Covid19 and South Africa with Karen

Do you also have the feeling like someone is pranking you? That you are in a dream loop and that the whole Covid19 feels surreal? and.... Maybe, just maybe, if you wake up tomorrow it will all be over? That is how I feel. I feel stuck in a loop and being an outcome driven person, I find the being-unable-to-plan-anything, very challenging.

Despite all this, I am very pleased with the way my country is dealing with the outbreak. My family is safe, though my cousins' wife lost her father and the family soon found out that organising a funeral during the Covid19 lockdown was more than they bargained for.

The South African President took drastic measures when their numbers reached 200 and declared a lock down. Schools were closed and testing stations were put up. To date, over 80 000 tests were done. We have 2272 active cases and 27 deaths. The rate of infections were slow and I think it is because we still have warm weather in most of the country. Alcohol and cigarette sales were banned and this caused for some really funny memes and posts, that only South Africans would find funny.

Covid19 taught me a few things:-

1- Greed and destructive behavior of people caused more damaged to this planet than anything else;

2- We can really live with less and don't need so many things;

3- Humans are not meant to be alone;

4-Families should be among your top priorities;

5- It helps if you belief in a Higher power.... For me, holding onto my faith in Jesus has been a game changer;

6- Don't have a scissors, you will want to cut your own hair....jajajaja

7- One need a purpose in life, something that will oblige you to want to get up in the morning

8- Sleep grows. In my country, the older folk use to say this. It simply means that the more you sleep, the more you want to sleep and the more you will sleep. (on hindsight, I think it could have been something to do with depression)

9- Learning a new language is easier when you speak with native speakers.

10- There are a lot of people in the world who are not 'fine'.

11- I LOVE THE SUN. As an African, we often avoid the sun because it becomes very hot. Now I can't wait for those sunny days.

This being said, I took some time to improve my Spanish. Some of the Spanish words I learnt during lockdown cannot be mentioned :) and others are:-

quedate en casa,

Hay que hacerlo

Ayuda

Karen quieres jugar conmigo (from 6 year old Noa)

This Easter, my family and I made home videos of what we were doing and I used Animoto to compile a video. We decided that though we were far apart, we could still be together using social media and documented it for future use. It was really funny and too private to post.

In the clip below, you will find Cape Town, my home town, during lock down.

It was very heartwarming to see how South Africans came together during this time. Respect for the President grew and many people were praying for the leadership and him. Many funny memes surfaced. The elbow greeting became one of the most famous ones used. This video below is not the funny meme, but I am sure if you search on Facebook, you will find it.

Wow, what a mouthful...….That's all from me. The biggest lesson I have learnt from this outbreak is that we are all just human beings. We are in this together and if we work together we can make a difference.

Lets stay safe and #quedateencasa.

K :)