Fri, May 22, 2020
Read in 3 minutes
Harare Hub, Zimbabwe
One day I was at work, the next day I was working from home. One day we were allowed to go outside and we didn’t have to put much thought into it, next day going outside was no longer allowed. These are some of the changes people are coming to grips with not only in my country but globally as the world deals with the Covid-19 pandemic, which has radically altered life as we know it. Who in their wildest of imagination ever thought that we would encounter a pandemic of this magnitude in our lifetime, I surely did not? With this altering of our lives, new dynamics of doing life have come into play. I miss the“small”things like the commute to and from work, meeting up with a friend over the weekend, going to church on Sundays with my sister or something as“simple”as going to the barbershop to get a haircut, I have since cultivated a 7-week subtle caveman look because of the lockdown.
As I process the changes that have happened one of the thoughts that come to mind is how I never got to “properly” celebrate my birthday this year. I rarely do but this year was supposed to be different. My friends had all sorts of stuff planned but that never got to happen, maybe it will when some semblance of normalcy takes set.I am all for change but this change has been a bit too drastic for my liking and has at times had me feeling a bit antsy. I am not your typical outdoorsy person but being restricted to staying indoors for the past 7 weeks has been an interesting journey. I have had to navigate anxious thoughts from time to time because of the uncertainty that not only I but a lot of people find themselves faced with. Whenever I have found life getting a bit too much I have reached out to friends and family, which has helped me re-center and refocus and get some much-needed perspective.I have also taken this time to reignite some of my passions that were beginning to die a slow death, which has made this time a time of rediscovery and growth. Above all I am grateful that I get to see another day and as long as there is life we can keep looking forward with hope and anticipation for a brighter and better tomorrow.
One thing that I have always held close to my heart is that you can never help enough, so where I can, I have reached out to help. This pandemic has hit us all differently but one thing that I believe as humans we should never stop doing is looking out for each other. There is an African saying which goes like“Umuntu ngumuntu ngabantu”loosely translated it means a person is a person through other people,we are reminded that we should never stop being our brother’s and sister’s keepers. We can only get through this pandemic if we as humanity stand together in unison, for there is strength in numbers and I believe that if we stand in unison we will win in the fight against this pandemic.