Social Phobias, Prozac, and My Friend Hancock

Subbing is the perfect job for me. Heck, I don’t know if it’s part of my nature or if I suffer from an underlying mental health condition. I worked in a position where I didn’t have to get to know anybody therefore I didn’t have to make any friends. Every day, I was somewhere different. I reported to my assigned school. Checked in. Went to my assigned classroom. Prepared the lesson plan. Executed the day’s lessons. Left a report. Went home. Went to a different assignment the next day. It was easier that way.

I tend to be a socially awkward person. Honestly, at the time when I started subbing in Port Isabel, I had a diagnosis of Social Phobia and had a very difficult time going out in public, let alone making new friends. The doctor had recently started me on a round of Prozac to see if that would help get me to work. That’s why when I make a friend, one of two things end up happening, they either end up becoming one of my best friends, or they end up thinking I’m a jerk. And the reason for that is that within the first two or three days you get a complete picture of me. Within those first three days, you know my entire history, from the psychological disorders, the mental health disorders, everything I have ever gone through, every mental health crisis screening that I’ve ever been through, and every addiction I’ve ever had, everything, you see it all. It’s one of the many reasons I enjoyed subbing. All I had to do was show up, implement the lesson plan, and go home. No fuss, not much interaction with staff, other than the secretaries, do my job, and go home!

As it so happened, the teachers I subbed for gave good reports about me to the secretary so I started subbing at the high school more often, until I started subbing exclusively at the high school. Little by little I started to break out of my shell. Thank you, Prozac. I suppose it was bound to happen. Now, my daughter had spoken very highly of him. Other students, in passing, had spoken highly of him. Who was this Hancock? And why did the students think so highly of him? Must be another yuppie liberal! I thought to myself. One day, I was subbing in the computer lab, and a couple of students came in and asked,

“Do you mind if we work on something for Hancock?” at first I was a bit hesitant, cuz I didn’t know what was going on. I told them to go get a note. A couple of minutes later, they came back with a tall bald, gentleman, kind of intimidating, and dorky looking, he walked into the classroom and asked

“Are you, Mr. Rodriguez?” I responded with a quick,

“Only on days that in ‘Y’!” He immediately got the joke and laughed. It normally takes people a while to catch the joke, so him laughing right away made me like the guy right away. He extended his hand and proclaimed

“I’m Mike Hancock, I’m your daughter’s English teacher.” I extended my hand and said,

“Eli Rodriguez, I am your student’s father!” He laughed again.

“Nice to meet you,” I said. He responded

“Yeah, likewise, your daughter told me you were subbing here, I had to come and meet the father of one of the smartest, brightest students I have ever had. Your daughter is an incredible student!” A big smile came over my face as I responded with

“Well thank you, Mike, I can honestly say we’re very proud of her. I don’t know how the hell we pulled it off, but we must have done something right at home!” He laughed again. Yes, you can say we hit it off. He then asked,

“Do you mind if a couple of my students work on an infographic for me in here?” I responded with a

“Not at all!”

We started talking a little more. Before we knew it, the period was over. Before he went back to his classroom he let me know that he had a Keurig in his room, if I ever needed a cup of coffee, I was more than welcome to stop by his room, and brew one up. I told him he shouldn’t have said that because I was going to take him up on that! I started subbing at the high school daily. Every morning I stopped by Hancock’s room and brewed up a cup of coffee. I bought a month’s supply of k-cups of course! While my coffee would brew we would chat about current events, who I was subbing for, the lesson plan I had, movies, and anything else of interest. We became fast friends. I became the only sub he trusted with his class when he needed to take the day off. Because I was in his classroom on an almost daily basis, he knew that the continuity of the material would not be an issue if ever he needed to take the day off. This is why, one semester, when he had to take six consecutive weeks off, he made sure that the assignment went to me.

Now, Nuevo Progresso is a border town in Mexico that a lot of people go for medical tourism. There are over 100 dentists, over 100 pharmacies, and plenty of shops, restaurants, and bars. I go to get my dental work done. A long time ago I had some bariatric surgery done, as a result of that, I had lost a lot of teeth. I started going to Nuevo Progresso for its economic dental services. Most people who go there, go for that reason. The rest go to fill their medicine cabinets with inexpensive prescription medications. The thing about Nuevo Progresso though is that if you can’t find it in Nuevo Progresso, then you aren’t looking hard enough or it doesn’t exist! The other thing about Nuevo Progresso is that up and down every street are vendors, beggars, the guys who try to reel you into their dentist or pharmacy, and the children who beg for a quarter for a taco. Nuevo Progresso has an entire economic culture based on begging.

For as long as Hancock had lived near the border, and for as many times as he’s been out of the country, he had never been to Mexico. So when I asked him if he wanted to tag along with us one Saturday to my dental appointment, he jumped at the opportunity. I then found out he had never been there.

“Dude, be a careful man” I warned him.

“Keep your wallet in your front pocket. Make sure you know where your passport is at all times, and keep your eyes on your cash every time you pull your wallet out.” A look of concern started to creep into his face,

“Dude, you’re scaring me” I replied with,

“It’s not as bad as it sounds, but you’re a gringo, we don’t want to take any chances, and don’t wander too far away. We wouldn’t want you to get kidnapped!” I chuckled.

“Can that happen?” I shrugged my shoulders and said

“In Progresso, it’s very rare. But you never know!” I then looked at him with a very serious look and said

“And rule numero uno… don’t give money to any of the children or any of the beggars…PLEASE!” he looked at me and asked,

“Why?” I answered back with,

“If you give to one, you get swarmed by the rest of them and then they expect you to give to them and they won’t leave you alone until you do. So you mustn’t do this. It’s going to be hard. But believe me, it’s not as bad as it looks.” I start to think to myself wondering what Hancock must be thinking. He’s probably thinking he’s going to get kidnapped, pit pocketed, or bamboozled out of all his money!

