Thu, Mar 26, 2020
Read in 3 minutes
Antananarivo Hub, Madagascar
In April of last year, I traveled back to France from Madagascar. I was previously living in Madagascar, but had met my now fiance in Paris and was spending more time in her neck of the woods. As our relationship developed, we switched off traveling back and forth from Salt Lake City (where I am originally from) and Tours (her home town 1 hour train ride South of Paris in the Loire Valley). I most recently spent 3 months in Tours from November to February, I came home on February 2nd never having even heard of COVID-19; crazy. My plan was to get my long stay visa here, and then return to France in April. Luckily, I was awarded my visa before everything shut down, but with all the worldwide closures, I am now stuck in the US.
At first, I had a lot of overwhelming feelings like, “when will I ever be able to be with my fiance again?” and “I wish I could be with her during this stressful time to support her and make sure she stays healthy”. After a day or two of anxiety, I decided to let go of the fact I no longer had control of anything other than how I was going to act and react to all that was going on. As the constant information became heavy and mostly unnecessary for me, I stopped watching the news, I stopped scrolling through social media, and I stopped constantly verbalizing my worries about how the next few months would play out. I started focusing on the positives of my daily life. My fiance and I are both safe and healthy, have plenty of food, and have family and friends nearby for support. In addition to this, I am able to communicate with her (and others around the world) as much as I want for free. I check accurate COVID statistics once in the morning, and once before going to bed to keep myself informed. Other than that, I am on a complete information fast, and I tell ya, it has made a night and day difference for me.
As I have been taking things one day at a time, I can’t help but think about Madagascar. Fortunately, they were one of the last, if notthelast, countries to have confirmed cases of COVID. They still have only about 19 cases as of yesterday. I have felt really grateful about this. Madagascar is consistently one of the 5 poorest countries in the world (more than 75% of the population are living on less than $2/day), and thus would not be able to stop working. People work for what they are going to eat that evening; starvation is a much bigger threat than this flu-like virus. I continue to pray for Madagascar, and of course continue to utilize my media presence there to encourage people to be smart, and to stay positive.
Nobody really knows what the next few weeks/months will hold, but I feel very optimistic that things will work out, lessons will be learned, and ultimately we will bounce back stronger and more equipped for the future. Staying positive and present is the most important thing I can do for now.