Malawi – Quarantini’s, anyone? – Days 1-4

March 10-13

Hello everyone!

Lockdown. Self-quarantine for 14 days.

Life behind bars

A tiny part of me has wondered what life would be like in prison. I’m assuming it’s different to the movies, and I’m assuming it’s different to my current predicament. Nonetheless, the inability to leave when I want is a feeling I’m sure would be prevalent in both.

Probably don't get those kind of thoughtful messages and pleasures in the slammer

Anyway, here is the recount of the first few days of my self-quarantine. It will outline how I have spent my time and how each day has made me feel, without saying anything overly controversial.

How I spent much of these first four days - staring at a screen

Tuesday (day 1)

I talked about the airport arrival and lack of checks in the previous post. That afternoon is a bit of a blur – two hours of sleep on a plane after a frankly bonkers week has that effect. I had things on my mind though which were gnawing away at me. School decisions that I can’t talk about at present but that didn’t make sense to me, even after various text and email exchanges.

The day after we arrived, an updated quarantine list was
released by the government - USA is on it, Netherlands is not

Speaking of school, I got to see some teachers today. We’re getting used to using Google Meet and we trialled it in our year level meeting. It generally worked, which surprised me – I didn’t think the internet would hold out.

I say generally worked - I saw this screen a few times

That gnawing feeling soon turned to outright anger. Luckily I was able to vent to my neighbour and to various people on the phone. Social interaction, generally over the phone, is going to be vital for the next two weeks.

I spent a lot of time on the phone with these delightful people

If you do self-quarantine, you do it properly. I was determined to make this work and make it a worthwhile time.

I might need some more beer delivered...

Main feelings: determination, anger

Wednesday (day 2)

There are different definitions used for my current situation. My school defines self-quarantine as not having symptoms. It’s for the greater good, I completely accept that. Officially, there are no cases in Malawi yet – this could be true but it could also be because they don’t have enough testing kits.

Cases rising rapidly across Europe - we don't
want to be the ones bringing it to Malawi

I’m still a bit groggy from a general lack of sleep over the past 10 days. I had to keep myself awake as I now had to frantically plan for my cover teacher for the next two weeks.

This didn't help my planning

In between, I was able to join a school meeting and make some banana scones. Hannah also came across to drop the shopping. All in all, a pretty hectic day considering I couldn’t go anywhere!

Banana scones - good. Banana scones with maple syrup glaze - phenomenal.

I’m missing volleyball tonight which is a bit gutting, it’s normally one of the more fun parts of my week, but I was too tired to really get annoyed about it.

I contented myself with this sunset while our team won in straight sets

In other news, the Malawian government today released an official statement explaining that people arriving from certain countries must go into self-quarantine for 14 days. The Netherlands isn’t one of them. I still agree with me and my school trip group being in self-quarantine as a precaution, but there are other bits that deeply trouble me.

Feelings: busy

Thursday (day 3)

Research has shown that symptoms for Covid-19 usually appear between 5 to 7 days after initial infection. I had been in The Hague 3 days ago. I was thus somewhat concerned and confused when told that Hannah was allowed to move back in with me today and that we could live as normal.

One smile is natural. One is paranoid about being within 2 metres...

While obviously delighted that I would have the company of someone I love, I initially refused the suggestion from school. My mantra the whole time was that quarantine is done properly, or it is not done at all. This clearly wasn’t doing it properly. In spite of my concerns, again expressed over many WhatsApp calls, Hannah and Mini moved back in that evening.

Mini was initially thrilled - probably more about
being allowed home than seeing me! 

That’s the other thing, here. Mini! The NHS advice, which the school has said it is using, says to stay away from pets. Mini is a smart puppy (particularly when cheese is on offer), but she would be incapable of staying away from me.

Could you tell that face to go away?

The day preceding this had been spent trying many times to contact my class via Google Meet. Trying, and failing. If our school ends up closing, as many around the world are doing right now, we will need to make internet learning a success. I’m the guinea pig at the moment, trying to find the flaws. No power and poor network connection are flaws which are beyond repairing by me or the school. We’ll keep trying, though!

We hadn't seen each other since February - this was
chaos, with all of them trying to speak at once

Feelings: Joy, concern, frustration with school

Friday (day 4)

The news gets bleaker each day. I’ve become much more accepting of being in quarantine. After speaking to some in school, I’ve also become more accepting of the fact that my vision of how this would go, with me doing group lessons via a stream on my laptop, is less likely to happen. Make good use of the time away. Do something new.

Namaste!

Yes, that’s me doing yoga. Maybe this is why I’m a bit more philosophical about my house arrest. Clearly not content enough to stop calling it house arrest, but in a slightly happier state of mind. Though eating these probably helped, too.

I'd been left a lot of bananas - time for pancakes!

Having Mini back has been an enormous help. I did feel sorry for her though, not being able to take her for a walk. In fairness, our ‘walks’ rarely go further than 50 metres beyond the compound gate anyway, but she loves the chance to do that and then plop down and refuse to move further.

Not only me under house arrest for the day

Instead, she had to be content keeping me company as I read. I will have time to read, it seems. Without really thinking it through, I requested a book by Sylvia Plath called The Bell Jar. After all, it was on a list of famous short novels.

She committed suicide weeks after it was published

It wasn’t until I started getting into it that I really realised what it was about – a person who had a great life, who then slowly turned insane and ended up trying to take her life many times. In isolation. Should have gone with Harry Potter, perhaps.

Someone thinks I could have made a better
choice. Like play instead of read...

All in all, this hasn’t been too bad an experience so far. The only frustrations have been work related. I have a garden, I am relatively free to do as I like in my house, and have company. Many people around the world don’t have this. Normal won’t happen for a while, so there’s no point sulking.

Feelings: acceptance, philosophical

I'm sure Mini is wondering why I'm spending so much time with her

A nice Friday afternoon

Love you all,

Matt