Readers, please send your letters. They can be emails, formal letters or handwritten notes. They are edited solely for grammar and spelling. Also, they are sometimes edited for length.
Dear Doctor Love,
I am a person that worries about everything. Every month my family has scarcely the money to pay bills. Even then, there are some bills, like for personal loans, that do not get paid. We started building a bedroom for our two girls and we ran out of money halfway through. They are of an age when they need their own room. My husband’s job is good but mine will run out when the tourist season is finished. We need that money and I don’t know when I will get another job. I worry about these things all of the time and now my doctor says I have high blood pressure. Sometimes I feel like I am going to have a nervous breakdown. Please help.
/s/ Too Tense
Dear Tense,
Start with the one thing you can do right now which is to get another job. Look for a job that lasts year round and apply for it now. Even if it is for slightly less money a year round job is better than a seasonal one. Also, keep in mind that it is always easier to get a job when you already have one. Employers seem to think you chose them as an employer more than they chose you as an employee.
After you do this, deal with the other problems one at a time.
Dear Doctor Love,
My family has been coming to this island for six years and hoping each year that it would improve. Our five children range from three years old to sixteen. At any given time at least one of them needs to go to the bathroom. This means that we have to find a restaurant with a bathroom and the restaurant employees obviously do not like that.
Why is it impossible to find a public bathroom in San Pedro?
/s/Holding It In
Dear Holding,
It is impossible to find a public bathroom here because there are none. Why? Because the local people do not need them. They have homes with bathrooms and they use the facilities of the businesses where they are working. San Pedro wants to promote tourism but they ignore one of the most basic needs for a tourist. In Mexico, even the meanest little towns have public bathrooms. A little old lady will sell you toilet paper and take a fee for the use of the facilities.
The need is here but no one is making money from a toilet. Make it pay and we will have bathrooms.