We finally get to the border and start to walk across. As we begin our hike across the bridge that crosses the border, I see a look of bewildered excitement flash across Hancock’s face. He loves adventure. Then the yelling starts, he’s looking around to find the source of the yelling. He can’t find them. Ladies are yelling

“Meester, una quarter please?” I point to the women under the bridge.

“They are beggars asking the tourists to throw down spare change” I explain. He looks at them and frantically reaches into his pocket. I remind him,

“Dude, don’t” He got this look of, of, well I can’t explain it. It’s almost a look of disappointed despair. He wasn’t upset, but remorseful. I hope he didn’t get mad at me.

“It gets worse,” I told him. Then we finally cross the border and enter into Nuevo Progresso.

“Welcome to Mexico” I exclaim.

“Wow, this is incredible!” He whispered. Then the first wrangler came up to him.

“Hello sir, what you need, dental, medical, pharmacy, come in here, we can help you!” he turns and looks at me with this “what do I do” look and I quickly respond with

“No thanks, we got it,” I forgot to tell him about the wranglers,

“The wranglers work for the dentist and the pharmacists and try to ‘wrangle’ in customers to that particular dentist or pharmacy,” I explained.

“I already have one particular wrangler that I already deal with, I’ll introduce you to him. If you need anything he’ll be the guy to talk to.” So we slowly walked down the streets of Nuevo Progresso. Wrangler after wrangler. This look of bewildered astonishment washing over Hancock’s face. A child beggar would approach, and every time, I would give Hancock a look, I could tell he wanted badly to give the kid a dollar. I think at one point, while I was not looking, he did.

“Are you hungry yet?” I asked.

“Famished,” He replied.

“Get ready to eat some of the best, authentic tacos you will ever eat!” I said.

“Where at?” He asked.

“Well, pretty much anywhere down taco alley!” Taco alley was an alley where every taco stand, cart, and truck was located. We walked to the alley and I instructed him to choose whichever place looked appealing to him, they were all good. We sat down and right after they took our order another kid came up and begged for a quarter. Hancock reached into his pocket as I gave him a disapproving look.

“Dude,” he snapped “is it that much of a big deal giving this kid a damn quarter!” I smile and responded,

“How many quarters do you have?” He shrugged his shoulders and answered

“Like, five,” I then went on

“Might as well go change a ten-dollar bill for quarters because you start giving to one, you won’t stop. You give to him, and all his little friends are going to follow suit, but hey, dude, I’m not going to stop you, if you want to give the kid a quarter, give the kid a quarter. Now, if you want to help the boy, he’s probably hungry, ask him if he’d rather have some tacos, chances are if you buy him an order or two, it’ll feed him and his family or him and his friends,” Hancock looks at me and smiles,

“Ask him what he wants. A quarter or two orders of tacos.” So I look at the boy and ask, and sure enough, the boy wanted the tacos. We get our tacos and the boy gets his tacos and runs off. And sure enough, those were the best tacos Hancock had ever had.

We finished our lunch and to Hancock’s amazement, for the 4 orders of tacos and 2 sodas it was less than 10 bucks. I then introduce Hancock to my pharmacy wrangler.

“Hancock, this is Pedro, if you ever come back without me, this is the guy you come and see. Here, at this corner. Pedro, this is Mike, he is one of my best friends. You take care of him!” Pedro responded,

“Ok, Mr. Eli, I will, so what are looking for today?” I pull out my blood pressure bottles and tell him,

“The usual” we go into his pharmacy and conduct our business. Mike got his meds too and couldn’t believe how easy and inexpensive the whole process was. We walk around the streets a while looking around at some of the souvenirs and trinkets the street vendors have for sale. Hancock buys a few things here and there for some students and some family members. Some more beggars approach him, and he gives a few dollars away with no hesitation. He is also very surprised when he sees how inexpensive the bottles of tequila are in Mexico, so he ends up buying one.

“Now the reason we came!” I said.

“Oh, and what’s that?” He asked.

“My root canal!” I said with disdain. We headed over to my dentist’s office. We walked in and I checked in. Hancock scanned around and I could tell he was analyzing the place. I’m sure he was thinking to himself

“This is a dental office?” They called me back, and I said

“Come on back with me dude, check it out” he replied,

“Why do I have the feeling they’re going to escort me out the back door and into a van?” I chuckled. So he followed me back and at one point he exclaimed “Wow, this is surreal” We started to talk a bit and I asked,

“So, what do you think of Nuevo Progresso so far” he immediately and fervently replied

“I love it here, I think I’m in love with this place” I was a bit surprised

“Really? I thought maybe the beggars would’ve turned you off or something” He replied

“No, not at all, this is surreal” The dentist came and did the root canal. We did a little more shopping and then headed back to the border. As we headed back state-side, he asked

“Am I going to have any trouble passing these meds or the liquor?” and I answered

“The meds you have a prescription for, and the liquor you just have to pay the tax on! So you’ll have no problems crossing them!”

We started going to Nuevo Progresso almost every other week. I was having extensive dental work done, so I needed to go on a bi-weekly basis. We started eating at a different taco stand every time we went. Just to make sure that they were all the best taco. The last time we went to Nuevo Progresso was about two years ago. The last time I went to Nuevo Progresso was a week ago. I went to a taco stand and ate an order of tacos and as I sat there eating my tacos I realized that I missed Hancock, the best English teacher my daughter ever had, the most compassionate human being I’ve ever know, and my best friend.