COVID-19: Collective Experiences During a Global Pandemic (Volume 2)
Editorial Note: This is Volume 2 of DSBS' Tiny and Number Stories documenting our experiences of the COVID-19 pandemic through a series of snapshots from staff, students and our broader network.
The Joke of Consolation
When news about the ‘novel coronavirus’ began circulating in January 2020, two friends started talking about cancelling their wedding. It had been planned for April, and was the first event I’d written into my old-school (paper – not digital) diary. We had spent months in preparation, and I thought they were over-reacting and consuming too much fringe media. The three of us share a fascination for post-apocalyptic drama and conspiracy theories. And I had been looking forward to the party - music and dancing and fun tinged with wildness among people I love, a chance for silliness and freedom and some safe, collective abandon. My friends cancelled their wedding in February, when mounting travel restrictions meant that most of their guests wouldn’t be able to attend, and legal restrictions prohibited social gatherings. To try and console them, I annotated my diary entry and shared a picture of their event rewritten. It was laughable, somehow, that reality could show such little regard for our most careful endeavours, and that these could be suspended, spontaneously and indefinitely. The weekend of the wedding became a vigil.
Amended Diary Entry With Names Anonymised
Rebecca Hodes is a medical historian who lives in Cape Town. She has been following South Africa’s lockdown restrictions since March 2020.
Reflection & Relief
The lockdown period has been a great opportunity to reflect - on my PhD thesis, focused on low-income employed mothers in rural and urban KwaZulu-Natal. I have thought a lot about my research participants and the impact this period has had on their already precarious livelihoods. In debriefing these thoughts with my thesis supervisor, we decided to - bring to the forefront the plight of low-income mothers, households and children. Subsequently, we wrote an article to the Daily Maverick which was published on the 20th of April. The article highlighted the pertinence of increasing the Child Support Grant (CSG) during the lockdown period; we illustrated who the beneficiaries of the increase will be and how it would not only help children but also mitigate the inevitable gendered and racialised burden of care. In doing this, we supported a letter written by a coalition of concerned academics, civil society leaders, development partners and everyday people appealing to President Cyril Ramaphosa to consider the urgent call to increase the value of the CSG by R500 to lessen the devastating impact of COVID-19 on low-income households. It was a great relief when, on the 21st of April, the President answered the call, increasing the CSG by R500. A social welfare state which rests upon cash transfers is not sustainable. Even so, the impact of the pandemic on mothers and other female primary caregivers carrying the weight of financial and practical responsibility can be slightly alleviated for low-income households already stretched thin.
Childcare Provision Under Difficult Circumstances
Nonzuzo Mbokazi is a Research Administrator for the iALARM Project, Division of Social and Behavioural Sciences and a PhD candidate in the Department of Sociology at UCT. She is currently in level 3 lockdown in Cape Town.
The Fruit Delivered to the Domus Conclusus
21 April 2020, North London |
A food box arrives from Her Majesty’s Government for the person shielding at the address. The contents are high in sodium and of the processed sort. White bread, digestives, baked beans. With tea and UHT milk. It is a week’s supply of essential provisions. |
There are apples. Compact and speckled red. The windfall budget-range from Tesco. Origin of produce: South Africa. The recipient smiles for laden trees in Elgin. |
On the other side of the world, there are parcels piled up in the shadow of a truck. |
“You’re stealing our food,” jests a friend.
Essential Provisions
Annwen Bates is a UCT alumnus and grew up in Cape Town. She has been in self-imposed isolation since 10th March 2020 in London, before lockdown in the UK was made official. For more writing, see beadedquill.com.
