A Volunteer's Perspective - Locked in

Aaaand it happened! A child in the kindergarten I work in got Covid one and a half weeks ago and me and my flatmate have been in quarantine ever since, which means no human contact outside of our apartment for two weeks. But the fact that the whole country is in lockdown anyways makes this whole experience a little bit more bearable. The government restricted human contacts, so quarantine or not doesn’t really make a difference.

So what do you do, when you are locked into your apartment for two weeks (metaphorically speaking; no worries, no one actually locked us in)? Honestly, I have no idea...Even though I am in quarantine for almost two weeks now, I don’t have a masterplan on how to survive this time without going crazy for at least a few days. At some point I felt like someone actually locked me in, threw away the keys and told me to just relax and work online. The only thing this person forgot to tell me is for how long this situation would last, because my quarantine is ending tomorrow, but the lockdown still continues, schools and kindergartens are still closed, the Covid case numbers in the Czech Republic are still rising to an alarming number and I am stuck in this place of not knowing what is going to happen in the future. Sometimes I just feel lost with nothing to lead me back on the right track.

The only thing that keeps me going in the moment is my work and all of my optimistic friends and family, so a special thanks to all of those people for not letting the pessimist in me take over. I also really appreciate my coordinators for keeping us volunteers busy in these special times. I know it’s not a given fact to have such supportive colleagues and coordinators.

To answer my own question: When you are locked in your own apartment for several weeks, look out for people who support you and keep yourself busy with work or your hobbies, as far as you can pursue them inside. On that note please don’t play soccer inside or at least don’t tell the person, who is yelling at you for breaking their favourite vase, that it was my idea. But to get back to the original topic, don’t pressure yourself to feel good all the time. It’s normal to have a bad day or to not feel very well mentally once in a while, especially with a pandemic going on. We are all going through this time together, so don’t feel weird to talk about your mental health and the worries you have.

 You don’t have to face these problems alone :).