Haven of peace

Day 53 of the Coronavirus in France

Day 2 of enforced containment

Several days leading up to lock down was chaos.

Lockdown is a much-awaited haven of peace. Finally, the world makes sense. As long people were circulating freely the contagion was everywhere. On every surface, in millions of bodies. When we were “free” we could not organize ourselves to help, because going out was spreading the contagion. Going out was not “helping”.

Today we plan on spending some time gardening out in the sunshine to get our vitamin D.

Last night Parisians instituted wellness hour at the end of the day to hang out your window and check on your neighbors. Everyone starts clapping to call out the neighbors and they check in with each other. In Paris it’s 8pm, but in Portugal the end of the day is later so it’s 10pm. What time is your neighborhood wellness hour?

The pony farm has let the ponies out to graze in fields to reduce staff needs.

Guess what? Cami has her first loose tooth!

We are gaining a new perspective on history. Providentially, the week before quarantine my six-year-old daughter and I were reading a biography of Marie Antoinette before bed. There is a chapter where she is quarantined at her Hamlet for six months because she had smallpox and she wasn’t allowed to see her husband, the king, during that time. She fell in love with the countryside, the farm, the simple life: passions that she would keep the rest of her life.

Today we ran out of raisins. My six-year-old cut the last three raisins into a dozen pieces to sprinkle on her homemade yogurt.

We are also entertaining the idea of foraging dandelions in our yard for fresh greens.

We have made the decision to eat less meat. We will replace chicken in our meals with beans or lentils, maybe half of the time. We’ll see as time goes by.

So far everything is organized and well thought out on paper. But in real life the structures are having a hard time keeping up. We should have started systematically stocking resources in our homes earlier in advance. The drive through grocery system was already in place, but they are often out of certain products, like chicken. When your order is short then you faced with a decision to either go without, walk into the store exposing yourself to the contagion on the shelves and buttons, or go home and place another order for a week later.

Personally, we have no experience shopping for five weeks in advance. Things sneak up on you that you don’t expect beyond food like hygiene and maintenance. I have an idea of how much dish soap I use in a month, but we are using more dishes because we’re eating hot meals and leftovers for breakfast and because my daughter’s not at school. We are also washing our hands more often, and we’ve never had to spray the outside of packages with disinfectant. I will tell future generations to have a list of supplies they need for a month. Not to stock-pile perishables, but to have a document listing those things so that when a plague comes you can grab your document and begin filling it. Simple, logical, thorough.

Today the grocery drive through pickups are already reserved through the next seven days. We have a reservation for tomorrow that we will pick up. Stay in the car, they’ll put it in the trunk. They say don’t wear gloves, just wash your hands. Let everything sit in quarantine before it enters your house or spray the outsides of each package with disinfectant.

Social structures

We have no way to volunteer in the war against Corona because there are not enough hazmat suits. The children of healthcare workers are cared for together so that they don’t spread to others the contagion their parents are exposed to. So, we are looking for other ways to volunteer.

Last night we were able to continue pre-marital counseling with a couple

Zoos rely on entrance fees to feed the animals. Some zoos have started online “Interview an Animal” live broadcast each day to raise money to keep caring for the animals.

What are we going to do with the really poor people? Those who live on state income might have more stability than those who relied on serving others. Look around the community for people who have no money in the bank and no state income. Their lives are about to get morally complicated. Don’t let them get to the point where they have no choice but to steal. Churches and soup kitchens are not allowed to gather, but grocery stores can serve. Will helpers reorganize their structures to create social supermarkets to distribute food to the poor?

My Friend is Corona Positive.

I’m sharing the story of my friend, Julie’s symptoms. She lives in Portugal. She shows you why you should stay home from work if someone you’ve had contact with is going in for testing. Quarantine yourself at the same time, don’t wait for the results to come back.

Rob & Nichole, don’t know if you’re still on facebook here but thought you might like a coronovirus positive perspective on this chat. There are 2 of 5 positives in our apartment. #1 got it in Italy between 1st and 5th and didn’t have a single symptom until 5 days later (slight cough, bit achey and low fever, could have ignored it but the Italy news made us think better safe than sorry) and immediately quarantined to one room alone. Tested on 10th and positive. All family contact cut. The other 4 of us continued quarantined in the rest of apartment. #1 continued to feel achey and fever fluctuated, sometimes treating with tylenol. On the 12th I had a slight bout of diarrhea, never heard of that as a symptom , ignored. On the morning of the 14th #1 thought he was feeling slightly better. Late in the day I began to have dry spot in throat that sometimes made me want to clear my throat. Every day health officials call to hear each tell any symptom and daily temps. Late in night I had head ache and took temp 37.6, fever but not high. By morning it was gone, felt fine. Health officials called said I should be tested. 4pm 15th tested at hospital, results at midnight were positive #2. Released from hospital at 1am and up 4 flights of stairs (not to use elevator). Now I am isolated in other bedroom. Basically feel fine, dry throat at times and fever seems to rise at night. #1 felt especially bad yesterday (his day 6). Also, today my other son-in-law was tested positive; he was with us previous to the 10th. He only has a low-grade fever and says he feels fine. He was not excused from work for having been in contact with positive case #1 on the days prior to being tested. Now only today he is not going to work. This seems to be the issue is people don’t know they are spreading it for 3 to 7 days before 1st symptoms which can be mild, vary case to case and easily ignored. Maybe you don’t want to hear all this, sorry. But I’m hoping Portugal can keep up with the spread. Lack of sufficient ventilators is likely. Hope and pray I don’t ever need one.

— Julie