School and the Pandemic (part 1)
Drawing by my daughter done during lockdown.
When coronavirus started spreading in China, it seemed so far away. It was scary. I remember praying for the people in China. I just never imagined it would turn into a worldwide pandemic.
The first case of COVID was confirmed in Saudi Arabia on the 2nd of March. Umrah (Holy pilgrimage to Mecca) was suspended on the 4th of March. They even limited hours for prayers only otherwise the holy mosque was closed. They fenced around the Kaaba so nobody could get close and touch it to stop spreading the virus and so people didn’t get too close together. They are ALWAYS are on top of things when it comes to sanitizing and cleaning the Holy Mosque but they increased all their efforts to keep everything as clean as possible. These added precautions showed how wise our government is! Letting people come to Mecca for Umrah would have led to a big increase of the virus in all the world! I am very grateful for them.
Schools were closed on March 8th. My kids’ schools immediately started distance learning. They started trying different on-line programs seeing what was best for the teacher and students and of course I had my hands full helping them adjust. Especially, my then first grader. His teacher was amazing and sent voice notes to my son via my WhatsApp addressed to my son, giving him feedback on his reading and writing. He was always so encouraging.
Between March 13th and March 26th All social events were suspended, all international flights were suspended, all government agencies started working from home. Lots of private business also started working from home. All malls were closed, all public gatherings were banned, prayers in all mosques were suspended. Basically: everything was closed except for hospitals, pharmacies & supermarkets. Restaurants were drive-through only. Domestic flights, trains, buses and taxis were suspended and we were put on a lockdown, no traveling in between cities and we had a curfew from 3 pm to 6 am. Which would become 24 hour lockdown in April. Life as we knew it had completely changed.
Before we were put on 24-hour lockdown I went into survival mode, I stalked up on beans and rice and made things like falafel mix and boiled chickpeas to freeze. Having a stocked freezer made me feel in control of something. I had a lot of mouths to feed and this helped me feel better. I also hoped that with the freezer and pantry stocked, my mother in law wouldn’t go out. (but she did occasionally, I understood that she would get restless but I was so worried she would catch COVID.
I confess, I hated distance learning. I remember at first, we’d say homeschooling until I realized it was not the same. Homeschooling is done by choice, we didn’t choose this. Also, we were lucky we had our teachers, but, at a distance. I know the teachers didn’t enjoy it either. It was so hard, especially with the younger ones. I remember how frustrating it was for the teacher when the students kept asking the same question because they weren’t focusing. The teacher would start giving them spelling words, then a student would join the class late. Can you please repeat what you said? That happened so many times sometimes I would get frustrated on the teacher’s behalf. It was hard because I had to put each of my kids in a different room, and keep checking on them. Sometimes I’d find someone playing and the teacher explaining to the wall what a mammal was…
I also had a two-year-old I needed to keep entertained and away from his siblings while they were in class. My mother in law found it difficult staying home all day with no visitors. So, I introduced her to video calls! I downloaded every single program I heard of. I sent family and friends all the programs she had and asked them to call her. We had group video calls too. It was a nice way to connect.
The first couple of months were very stressful, there was still so much unknown about the virus. My husband continued to go to work even when almost everyone was working from home. It was hard worrying about him getting sick. We were also worried about my mother in law. We live with her and she is elderly and the slightest thing makes her sick. I’m grateful that with God’s mercy, then all of our precautions she didn’t get the virus.
Grocery shopping became so stressful for me, it’s silly really when I think about it now. But my mother in law is elderly and she wanted the same brands she was used to, so when I couldn’t find something she wanted I would get so frustrated. Sometimes I would sit and cry because I couldn’t get the groceries we needed. It’s just hard to imagine how difficult grocery shopping had become! Sometimes, I would almost finish an order only to have it canceled or the app would freeze! How I missed going to the supermarket myself and leisurely walking down the aisles. Once, we accidentally got way to many bananas. I ended up freezing a lot of bananas and I baked banana bread cupcakes for the longest time! We also got too many cucumbers by mistake which lead to my new found love of pickling! It seems everyone all over the world made banana bread and some sort of pickles that year!
My daughter was very stressed out with everything going on. Even though I tried to stay optimistic and try not to talk about numbers of cases or how it was spreading around the world. I didn’t let her watch the news and tried to help her find hobbies to keep her distracted and take out her stress in a positive way. She started drawing cartoonish drawings, she found a great YouTube channel and would watch and draw along. It helped. She had trouble sleeping and sometimes I’d be up all night with her. She would become so afraid at night and wanted me by her side all night. We had let her sleepover in her brothers’ room just for a change and she never wanted to go back to her room. It took a longtime time to finally get her to sleep in her own room. I bought her puzzles to keep her busy and they were very helpful. Sometimes when she couldn’t sleep, we would work on them together.
When we had a curfew, we would go out on rides in the car, my mother in law and oldest never came with us. My oldest declared he wasn’t leaving the house until they found a cure. My three youngest welcomed these rides. They hated being stuck inside all the time. They would tell me, we miss the roads and buildings, we miss seeing other people! Everyone coped differently. We all did our best.
I think one of the hardest times was the month of Ramadan with mosques closed. It wasn’t the same not hearing the prayers in the mosques. We would pray together at home. They had lifted 24-hour lockdown in Ramadan, before they put us on 24-hour lockdown again my sister in law and boys came to spend Eid with us. It was a strange Eid, no Eid prayer in the mosques. No family coming over. We made the most of it.
My daughter took out her stress in art, she made and painted all the decorations for our Eid party. She chose the theme, Candy. I helped her plan it. The party was fun despite it being only us and their two cousins.
I did a lot of baking throughout lockdown and a lot of baking for Eid. I even made a four-layer cake and covered it with fondant, (something I hadn’t done in years) It was a complete disaster in my opinion and I may or may not have had a break down and sobbed into my husband’s shoulders, insisting he didn’t understand when he tried to soothe me.
When they lifted 24-hour lockdown in May and we could go out for a couple of hours during the day, the orthodontist called to tell us they were open. My oldest refused to go for a check up. I told him it was safe. The clinic is a small private clinic. They aren’t taking many patients. They check your temperature and make you wear a mask at the door. They have always been very clean and professional. But, my son didn’t want to go.
He hadn’t been to the dentist for two months. He was supposed to go once a month to get his braces checked. We knew it was scary and since he was older he read more news on line and understood more about what was happening in the world. I called the orthodontist to explain. They were understanding and said as long as he didn’t have any issues with his braces it should be ok to wait a little longer until he was comfortable coming.
On May 26th, they lifted lock down on all of the Kingdom except for the city Mecca and some specific neighborhoods around the Kingdom. It was a bit of a relief to be able to go out at any time but, it was also a little bit scary.
After they lifted lockdown life slowly went back to normal. Except it was a new normal, face masks, hand sanitizer, social distancing. We didn’t go out much, I usually went out by myself. I tried to make sure we had everything my mother in law wanted but she still would go out to buy fish, which caused me so much anxiety. I was trying my best to protect her.
We spent the summer at home, the kids would play outside, swim in our pool, and spend way too much time watching tv and playing video games. We managed.