Monday 13 April 2020

Lockdown Lament!


I wish that I was writing this in happier and more settled times.
We are entering the third week of our Lockdown here in South Africa and although we were hoping that this would be the final week, I think we all knew that it wouldn't be.
Last week our President Cyril Ramaphosa announced that the Lockdown would be extended for a further two weeks, bringing us to the end of April. But will this be the end?
We wait to see.
For us, here in our little corner of the world, life has not changed. We still only go shopping once a week... stretched to two weeks lately.... and we still enjoy the open, fresh air and the sea breezes. We still chat to friends around us, albeit a lot louder now with them in their gardens and us in ours!! Our hearing is still pretty sharp though, so we manage very well. Last week there was a 'street braai' where everyone stayed in their own garden and bellowed to the neighbours while they were cooking their steak and chops and chicken. We didn't join in... we were just one house too far and add some trees between us and them and it was simply impossible! But they missed us, so they say! I am experimenting with making and baking bread and Rob made a delicious 'Lockdown Potjie' last week.
And I have made material masks for us to use when we go shopping.
Some things we do miss though, walking Alfie and going to feed my 'refugees', my two tabby sisters who live in a friend's garden round the corner. They are being fed though by the lovely people who live in the house where I feed, and I get regular updates on them. Because dog-walking is Strictly Forbidden, Rob can only meander Alfie up and down the pavement and hope that whatever he needs to do, is done! But sometimes Alfie escapes and heads off down the road with Rob in hot (or rather warm) pursuit! Basil still meanders along with them.
The only stores open now are Food and Medical related. But customers are limited and the queues are long and winding with each person having a trolley to keep the distance. This is where being a pensioner comes in handy.. we went shopping about ten days ago, took one look at the snaking queue and decided to leave it. We had been for our flu injections, so we could last another day food-wise. But then I saw a notice in our local Pick n Pay store which basically said that the elderly and doddery and weak and limping (not really those words but it meant that) could go to the front of the queue and we were whisked in by our friendly owner/manager. Rob was walking with a walking stick anyway, and my Achilles tendon was giving me hell, so we actually fitted the bill! It was a pleasure and we were in and out in no time.
Alcohol and tobacco are not considered 'essential' so no (legal) sales are allowed but several alcohol outlets have been looted by those doing some 'after hour shopping'. Schools are closed and children are home but how much home schooling is being done is anybody's guess! There is a lovely saying that goes 'It takes a village to raise a child' to which someone added 'and a whole winery to home-school one'....
Thank goodness for humour.
We are wondering how long our economy (and our people) can cope with the severe lack of earnings, small businesses cannot carry all the financial problems, and many cannot carry on paying their staff. Rob's Tourism business has completely dried up, and we wonder how long things will take to return to some kind of 'normality'... a new normal? Some small businesses have turned to other ways of staying afloat, and we now have beautiful fresh vegetables and fruit delivered to our door by a small husband and wife company who's Guest House delivery has dried up.
We are hoping that some rules will be relaxed and that we shall be allowed to walk the dog, jog or cycle, not that we do the jogging or cycling!
Here are a few numbers for you... in the first week of Lockdown there were 87000 reports of Domestic Violence and hundreds of people have been arrested for breaking the restrictions on travel and movement. Our borders are closed, our skies are empty apart from freight and rescue missions. We have 2173 confirmed cases of Covid 19 and at the last count 24 people had died. We appear to be on top of it.... but are we?
I worry constantly about my family both here and in Spain, the death toll there is horrendous, and they lost a very close family friend two weeks ago, he was only 69. It has hit everyone very hard.
So, here we are on Day 18 of Lockdown.... together with most of the planet... I wonder what I shall be writing next time? Rob and I watched a movie last night called 'Contagion'. It is Fiction that has become Fact, History that is the Present, it is frighteningly real. We are living a movie that was made over ten years ago!
One of my favourite sayings is 'One day we'll look back on this and laugh'.
One day we shall look back... but I doubt we shall laugh.
Stay safe.