(Post 121 of 263. Thanks again to those who participated in the Fundrazr. As I mentioned in the post announcing Bast’s passing from COVID, I thank everyone for your generous donations to the original Fundrazr campaign, which resulted in sponsored 263 posts. I will continue to honour the commitment to write those 263 posts, but I will not commit to more. The link above is to a new campaign to help Bast’s family.)
Chris Bauer is at it again, popping up after many pleas to leave me alone, this time on a YouTube video. The only reason he comments is to chastise me for the way I live my life here and how he perceives I interact with locals, without having the full context. As a reminder, this is the person who told me I would fail at my life here because I can’t handle being a vehicle with no AC that has internal temps of more than 50C, so that gives you an idea of the value of what he has to say.
I’ll always be a silly bumbling foreigner here. That’s part of what I love so much about being in Mexico — everyone expects me to make mistakes and to be something of a weirdo. As long as I am kind and humble and respectful and willing to learn and earnest, this country will keep opening itself up to me.
I don’t need someone like him telling me how to behave here. I have the Mexicans in my life to do that through their example and gentle guidance. I live here contentedly outside the expat bubble and in the local language with very little friction. There is no way I would own this house if I was the kind of foreigner Chris thinks I am. This deal could only be made because I understand how to do business here — by building a personal relationship. Same thing with some of the deals that were made in this reno — only someone who cared about his relationship with his client could have made that desk and those doors happen on time and well below budget.
I am very distressed that Chris popped up in my life tonight and that I’m having to deal with this. It makes me feel very unsafe that four years after I told him to leave me alone, he’s still obsessed with me. This is definitely stalker behaviour, hence why I’m, again, speaking about it publicly because I know that my first instinct to go dark again isn’t the right one.