This is the first of a new series of posts to document or blog about the coronavirus pandemic experience. I’m calling the series “In this time of COVID-19…”
It is April 2020. It’s been about four months since the world first became aware of this new virus. In this time of the coronavirus pandemic, many people are anxious, scared and stressed. Some are angry.
I got a letter from my pen friend in Latvia. I hadn’t heard from her in a couple of months. By the tone of her letter, she sounded truly worried and afraid.
Understandably.
Apparently, businesses in her country were still operating at the time that she wrote her letter, which was 01 April 2020.
Because of the pandemic happening around the world, the day-to-day store operations at her job require that they sanitize constantly. It’s exhausting and stressful to her.
I’m posting here the letter I wrote to her.
N.B.: It has been slightly edited and improved for blog posting.
Someday this will be a reminder for me of what it was like, what we did, and how we felt.
A letter to my pen friend in Europe
Hola, [mi amiga].
It’s good to hear from you. I’m glad you’re feeling somewhat better. 🙂
I know it’s hard because now everything is different. But you still have your health, your job, your family, your home… It’ll be alright. Just get used to washing your hands more often, keeping distance from other people, and remember to wear a mask when you’re out of the house even if you are already staying 2 meters away from others. It can be a simple cloth mask or even a scarf. It still helps and it reminds you and the people around you that we all have to be very careful. 😷
We have been in lockdown and in quarantine here [in Luzon] for 5 weeks now. One more week to go. The president will announce this week what the next move will be — whether to continue with the quarantine or not. I’m pleased with how our government is handling this. 👍🏻 For sure we still need to quarantine, but maybe the government will decide on a partial quarantine, or a lockdown of only those areas that actually have COVID-19 cases. Because right now it is for the whole Metro Manila and Luzon, and the majority of businesses are not allowed to operate at all.
Many activities and gatherings have moved online — church services, lessons, meetups…
Fortunately our church is already well-equipped for online operations so we haven’t missed a thing. And the Spanish Language Meetup that I go to now meets online.
You still have it good in Latvia. You still have businesses running. And it’s really good that your daughter works in IT and can work from home. 👍🏻 Sometimes I wish I work in the tech industry. Hopefully your COVID cases will not increase anymore. 🙏🏻
I’ve been trying to get a job that lets me work from home, but still nothing. I hope I get a job soon. It would be nice to have some income again, especially since I don’t qualify for any government aid. My situation is very weird. But I can’t complain. I have a roof over my head, a bed, food. My family and I are safe. At least this situation is not like when there’s a typhoon where basic utilities (like water, electricity, phone, Internet) are sometimes affected. We’re still quite comfortable. 🙏🏻
Under the current quarantine rules, only one person per household can have a Home Quarantine Pass that let’s them legitimately leave the house and buy food and medicine. I have one. So far, since the quarantine started, I’ve only gone out once. 🏠🚘
[They are getting strict about this, because people are stubborn and are going out even though they don’t have a Pass. And the number of COVID cases in our country keep increasing each day.]
I made a little video of what it’s like here going to the supermarket while we are under quarantine:
I hope it entertains you a little bit. 🥴
Take care always. God hasn’t forgotten us. We’ll be alright. 🙏🏻
Hugs for you 🤗💗
Evelyn
I really hope that people will cooperate with their governments’ efforts in keeping them all safe and squashing this bug for good.
It’s the smart thing to do.
