This is not a travel story. In fact, it is the complete opposite; it is a stay-at-home story. Suddenly it’s become an advantage not to have traveled recently.
27 March 2020 – Day 1
We woke up to an eerie silence. No taxi hooters. No buses accelerating in Bath Avenue. In fact, no traffic sounds at all. It is the first day of lockdown in South Africa and many, many thoughts are racing through my mind. How lucky we are as ‘haves’ compared to the ‘have-nots’. Our small townhouse with only two of us living here offers so much more than the average informal settlement ‘house’ with its high room density and absence of a yard where children can safely play.
I think of the folk that live from hand to mouth; without their daily informal trade they are unable to buy food for the next day, let alone to provide for at least 21 days. Will government aid reach each and every one of them, and will it be enough?
Then there are small businesses? They often employ a number of workers that in turn support entire families. How will the promised assistance be administered? And will it be fair? Both my sons have businesses in the SME category.
I also equate the situation to the keeping of zoo animals. Do people ever consider the fact that these animals spend their entire life, taken mostly from the wild, cooped up in small enclosures?
I think of all the health care and other essential services workers, like the police, that are duty bound, without choice.
We are fortunate. All our family members are in more or less safe home situations. At least as safe as can be for now. What most people don’t realise is that these measures are simply to ease the burden on the health care system. It is not going to prevent most of us from contracting the virus once the lockdown is lifted. And most certainly many, many people will be financially and otherwise ruined.
Kevin was lucky enough to get a job as a ship’s engineer with the Dutch company Jan de Nul. His departure was repeatedly delayed until he eventually got his instructions and travel documents to join the team. He flew from Cape Town to Paris just after midnight on the Thursday 12th, then from Paris to Malaga in Spain on Friday 13th. He spent the night in Gibraltar and was taken the Isaac Newton, a cable-laying ship, on Saturday 14th. South Africa’s State of Disaster was announced on Sunday 15th! He is now in ‘isolation’, enjoying his new job, far away from contact with the rest of the world. His contract is for six weeks on and six weeks off but I suspect that will change under the new circumstances.
I am fighting a constant underlying sadness because of all the doom and gloom, but at the same time I am optimistic that perhaps the world will be a better place once this is over. Or will it be? Certainly it will never be the same again.
We have been buying supplies (including wine, of course) to last for the next few weeks and are as ready as anyone can be, without unnecessary hoarding.
My PnP wine order, which was placed about ten days ago, was cancelled yesterday due to the last minute restrictions imposed on alcohol and cigarettes by our minister of Police Bheki Cele. Fortunately neither of us smoke.
While he was buying the wine, I was in the queue at DisChem.
In anticipation of the lockdown Roger went to visit his mom twice during the past week. There is an unspoken concern of not seeing her again. She is in good health and totally ‘with-it’, but she is 89 years old.
While I am grateful for being in this situation with my best friend and soul mate, I think of all those people out there that are alone, or don’t like their spouses or don’t get on with their family members. 21 days can be a very long time!
While checking on the guards today Roger spotted a drone outside. Surely this is an infringement of privacy? It appears to be a private little craft. Perhaps the airgun will come in handy…
Since Roger stopped flying last year we have become rather anti-social and spent most of our time around the house, so in a way we have been practicing for this for almost a year. We will manage just fine…