One Week Later...

The week's fruit and veg: disinfected and drying

Here we are one week later, still at home and no end in sight.  Everyone is saying this mandatory quarantine (that's right, no longer voluntary--fines of up to 30,000 euros!) will last through mid-April at the least.  Some are expecting it to be early May before schools open again.  Nothing has been declared officially yet.

The death toll has broken the 1,000 mark.  Hospitals are feeling the strain.  Andalucía is still relatively low on the list of cases, but here in La Roda there are 3 confirmed cases alone.  The first case we knew of was a man whose wife died about a week before the quarentine.  Nearly the whole town was at the funeral hugging, kissing and shaking hands with this guy.  It is very likely that there are going to be many more confirmed cases here in the next few days.  Anyone who was at the funeral must stay home.

We held a virtual birthday party for a co-worker yesterday.

We are fine.  All of us are a bit sick, but I think just colds.  Lots of runny, stuffy noses and sore throats.  So far, not much coughing.  Staying at home itself hasn't been horrible, but balancing work and home has been difficult without any real physical space to separate the two.  Angelines has been acting as teacher every morning from 9-2 and I have locked myself upstairs to work making video calls to children with my co-guide and having virtual meetings with the teaching team.

It's been good to see the children's faces and make contact with my collegues, but thinking this could last through April and into May is daunting to say the least. We are lucky to live in a day and age that we have so many tools available to connect without the barrier of physical space, but getting everything up and running and figuring out how to provide quality education online without any previous infrastructure  in place is a big task.  These are unprecedented times, for sure.

The family's daily schedule...(really Emily's)

Emily seems to be doing pretty well through all of it.  We video called a friend Thursday night--her first contact with friends from school since the shutdown.  On Friday she woke up saying, "Mommy, since there is coronavirus and I can't go to school in Granada, I want to call all my friends to be sure they are okay.  I am worried about them."  She called three different friends yesterday and had a great time giving virtual tours of the house.  I think we underestimate how this situation can effect our children.  Emily has been waking up quite a lot at night wanting me, saying she's scared to be alone, and becoming tearful remembering our dog Bela.  She's happy we're all together, but this new routine will take some getting used to...and there is no getting away from the news of virus spread and rising death toll.

Hope you're all home and safe.  Wash your hands.

A (not so) sh**y excuse to get out of the house!