My COVID19 Experience: We Need to do More
The first week of the national shutdown was okay for me but I increasingly started to feel morose, watching the news and seeing how the number- of infected people and deaths was increasing exponentially. Every day in isolation marks an increasing worry about family and friends. It is also difficult to see people not taking the pandemic seriously, especially the youth who are not following the stipulated regulations. As MCSJ we saw the need to stand up and do an awareness campaign. It was challenging getting this off the ground when meetings and social gatherings were prohibited. Nevertheless, we spoke to the facility manager at the Day Hospital to get a permit and try to help them with social distancing (in queues at the hospital) and distribution of masks and information about COVID 19. At the same time, one of our colleagues tested positive for COVID 19, which made things extremely stressful. We all went to get tested and our results came back negative; it was a relief of some sort. Although another colleague has tested positive, it has not deterred us from doing a door-to-door campaign distributing masks and pamphlets to the elderly and disabled people in our community. I feel that we still need to do more, go to malls and other public spaces to encourage people to keep social distancing when in queues or interacting with each other. Our precious Gugulethu has become a hotspot; we need to do more.
Mask Distribution
Ndumiso Mzazi is the Men’s Forum Coordinator for the Movement of Change and Social Justice (MCSJ). He is part of a COVID -19 community outreach campaign, and currently under lockdown level 3 in Gugulethu.
Silent Hill
After a few stormy days, my partner and I who live out in Muizenberg decided to take a short daytrip. We hadn’t been into town since the lockdown and were keen to go hiking up Lion’s Head. Alas, when we got there, we were told the hiking route was still closed, but that Signal Hill was still open. So, we drove up there instead, expecting to meet a flurry of people. It turned out that we were the only people there that morning! We were so grateful for the sun, the blue sky and the quiet, that it felt like we spent an eternity exploring every blade of grass and every changing perspective of the mountains around us. Before we left, we took out our thermos filled with (lukewarm!) coffee and enjoyed the absolute silence. The COVID-19 pandemic feels a bit like that now like the returning of silence and calm following a devastating storm.
The Beautiful View of Table Mountain That Morning
Shehani Perera is a PhD Candidate in the Division of Social and Behavioural Sciences, UCT, South Africa, currently in lockdown level 3 with her partner (and occasionally, the neighbours’ cats) in Muizenberg.
The Pieces of a Puzzle
I am lucky to be able to work from home, which I have been doing since the beginning of 2019 so when South Africa went into Lockdown level 5, the transition to working from home regarding work was relatively easy. However, I didn’t fully consider what this meant; now the home was full all the time -both children were at home, along with my fiancée and we had no nanny. So instead of juggling work and home life, I found myself having a few more tasks added to my plate. I felt as if I were doing a puzzle trying to fit all the pieces together: homeschool teacher; home project coordinator; full time chef; fiancée administrative assistant; MPH student and my own work. This has been quite a challenge and I am still struggling with completing the puzzle. However, South Africa has now implemented Lockdown level 3 and with this I have been able to share the load with the return of our nanny. Once again, we are finding a new rhythm and I have no doubt we will need to keep on being flexible and open to change both internally within ourselves, our home and with the outside world.
Pieces of a Puzzle
Natasha Kannemeyer is an MPH student and Project Coordinator in the Division of Social and Behavioural Sciences, UCT. She is currently in lockdown level 3 in Cape Town, South Africa.
Love, Home, and Work in a Time of Coronavirus
This pandemic has needed me to really adjust expectations, plans and my perception of time:
Three countries with borders shut (South Africa, Uganda, Zimbabwe),
Two anxious families,
One traditional wedding was postponed (until we can all meet again in person).
There has been loads of home cooked meals, and baked goods, and lots of learning:
Three batches of cupcakes baked per week
Two humans adjusting
One home office (oh goodness...)
Work has ramped up as we try to get out as many COVID-19 relief grants as we can:
Three video-call check-ins for work per week,
Two peer-reviewed publications drafted during this time (yay!)
One extrovert embracing her new normal.
Baked Goods
Samantha Malunga (MPH) is a Research Associate at the AIDS and Society Research Unit at the Centre for Social Research at the University of Cape Town. She is also a Health Associate Program Officer at ELMA Philanthropies in Cape Town, currently in lockdown level 3 in Cape Town.
