Life During a Pandemic

NCDC

Chisom Anastasia Nwaezuoke

500-level Physiotherapy

University of Ibadan

Week 1: It feels good to be back home. I hate that school, and what it’s done to me. I’ll miss my friends but if I’m being honest, I think they’re better off without me. NCDC

The coronavirus has been around since December 2019, in the city of Wuhan where the index case was recorded, but it wasn’t until March 2020 that the world began to truly fear for its survival. While countries like Italy and Spain have reportedly seen the worst, recording over 30,000 deaths in total, and are finally seeing fewer cases and deaths, countries like Nigeria are just taking off. The College of Medicine, University of Ibadan was one of the first institutions to shut down as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. Of course, we, the students, made a mockery of the provost’s decision; you can’t blame us because by then, Nigeria had reported only one confirmed case of coronavirus. No big deal; we’d be back in two weeks. All is well.

Week 2: This thing might be serious. I feel uncertain about my future and the future of the people I love. I wonder how they feel and how they are coping. I have no desire to be productive this period; and even though I don’t have the best relationship with him, I’ll pray to God to heal everyone who’s ill. No one deserves sickness.

By mid-March, Nigeria certainly had more than one case of coronavirus but less than five. We were worried but it wasn’t enough to make us panic. We took to social media to campaign for a shut down of the country or at least the affected cities. We hoped it would make a difference, but we knew it may already be too late. We scampered around for hand wash, alcohol-based sanitizers and anything to keep us clean. We stuffed our bellies with fruits in a bid to “boost” our immune system. We read all that we could about the virus and followed every update on the pandemic. The future was very uncertain.

Week 3: I’m tired of pretending that I don’t cry myself to sleep every night. Of course, my sobs are muffled by my pillow—I’d hate to disturb anyone. I’m filled with so much sadness and anxiety for myself and for the world; I feel completely alone. I know I should talk to my friends, but what would I say? I never learnt how to share my problems. How do people even do it? Who taught them? I’ve started writing poetry again; the poems are beautiful. NCDC

The number of cases began to rise, and everyone stalked the Twitter page of the NCDC harder than any ex. The president announced a 2-week lockdown in three major states of the country and at this point, we felt scared, anxious, and bored. Not everyone had the privilege to work from home and some were on the verge of being laid off. We began to spend more hours on social media—anything to kill time. We created and answered a gazillion question threads; we did the #dontrushchallenge in all possible variations; we did the #bopdaddychallenge; we even played those awkward games where your followers had to make assumptions about your personality. We didn’t just try to fill the time, we tried to distract ourselves from the harsh reality that a virus was killing people all over the world.

Week 4: I’ve forgotten what it feels like to laugh. The only times I ever smile are when I want to take a selfie; and if you stare hard at my pictures, you’d see through the fake. This was supposed to be a two-week break from school and all of a sudden, I’m in the middle of a fucking pandemic. I’m running out of ways to be bored and sad; I think it’s time to be productive. A client has requested some articles, but for the first time, making money does not sound appealing. Are my articles even worth a dime? NCDC

Things began to escalate and I’m not talking about the virus. So far, more people have died from police brutality than from COVID-19. In a bid to enforce the lockdown order, the police had taken to assaulting, and sometimes shooting, people who defied this law. Also, people were getting robbed by armed men: in the middle of the night, in the morning, at dusk, who cared? Time is a social construct anyway. We no longer slept well. Some of us, especially the men, formed a vigilante squad while the rest of us spent the night retweeting cries for help, tagging the police, offering sympathy and hoping the robbers didn’t get to us. We didn’t forget about the virus, but we thought of it only in statistics: 20 new cases, 5 people discharged, 1 death. Well done, Mr Governor. To all the healthcare professionals, thank you for your service.

Week 5: I’m lonely. I need conversation. I need to be touched. I need my face held and my lips kissed. NCDC

We have been instructed to stay home for an additional two weeks. We have come to the understanding that this would likely extend again beyond two weeks. We are still scared because the numbers are climbing fast, but we know that the best we can do is to stay at home. Every day, we follow up on the vaccines and potential cures undergoing clinical trials; we celebrate with the countries that appear to be flattening the curve, and we pray to join that league. Our lives have become abnormally normal: we still have unnecessary arguments on Twitter; we still call out misogyny whenever we see it; we still write poetry; and sometimes, we laugh. We understand that we only have one another and even though it’s through our phones and laptop screens, we share love. We give when we can, we recommend movies to kill the boredom, and we drop heart-shaped emojis under one another’s pictures. We want to survive, not because our lives are spectacular but because we still have many stories to tell.

To be continued…

NCDC

P. S. Click here to watch our YouTube video on why you shouldn’t study Medicine in the University.