, ironically, Corona.

We have been taking hikes on the weekends in the mountains that surround our house, spending lots of time in our backyard, and I’ve been getting back into cooking after two years of having a cook (I know...but creating jobs is how expats help the local economy!). Aside from not seeing our friends and school being closed, the life we are living now is pretty close to what I had envisioned for my early retirement. Man who Works is still, of course, working, but he works 6am - 1pm to overlap with Tanzania (and occasionally 8pm-10pm with China…) so we get to see him a lot more than before.

Our utilities here are around US$100 per month and we are eating fancy exciting food like blackberries and asparagus (my favorites that you can’t get in Tanzania) and occasional restaurant delivery for less than $100 a week. If we exclude Man who Works’ Amazon shopping sprees (thankfully also not possible in Africa, or I probably could not have retired early!), we are well under our retirement budget, even without our Airbnb income. The main difference with normal times would be school fees (which we already paid in Tanzania...the day before the government closed all the schools…) and increased transport costs getting to and from school.

The biggest question mark for me is how long I could keep up this 1950’s housewife routine, especially if my daughter was in school for a chunk of the day, without getting bored.

A lot of my time now is still spent reading pandemic news, which hopefully will not be forever and is probably not the best for my mental health. I am continuing to read lots of library books as well, and discovering new blogs and podcasts that I never had time for when I was working.

What I need is to find a hobby that is portable and of course low-cost...any ideas?