Dear Yuri,
I have realised that lifestyle is always a temporal design; my Country Zambia is not under total lockdown although one district within Lusaka is under total lockdown. I have family and friends in that district who I was supposed to be visiting but I cannot visit them.
For almost a month now, I’m marooned in my house and only watching the world from within the vicinity of my house. This has brought stress and anxiety to me. I feel suffocated, that I cannot visit friends, I cannot visit relatives and I cannot access the office.
I sit alone watching videos from across the world while I see the numbers of COVID-19 cases in my own Country increasing every day as the Minister of Health gives daily updates. I fear that the disease may catch up with me even in my solitary house. I have my Children in another district because I fear to bring them to my City; Lusaka as it is the epicentre of my country. The only thing that puts me in touch with people I love is the phone. What if I don’t have any more talk time tomorrow. What will be of me?
Even when the country is not under total lockdown, the police are beating anyone found walking in the dark or parked in the car having a drink alone. Without a lockdown, we are expected to remain home and I’m imagining how it will be with a lockdown. I’m filled with fear as most Zambians live on hand to mouth.
Indeed, the world has stopped moving, my country has stagnated, my life seems blocked from any progressiveness.