Corona Pandemic

Write about a child witnessing a major historical event.

Corona Pandemic

Armstrong Michael had just blown a couple of blunts in the air when on entering the house again met face to face with his inquisitive niece. He had managed to avoid her during the whole family gathering night. But this time when their eyes met and she came to him happily. Arms, as they called him couldn’t evade nor avoid her.

Shanelle was curious about everything about life. At three years old, She was the kid with the motormouth…

She queried about love, particularly concerned that her uncle never brought a woman home for a family gathering...."Uncle, Don't you have a girlfriend she would repeatedly bug..

She queried about his uncle's drinking habit....Never saw any fun, nor the therapy his uncle claimed the drink gave him because he still remained broken or even worse when the drank wore off..

She queried about Finances....the fact that his uncle was always limited in cash unlike her mother...

Her mother, the youngest of the Arms family developed a focus that was unprecedented after getting paged in her second year in one of the most prestigious local university. After a blessing with an angel, she went back and cleared the degree, did a course in tax and then did a Masters. Her marketability became so strong and powerful that she landed a government job.

 On the other hand, Arms was not fortunate in financial terms as he had dropped out of the university in the third year and what followed was hell and confusion as his dad passed on leaving a void that was horrid and infinite. He was lucky to discover a legit writing site online "Upwork" where he landed writing tasks from clients across the globe. However the jobs were inconsistent and brokenness would always pay him a visit time to time.

Today, Shanelle was not inquisitive about the aura of desperation that seemed to follow his uncle all the time. This time she was different, she had that face full of questions but of a different nature. Her school had announced an impromptu closure. On her ride home in the school bus, she must have made a list as no sooner had she seen her uncle she smiled and…

” Arms what's up? She said in a shy smiley face, what were you doing in the backyard alone?”

“ well Ummm…just needed some time alone…you know…."

"Yeah, I get it….by the way, do you know what? we ain’t going to school again, our school has been indefinitely closed without an expected back to school date….

“It is not we ain’t, it is “we are not”… drop that slang already…..” replied Arms.

"Yeah the lockdown is everywhere and also, there is a dusk to dawn curfew... meaning I can't go out with my friends, that is why I needed some time alone.

"According to our teachers, they mentioned something to do with a virus."

“Corona?”

“Yeah….that”

Shanelle could not fathom the seriousness of the virus. She tattle-taled that if she was a god, she could banish the virus from the face of the world so that everything goes back to normal. She however kept on insisting on maintaining social distance, not touching the face and frequently washing her hands. The sanitiser was her favourite as it quickly evaporated from her hands.

Arms explained to her in full about the importance of what she had just said and told her that if everyone followed the directives from the health officers, then things would go back to normal as fast as possible.

Arms was happy that his niece had considered asking him about Corona. Arms loved history and talked in length to her niece about a similar occurrence in 1918. The medical research then was not modern and equipped as today. The Spanish flu happened between February 1918 to April 1920, with about 500 million people infected and up to 100 million demises. Cities in the infected areas closed social gatherings and people were quarantined in their homes. This move helped flatten the curve and the spread was managed.

Covid19 as commonly called, posed the same threat to the society and similar measures were seen across the globe. Here in Kenya, we were subjected to dusk to dawn curfew, closure of schools, social gatherings were prohibited including funerals which are some of the significant occasions in our African culture. The virus as you have seen Shanelle is why you are home and grandma just wants us to be together as the future is unknown to us.

However, good news as a vaccine that is effective is already in circulation and sooner or later we will all get vaccinated. Some of the things that have contributed to a fast solution is the science field as they have tirelessly worked to look for an effective solution.

It is therefore important to follow the guidelines that have been laid down by the government. This way we will overcome this menace and create a new future for everybody. At these moments too, keep your family close and constantly communicate. As you can see grandma has brought us here tonight to hang out and catch up. I can see you have quite grown and now asking very clever questions…good work!

"Thank you very much, uncle"

“I always knew I could count on you on such matters, you such a genius!”

“I will have to go home with mum as the curfew time is almost, you should also get going”.

Shanelle waved goodbye to her uncle and went joined her mum.

As a matter of fact, this conversation made me realize that we are in charge of future generations. The way we carry ourselves is what these scions mirror and practice. They have also been born in an era of information overload. They know about the internet, quite well in-fact! I ask my niece a difficult question and she will ask for my smart-phone and Google the answer. I know this might be old school to first world countries but I perceive most will relate.

Let us all flatten the Covid19 curve by maintaining social distance, regularly sanitizing our hands, wearing a mask correctly, staying at home and travel only when necessary. The vaccine is here and it is been distributed in rocket speed. But as we await our chance, let us maintain the measures to flatten the curve. Let us live to tell about these to future generations and they will realize that we survived. Let us tell a survival story!