By Moipone Molapo – Morebo Intern

When the lockdown started on Friday, there was a lot going through my mind. I was experiencing many emotions at the same time but the one emotion that stood out was fear. Not just fear of the virus itself but fear of what was to happen to us financially at home. The fear stemmed from the fact that my father owns an establishment where he sells food and alcohol, the announcement of the shutdown of all non-essential services came with a shadow of fear that no one could ignore.

I come from a single income home and long before Covid-19 struck we were having difficulties but getting by, nonetheless. The financial strain that came from me being in university was no longer there, I got a job and that gave my parents a little neck room to breathe.

The lockdown began within a matter of days and before we had a chance to wrap our heads around the seriousness of the situation we were no longer permitted to walk outside, never mind trade.

The first week was the most difficult, staying away from friends and loved ones felt physically painful, the emotional and psychological strain was so intense, we reeked of desperation. I say we, because I know my parents and siblings were experiencing similar emotions.

The anxiety in the house was overwhelming, we had never been in the same space for such a long period of time. Yes, we live together but everyone always had his or her own thing going on. I live with my mom, dad, younger sister and younger brother and having so many people around you can be extremely challenging, especially for those who like to have their own space. Days went by and the inevitable happened, we started clashing, we all have strong personalities and are very opinionated about many things so this gave birth to many arguments which we tried to solve immediately as we no longer had the option to leave the house and cool off.  

The second week was better, by now we had our daily routines, you could say we had established coping mechanisms of some sort. We started making time for playing games and getting to know each other a little better. We played games like 30 seconds and Scrabble, some days we even made up our own games. We tried out new recipes. The one night my siblings and I made a pizza from scratch, you can only imagine how proud we were of ourselves because we had never done anything like that before.

For the first time in over 5 years my family and I spent Easter together. We cooked up a storm on Good Friday, we sat at the table, enjoyed a meal together and it was beautiful. The circumstances which lead to this point are terrible, but this lockdown has brought my family even closer together, somehow something positive has come from this pandemic

We do not know what the future holds for us or our country but we’re staying put and doing our part in trying to decrease the spread of the virus. At this point all we can do is hope and Pray that not only does our family come out healthier and stronger but our country and the world at large.