The shoe is on the other foot

As fear of COVID-19 grips the rest of the world, China seems to have navigated the worst of the crisis and our lives are beginning to return to normal.  Parks and entertainment venues are gradually reopening, the school building is being prepped with a week-long deep clean (along with numerous other steps), and even the traffic is annoying again.  The girls have done well with balancing and handling their e-learning; we've been proud of their work so far and hope that can continue as long as needed.  On top of the school work, we've been trying to make sure Nina learns the times tables; she has now learned how to email her teachers with attachments.

Overall, while we are excited to be turning a corner here in China, it feels weird that what was once the eye of the storm is arguably now the safest place from the virus.  Through stringent measures and a strong collective mindset, China accomplished a great deal in order to help curb the spread.  They are fortunate to be able to miss work for 6 weeks, obtain healthcare for free, and need not worry about their neighbors hoarding toilet paper.  We often talked about how things would go if this happened in the U.S. and we were wrong about some things and right about others.  We are heartened to see that the vast majority of people in the states are doing what they can to contain the spread, and are trying to protect the immune-compromised and the elderly.  We are surprised that America has gone to such lengths as to cancel sporting events, schools, concerts, and other events.  Sadly, we were not surprised to see people purposely ignoring quarantine, getting on flights while infected, rioting in the streets, and we are concerned how the American people will cope if the school and work delays are as prolonged as they have been here.

 

Ultimately, we are hopeful that the U.S. and rest of the world can persevere through this as China and other countries have.  China has 1.4 billion people, and through concerted effort, only 3000 people have perished so far (any loss of life is sad and 3000 is not to be written off, but 3000/1387000000 is a percentage we can aim for).  Korea did not lock down in the same way, but after massive testing (a quarter-million in about a month), their numbers of cured patients are outnumbering the newly infected.  We are encouraged by the global support seen already as China is sending doctors and blood of healed patients to Italy to help their fight and Chinese billionaire, Jack Ma, donating half a million testing kits and a million masks to America's fight.

While we were never overly concerned about our own health here due to our age and health, we are deeply sad to see this virus spread to places where we have friends and family with immune deficiencies.  So the shoe is now firmly on the other foot and we are rooting for you and hoping that everyone can remain safe.

Leaping into... our apartment

E-learning continues as it appears the Naks are giving up going to school for Lent this year.  While it's not a set schedule every day, we've gotten better at taking family breaks, going for walks, and playing games like cards, puzzles, bananagrams, frisbee and badminton baseball.

The girls have been working hard and having to use computers a bit more than we'd like.  They have "zoom" sessions throughout the day so they can see and interact with their teachers and classmates, and they have some fun during the calls.  PE lessons have been some of their favorites, nothing like 60 people all dancing and jumping together all over the world!

 

 

With all the device usage, we've had some struggles doing regular activities.  A funny end result occurred when Kara ordered groceries on her phone instead of the computer and we somehow ended up with 13 pounds of cucumbers.  As a school break, the girls had fun going to a bunch of neighbor's apartments and offering free cucumbers as a show of solidarity.  Many of the neighbors were happy and some even offered trades of other fruits and veggies.  The girls are asking for us to order too much next time so they can do it again.

While the number of cases in China is dropping significantly (4 new cases in Shanghai in the last 13 days), we are sad to see that the virus is spreading to so many other parts of the world. 

COVID-19

COVID-19, the coronavirus that has panicked the world, started here in China and has ushered in a very slow and isolated lifestyle.  Hysteria has been stirred up by most media outlets, and fear is sadly driving more reactions than reasonable assessments.  We have liked a number of articles that have tried to put the current state of panic in perspective, and here is a recent one.

As of February 16, there are about 70,000 people afflicted with COVID-19, but 58,000 of those people come from the Hubei province.  There are 58.5 million people who live in Hubei, so that puts it at 0.1% of the province that has the virus.  This leaves roughly 12,000 additional people affected.  Out of the 1.3 billion Chinese who don't live in Hubei, that means 0.0009% of people have it (and about 80% of them had direct contact with someone from Hubei).  All in all, our chances of getting this are ridiculously slim, and, even if we got it, our age and health would indicate a recovery.  We are not overly concerned about contracting the virus, but it is still dictating our life at every turn.

China has gone to extraordinary lengths to prevent this from spreading and it looks like that work is paying off as only a minute percentage of people outside of a Hubei connection have contracted the disease and the number of newly afflicted is getting lower and lower.  To stop the spread, the country has shut down most businesses (except grocers) and has instituted laws about wearing masks, and also against congregating in public spaces.  This has meant that our school has been closed for nearly a month and we've had to turn to e-learning.  The girls have been pretty good about doing the online work assigned by their teachers, which has been a heavy load.  We've also been doing some reading and flash cards for Nina.  We try to take time to play outside every day and the girls love playing together & building their little towns.  While they are still being creative and working on new skills like skateboarding, it is clear that they both miss & need interaction with other children, and they both really want to go back to school.  As a family, we've just tried to embrace this unexpected slow-down and we are trying to enjoy our extra family time (but this can be trying at times).  Overall, it has been strange to see empty areas that are usually packed, and to have our temperature taken everywhere we go.

Ultimately, we've gotten out to see some unusual sites like a "Ground-scraper Hotel" (building skyscrapers was getting too easy) and abandoned theme parks because no one can go in.  We have not had any trouble buying food or any other products we typically use. We have enjoyed running into a few friends on our walks and our spirits were boosted incredibly today when we went to one of our favorite restaurants.  The owner and a few other workers were outside cleaning their windows and the restaurant was closed, but they were happy to see us and invited us in.  They opened the kitchen just for us and gave the girls free juice like they always do.  They were happy to see we made the trip and we were overjoyed that they would open for us, and they just said, "You are our friends, this is what friends do."

Valentine's Love

When Ben and I went down to gather the groceries that had been delivered to our lobby, the girls secretly made us valentine cards and then presented them to us when we were finished.

Quite the start to the Year of the Rat

This school year, we've been impacted by a typhoon, an earthquake, the Australian bushfires, and now we'll make it through this too.  We sincerely thank everyone who has sent us notes of concern and support, and we hope that normalcy will return soon.