To help support the community at this time, The Tokyo Life has reached out to friends to get COVID-19 stories from around the world. In these updates, we hope to bring our readers the raw experiences of people in different countries and share how their communities are handling the abrupt changes to daily life.
*Check out last week’s submissions here.
School’s Out for Summer – Tia (Canada)
It’s really hard to cope with the idea that summer is past its halfway mark. Where did it go? Time seems
to slip by like someone set us to warp speed on The Enterprise; we’re just hurtling towards fall.
When I think of fall, I think of people going back to school and how that is going to work out with the pandemic.. I’m not so much worried about college and university students because they have had the option of online classes since before the pandemic and will most likely continue to have that going into fall, but elementary and secondary school kids are a different ball game.
Everyone is anticipating a second wave of COVID and in some provinces, second waves are already coming. Places out west have seen numbers going up in the past couple of weeks, and they are really trying hard to get them back under control.
Although my province hasn’t seen a second wave yet, with the new school year starting, I am worried about the return to school really raising the numbers. I know that school can’t be out indefinitely (as much as my 10-year-old self would have hoped and dreamed for that), but it’s hard to imagine elementary school with social distancing and temperature checks. Recess will never be the same, that’s for sure.
Back to School? – Shannon McCarron (United States)
Summer break is coming to an end in just a few short weeks, and while I’m excited for school to start again, I’m left with a lot of questions. With just about a month to go before we welcome students for the new school year, I have heard little to no news from my school on how we will be choosing to start. Will we continue with online learning? Will we attempt to return to “normal” schooling? Are we planning on taking a blended approach? It’s really not clear. I know that I’m not the only teacher who is concerned about the coming school year and it would be a huge help to know our plan well in advance so I can prepare accordingly. So far, all I have are rumors.
My guess is that we will follow a similar plan to that of New York City public schools, which will be using a blended learning system with 2-3 cohorts of students who will attend school a maximum of three days a week and participate in online learning on the other days. While this plan is a lot more concrete than anything I have been told so far, it still brings a lot of questions. If teachers are constantly providing in-person instruction to different cohorts of students at school, how will we also provide online instruction for those at home at the same time? If, ultimately, teachers will still be in physical contact with all of our students throughout the week, then are we really being protected from the spread of coronavirus? While I’m hoping that a solid solution arises in the coming weeks, I have my doubts.
Do the Right Thing – T.H. (Australia)
This week has seen South Australia take a step backwards in our fight against COVID-19. Just when I thought we were well on our way to getting back to normal, several new cases of the virus were recorded in our state. As a result, our government and local health authorities have made the decision to re-implement some social distancing rules in licenced venues. Thankfully, these are as simple as requiring patrons to be seated when eating and drinking, so they will not have too much of an impact on local business.
Across the border in Victoria, the situation seems to be getting worse. Yet again, they have had record numbers of new cases of COVID-19. And unfortunately more deaths, as a direct result, have been recorded in a single week than ever before. The local government has had no other option than to enforce level 4 restrictions. This means that residents are confined to their homes between the hours of 8 pm to 5 am. Travel outside of these hours is restricted unless it’s for travel to and from work or for medical appointments. Any other travel, such as trips to essential services like supermarkets or pharmacies must be within a 5km radius of their permanent residence. Hopefully, South Australians can do the right thing and avoid what Victorians are currently going through.
Back to Work – Meagan McCarron (France)
I started a new job this week in a call center just outside of Paris. Going from informal domestic work to office work during COVID times makes me realize how lucky I was before and how many more people I’m in contact with these days.
As a nanny, I would see the children I looked after, their parents, people at the market, and maybe a friend or two. I could avoid public transit if I wanted to too. But these days, I join the rat race on my reverse commute and see dozens of people in my office and the surrounding industrial complex. At present, it’s not too crowded, as many French managed to take holidays to domestic areas for most of August. But I’m nervous that the rise in cases is only going to get worse when everyone comes back in September.
As an expat with many friends who’ve returned to their home countries, everyday I have to question if I made the right decision to stay. I had the option to return home at the start of lockdown, and now, as rumors of another lockdown or harsher travel bans increase, I wonder if I’ll make the same decision the second time around.
More Masks – Christopher Temporelli (South Korea)
This week I have continued to think about the magnitude of an entire country wearing masks. It seems intense, but then, in a rainstorm, everyone uses an umbrella. No one considers that a phenomenon.
In Asia, and from my experience in Korea, it is not noteworthy for someone to wear a mask even in more “normal times”- be it for health reasons, dusk particles in the air, etc. So seeing everyone in masks is a little bit like watching everyone go out into the rain with an umbrella. Just kind of sensible. From what I’ve gathered about feelings in the US, seeing a mask-wearing population feels more like a reminder of the issue at hand than it does here.
With the number of cases relatively low in Korea, one could think, “Are all these masks really that necessary?” But again, something has been working, so until further notice… let’s unwrap some more masks!
Christopher Temporelli is a musician, educator, host, business entrepreneur, media personality and master life coach. www.christophertemporelli.com www.apollonatur.com
Learning the Local Language – the COVID-19 Way – Yoko Furusaki (Ethiopia)
I have been relying on word of mouth to understand the extent of COVID-19 transmission in Mekelle where I live, as this level of detail is not provided in national reports in English. However, although word of mouth is a good way to understand the sentiments of the people, I may not always get the correct information. For example, a shop owner in my neighborhood repeatedly tells me that COVID-19 has already disappeared – just because it didn’t spread in our neighborhood from the two families that contracted the disease!
Well, this past week, I finally learned of a way to get information from an official source; except that it is shared in Tigrinya, the local language in my region. Ethiopia has more than 80 languages, with Amharic being the “working” language (but not official language), which is widely understood throughout the nation. My command of Amharic is better than that of Tigrinya, but during the pandemic, I tried to start learning some Tigrinya. Amharic and Tigrinya are linguistic siblings and share the same alphabet and some vocabulary, so it is not as difficult as learning a totally new language.
To start deciphering this report in Tigrinya, I asked my Tigrayan friend to explain the general format of the report and some important vocabulary. Now I can identify the number of cases in Mekelle (simple enough to figure out) and more details about those cases, such as whether they resulted from community transmission or from quarantine centers (mostly guesswork at this point). I figure trying to read this report every day is a good way for me to increase my Tigrinya vocabulary while staying current on Covid-19 status in the region!
What’s the situation like in your home? Have you checked on your friends and family lately? Share your experiences with us down in the comments below!
Photo by mwangi gatheca on Unsplash
