Have The Quarantine Period of Covid-19 Outbreak Changed Your Routine In A Way?

Hi, halo, hola, hej.

With April 16 marking exactly one month since the Jakarta administration implemented Work-Learn-Pray From Home to curb Covid-19 outbreak in the capital, I wonder if the quarantine period has changed you in a way. 

Although I work from home and rarely go out, I do feel that the quarantine period has wreaked havoc on my usually peaceful days. On normal days (read: pre-Covid-19), I worked on daily reports from 3 am to 12 pm, took a break for lunch/bath/nap until 3 pm, sometimes I went out to nearest convenience store just to see humans (Lol), then worked on weekly and monthly reports between 3 pm and 6 pm. Now, I just work whenever I feel helpless, which is happening most of the time.

The first few weeks had been hard for me, because there were too many news about deaths of medical workers and patients. I had weird dreams in those weeks. Not exactly nightmares, but the kind of dreams that made you think,"Why did I dream that?" upon waking up. And I seldom have dreams when I am asleep. 

The key to all of those issues is, again, acceptance. Some days it comes easy, other days it is a struggle.

Looking into the last four weeks in #SocialDistancing, here are the things that I have been implementing to keep calm and carry on.

1. I have started to wear face mask whenever I go out. I now have four masks, worn on heavy rotation.

2. I use my elbow to push the convenience store's door and avoid touching too many items in the store.

3. After going out, I wash my hands, put my outfit to wash and take a bath. All of the process is such a hassle, I prefer to just stay at home most of the time.

4. I try to limit reading news. And this is very difficult to do because my line of work involves reading news and writing summaries. My take on this issue is to take a few minutes break and do something fun after reading devastating news (most likely nibble on dark chocolate or other snacks).

5. I decided to drop one of my jobs so I have more time to sleep and rest. The process is still ongoing, I hope to hear more updates next week.

6. I re-read books and re-watch movies that have positive vibes. I still have a pile of books from the Big Bad Wolf 2020, and I am keen to finish those books too.

7. I carefully select the people I am interacting with. Some people just like to spread hoax and negative vibes, and I have enough of those in this pandemic era.

Would you care to add yours?

[Movie] The Way

From here

I watched the movie a few days ago out of randomness, and it turned out to be the right movie for the Sunday Easter. So I guess I will write a bit about the movie, especially since there is nothing exciting during this quarantine period.

Thomas Avery (Martin Sheen), an ophthalmologist in California, US, divides his busy life between his practice and golf meetings with his friends until he receives a phonecall from Saint-Jean-de-Pont, France, informing him of the death of Daniel Avery (Emilio Estevez), his only son. Daniel was in France to walk on Camino de Santiago, a pilgrim's route that spans between Saint-Jean-de-Pont, France and Santiago de Compostela in Spain.  

The older Avery immediately comes to France to bring back his son's remains. But as he checks on Daniel's backpack, he remembers how his son wanted to walk the Camino with him. So he asks the officials to cremate his son and starts on the path to Santiago with the ashes on his backpack.

During the walk to Santiago de Compostela, he meets with Joost (Yorick van Wageningen) a Dutchman wanting to lose some weight, Sarah (Deborah Kara Unger) a Canadian fleeing her abusive husband but saying she does the walk to quit smoking and Jack (James Nesbit) an Irish with a writer's block. 

Apart from giving audience beautiful views along the road, The Way is a philosophical movie that tells how people can take many roads in Camino de Santiago to reach the final point. One of the questions posed during the movie is about how the pilgrims should carry out the trip to Santiago de Compostela as they see people riding bicycles. Should the modern day pilgrims walk as people in the past did? Should the modern day pilgrims leave all the conveniences (such as credit card and smartphone) and live from the kindness of the people they meet along the way to Santiago? 

The movie is a bit slow-paced, but I think it's worth to watch during this quarantine period as it will make you questions life and how we live it.

On Educating My Septuagenarian Parents To #StayAtHome

After more than 2 weeks of #SocialDistancing and #PhysicalDistancing, I found that the most difficult thing to do was to keep my septuagenarian parents #StayAtHome. I have been trying to obey the #SocialDistancing policy since March 16, by only going out when I really need to do it. But my parents have just reduced their frequency of going out after the nearby mosque closed its public activities on March 25. Between March 16 and 25, I was having mild anxiety attack everytime they went outside (which could happen five times a day). They still go out, but not everyday.

Here are some heated debates between my parents and I:

On Covid-19 in Indonesia

Me: Please don't go outside everyday, there is an outbreak.

M: I think it's only happening in Wuhan.

Me: It's happening across worldwide, and Indonesia is included. Please just stay at home until it's safe enough to go outside.

On who can get infected by Covid-19

D: I don't think we will get infected. As Muslims, we eat halal food, we do ablution five times a day. 

Me: Then please explain to me, why Malaysia, our neighboring country that is also a Muslim majority country, has high number of Covid-19 cases and is currently holding a lockdown?

D: (went quiet)

On wearing DIY face mask
Me: I bought you face masks to wear if you need to go outside.
M: I watched in a video that the doctors said that if you feel healthy, you don't need to wear a mask.
Me: The mask he means is the surgical mask, which should only be used by doctors. We still need to wear mask, but not surgical mask.
(They still did not wear the DIY face mask for a few days. However, one day M started to wear it after watching a YouTube video about the importance of wearing face mask. Upon seeing that, I felt like seeing a version of my teenage self when I never listened to my parents and only trusted my friends. So I guess that was what it's like to be a parent and your words meant nothing compared to some YouTube videos)

On the worst case scenario of getting infected by Covid-19
M: The government has prepared many facilities to treat the people.
Me: I think it's better to stay uninfected, because the government still don't have the method to test the people. Also, when a person is tested positive, they will be isolated for days, the family cannot see them. If the worst case scenario happened, the patient dies, they would be buried by the officers. The family would not be able to guide the patient for talqin or do jenazah prayer. The patient would die alone.
M: (went quiet)

On cleaning up after going outside
Me: Where have you been?
M: Just going out for food, we came, purchased and left quickly
Me: Okay. Have you washed your hands?
M: I have taken a bath. Now I'm boiling some water for your father's bath
Me: Very good.

When they finally realize what it means to be in the risk group
M: I just saw a video that people with diabetes and other underlying health conditions are in the risk group
Me: That's what I have been trying to tell you. You are probably not in the risk group, but D is. He has diabetes, he also has asthma and pneumothorax.
M: Ok, I will try to deter him from going outside
(Somewhere inside, I sing a song and blow a confetti)

The hard part of giving them the information is to make them believe me. Just like most parents in Asian culture, they are used to become the people in power, the decision-makers, or the ones to decide if their children go to hell or heaven. It's really hard to stay calm whenever they talk back and argue, but then they remind me why I am such a stubborn kid: I get it from them!