A Thotful Spot
So, the week before lockdown I was going 12 rounds in the ring with my diary, trying to carve out enough time to fit in a PHD alongside running 2 private psychology practices and having a life. I was totally ruled by my diary. I did battle daily with my powerful enemy, time. Then all at once, Uncle Cyril called the fight. Just days later, I’d wake up in the morning with nothing in my diary but….nothing. The urgency of all the other stuff that did daily battle to conquer the blocks in my iCalendar just wasn’t there anymore. A lovely calmness settled over me and my mind felt free to do what it was meant to. Just think. I was able to start on my PhD with a clear mind. I imagined that this must be what Winnie The Pooh felt like when he sat in his ‘Thotful Spot’. And so, I’ve committed to holding onto this peace and not go back to doing battle with ‘urgencies’ that matter little in the face of crisis. This picture now hangs at my desk reminding me that life is much more than blocks in my iCalendar.
My Thotful Spot
Chantal Fowler is a Clinical Psychologist in private practice and has just begun her PhD in the department of Public Health and Family Medicine at UCT. She is a stay at home trooper in level 3 lockdown in South Africa.
A New Normal: Eating With a Purpose
I am not a fussy person when it comes to food nor would I describe myself as someone who puts a lot of thought into what I consume. In fact, I love food (meat, to be specific) so much; I often tell people that I live for the enjoyment of food. However, Since the COVID-19 crisis, I have made a conscience decision to eat healthier. I no longer eat just for the fun of it; I eat with a purpose, to keep my immune system strong. Also, my intake of hot fluids, green tea with lemon, honey, garlic and ginger, mint, you name it, is insane, which lands me on the cold toilet seat more often than I’d like. I guess this is my way of dealing with the panic and anxiety that we are all faced with.
Purposive Sampling
Tsidiso Tolla is a PhD Fellow with Division of Social and Behavioural Sciences, University of Cape Town, South Africa. She is currently on level 3 of the lock-down.
Disruptive Virus
“What will you change after Covid?”, asked a friend early in the lockdown. He had decided to fly less. Since our conversation, I have been thinking: what will I change? And what will change? For many, there is an assumption that the world will ‘never be the same’ post-Covid. The pandemic may result in changes, but I wonder how much will change. Could the world return to pre-Covid days? In Wendy Wood’s book about habits, she argues that we can consciously use disruptions to change habits. During the hard lockdown, my only opportunity to get out for a walk was to do my shopping on foot. Now, I no longer habitually take the car and I have begun to wonder whether I really need a car or whether I could drive less. Whether my friend will fly less, I will drive less and the world will change due to the disruptive virus remains to be seen. But I think it will require more than a virus. It also requires our will to use the pandemic to disrupt our habits, collectively and individually. In the meantime, I will continue to ask myself: what will I change? What will you?
What Will Change
Hanne Haricharan is a post-doctoral fellow, based at the Health and Human Rights Programme at UCT's School of Public Health and Family Medicine. She recently completed her Ph.D. on community participation in health and is currently living in South Africa under lockdown level 3.
Conducting Gender-Transformative Interventions and Qualitative Research Virtually During the Covid-19 Pandemic
For me the Covid-19 pandemic and lockdown period in South Africa has brought about strain, anxiety and uncertainly. As Covid-19 infections surge and deaths continue to rise, I am particularly apprehensive and concerned about the health and safety of my parents and loved ones in the Eastern Cape. Notwithstanding, however, on the work front this has also been a period of reflection for me. Amongst other things, I have thought about how gender-transformative work and qualitative research (e.g. FGDs) with young boys and men in resource-limited communities could be done virtually – in the context of Covid-19. I have grappled with the question whether it is feasible to do intervention workshops virtually using affordable and widely available platforms like WhatsApp or Facebook? Moreover, I have pondered whether employing such approaches/methods does not compromise the efficacy of the intervention. Alternatively, can we conduct certain aspects of the intervention virtually without compromising the elements of the theory of change? An important question which remains is how we can adapt interventions and research activities to mitigate the unique risks that come with the Covid-19 pandemic and enhance the safety of research participants? For me, the Covid-19 pandemic and lockdown regulations in South Africa have unearthed new ethical and methodological issues for programmers and researchers doing gender-transformative work and research with young boys and men in poor communities.
Qualitative Research During COVID-19