maintaining

I thought this week things would settle. At the beginning of it Josh and I were looking forward to a week of “normal” within this COVID19 world. Alas, each day we have woken up to news of something that has changed overnight. One morning it was that all malls have closed, another day it was that all flights in and out of the country have been halted for 2 weeks. Then it was a stay inside order, unless you were going to work. But then it was unclear if you actually had to stay inside or if solo exercise was OK. Then it was official from the Ministry of Health: Stay indoors (unless you have to work) and if you get tired of the view inside, you may step outside your door briefly and then go back inside (that’s literally the instructions that were given). This morning we woke up to the most restrictive order yet: Lockdown from 8pm Thursday evening until 6am Sunday morning as the city is being sanitized and doused with chemicals over the weekend to halt the spread of the virus.

But like everything else this week, the guidelines haven’t exactly been clear. It was first all flights grounded, then not, then back to grounded again. Then it was all malls closing for 2 weeks which caused a run on groceries, even though grocery stores remain open for the next two weeks. It hasn’t made much difference in our day to day, but it causes a lot of stress, trying to judge what is essential and what is not (can we walk the dog?) in a culture where things are black and white, but rules aren’t always evenly applied.

They are taking this very seriously as our number of cases were low, but have started to creep up over the past week: 30 new in one day, then 45, then 50 and then 85 which is what generated the mall closure for 2 weeks. Next will be everyone ordered to stop working — currently it’s up to the companies that are allowed to remain open whether employees work from home or not.

We were originally scheduled to go back to school on April 5th, but once they closed mosques for 4 weeks beginning last week it was clear that wasn’t going to happen. My most favorable estimate would be the 1st week of June, after Ramadan and Eid, if at all.

The past two days I have taken a CoronaNap where I’ve unintentionally fallen into a deep hole of sleep for several hours in the middle of the day and then wake up, not knowing what planet I’m on. We aren’t doing much physically, but mentally I must be in overdrive.

Even though we’re in the same house, we haven’t been spending much time together the past few days. I think we’re all tired of each other’s faces. We eat, I call out various names to clean up parts of the house, _______ unload the dishwasher! ________, move the laundry from the washer to the dryer! _________, that is not clean — come finish the job!

In-between food and work everyone does their own thing. Camille has her google chats going on with her school friends when she finishes her work for the day, the boys are on their computers or on the x-box, Josh has been working on the 3rd floor, and I go between the computer screen, cooking some sort of food in anticipation of the next wave of hunger, or exercise/nap depending on the day.