05/06/2020
Another COVID-19 essay from a learner in our program!
How I Survived the Corona Virus
When I was a little girl I had to live through a terrible crisis. My country was in a civil war. There was no food. My family and I escaped from our village and went to another village where soldiers had already left. Everything was abandoned. Since there was no food, we continued to travel, looking for a place to stay. Some days my father gave us fruit from the trees and sometimes he killed birds for food. At nighttime we cooked deep in a cave because American planes were dropping bombs, to kill the guerillas, but civilians were killed, too, if they got in the way. They couldn’t see the smoke from the cooking fires if we stayed in the caves. We couldn’t escape from the war. A safe place was by my grandmother’s. We stayed at my grandmother’s and she begged them not to drop bombs, but it didn’t really help.
Since I lived through a crisis, I now know how to prepare for the corona virus. But, this is more difficult because we don’t know that much about the virus. It’s a much stranger war for me.
The first thing I did to prepare was to buy a lot of rice, beans, meat, medicine, and toilet paper – a lot – for at least two months, so that I don’t have to go out at all.
Now I have a lot of time at home, because I am not working as much. And, this is how I spend most of my days – cooking, cleaning, talking to my children, and organizing my house. So, I am not bored! I talk to my mom at least twice a day. I call her long distance using What’s App? in the morning and she loves to see my house and what I am wearing. She lives in her house in my old country, but she lives in the past. She’s stuck in her house and never goes out. I call her two times a day because I am tired of this routine. I think I’ve rested enough. And cleaned my house enough. In the beginning I was feeling fine, but now I’m tired of this.
I am enjoying waking up late, as I was working seven days a week. Right now, I feel that this is a long vacation, which I never had. I have lived in the United States for 26 years, so this is now my long-awaited vacation. However, I would rather go on a vacation to another place – another country, like France, or Greece, or another part of the United States, or the beach, and enjoy food from another country, but not a vacation in one place, and being stuck in my house.
Since I have two children, I have always wished to have time for them; however, my jobs never let me. Now, that I’m home with them, I’m stuck in my room, and my children have other things to do, like studying, and playing video games.
I hope this ends quickly, as possible, so I can go back to a normal life. This is horrible for the people who lost their lives and for their families, especially the doctors and nurses who are working so hard. We can only say thank you to them.
