Today is the 44th day since Ms. Rona landed on Kenyan soil, with the flurry of events that have transpired since, one may be forgiven for forgetting how it all began.
It was a weekday, now I can’t even recall the day but a week or two earlier my mother had told me that while visiting a dentist she overheard them saying that Rona was already in Kenya and them trying frantically to get the N95 masks. I thought later that it was probably true because of the stern warning from the new Health CS, former Senator Mr. Mutahi Kagwe.
As soon as the announcement was made in a presser, everyone started gathering in groups to discuss this unknown threat as Kenyans often do. They are oblivious to danger until its at the doorstep. Personally I had paid no mind to what was happening in the rest of the world because there’s enough trouble in Kenya that we don’t trouble trouble until it troubles us. We always wait upto the last minute to do anything then we start running around like headless chicken.
The next day, it was a scramble for sanitizers, masks and gloves. I remember that sanitizers had run out everywhere and I had to drive someplace out of my way on a hot Friday afternoon to get 1carton of sanitizer. Ditto the N95 masks which you had to book and pay in advance to get.
Then the quarantine order, I did my shopping and went into quarantine. The days that followed were about long phone conversations with my friends and family all over the world to discuss Rona. Then waiting with baited breath for the daily MOH briefing. We were following it as closely as we follow IEBC results during an election. Since then things have changed a great deal, I can go days without watching the briefing. It’s a sense of resignation, it is here, what to do. Then going into the autopilot mode we are so used to as Kenyans. Liwe liwalo.
Initially I was all about strategies on how to combat Rona. Prayer was key, eating only nutrient dense foods, no milk, sugar and wheat, taking omega 3 and a comprehensive supplement. I would scour You tube for Rona info and recipes for combating it.
After a couple of weeks, it also became reflex. Any pasta, flour, noodles in my pantry remain untouched. Even the thought of eating something that is not extremely nutritious makes me recoil. Even the porridge had to be super nutritious. Oranges and key limes became my best friends. The best part of the quarantine is that I could do any work I needed to do at night because I work best at night. I’m not a morning person. So I could stay up as late as I wanted to and sleep in the next morning.
I can’t believe it’s been a good 44 days. Indoors. With the curfew and lock down. We are still pretty much in limbo as a country about what the way forward is with this thing. Let’s just keep praying, what else can we do? I wasn’t always so much at peace about Rona as I am now. God has given me a peace that surpasses all understanding. It does not mean that I do not wonder what’s next. The not knowing can be unnerving but all things considered I am handling the ambiguity pretty well and its help me go on my faith in God that in God’s time things will work out.
Below is the podcast from this American Life that inspired me to recount my own experience at the beginning of the Rona pandemic in Kenya. Enjoy.