February 12, 2013. Nuevo Vallarta, Mexico. People.

The people here at Playa Royale come from all over North America.   But what interests me the most is the story behind how they got to be where they live.   Each person has a different story.  This afternoon in the hot tub,  I listened  when two older men were discussing the therapeutic value of the hot tub.    One man had a strong accent and lived in Vancouver while the other man lived in Winnipeg.  He had no accent but he speaks Spanish.   In conversation between the two men, the one man mentioned that he learned English when he went to school in Winnipeg at age ten.  Up until then, I was not part of the conversation but I just could not be still.

I asked the man what he spoke before English and he said German.  Of course, I asked him where, and I was surprised to hear that it was in Paraguay.   It got even more interesting.  His grandparents lived in Russia and were Mennonites and lived to themselves and speaking German.  There was famine in the land and their town was ruined and they were forced to leave.  This was in the late 19th century. Canada took in some of the family and Paraguay took the others.  The Canadian group settled in Manitoba on farms.    His mother, when he was ten and still living in Paraguay, urged the family to move to Canada as the opportunities for the children would be greater, so they did.  They had relatives still living in Manitoba so were able to get their papers.  And he has lived there ever since.  I thought it a fascinating story, but I had to dig a bit to get the whole story.