Garden delivery

Our garden nursery delivery arrived early this morning. Ciao! Bye! I'll be in the garden until next week.

I really feel sad

One of the first things I read this morning was that a friend here in Europe has probably caught Coronavirus. There aren't enough tests available for him to confirm it, but he has all those symptoms (fever, headache, sore throat, passing nausea and cough). He continues to self-quarantine and wait for it to pass.

I determined to work hard today and make it a good day. I finished digging up a bed all around the periphery of our yard, placing rocks along the border; hope to finish it tomorrow. I stopped to help my husband carry in a month's worth of groceries. He had worked hard on preparing the list beforehand, gathering, buying, and bagging everything; he just prefers to get more things and go less often. I go once in awhile for a few perishable things like salad or fresh bread. Without an Italian driver's license, I can only bring what I can carry in my bike bags.

He said after having to wait a little bit at the entrance, the rest was normal. Except one odd thing was that some of the aisles were cordoned off: plants, household items and non-food baby items. So he couldn't buy glue. Some hypotheses were that it was to make people go through the store faster, or else to block purchases of unfair advantage (since other shops are forced closed). Either way it's irritating because it doesn't feel right.

The rest of the afternoon, with my head covered in henna dye, I cleaned the bathroom, started laundry, tidied the kitchen, made dinner, and ordered a gelato delivery. Only at dinner did I noticed how tired I was. Our friend lost his grandfather today to natural causes, but the family won't be able to have a normal funeral, only the closest relatives can be present when they bury his cremated remains. However, the crematoriums are backlogged until early April. My husband is now connecting with his brother (quarantined in the next town) by playing online video games together; and I check Facebook and the web, only to discover a few starling pieces of information, some terrible, some great.

The number of new Coronavirus cases and the number of deaths has gone up again, a lot. Two hundred and fifty deaths per day a week ago turned into 350, then 627 yesterday and 800 today. Along with the whole nation, this knowledge makes me feel so sad. Some people are now posting on social media "alternative statistics" saying how many babies are being born in Italy, and today I read there were 1,123 babies born. That is happy news indeed.

Then I read another terrible thing. As a consequence of the high rates of infection spreading, and that people are still going out "too much" for work or exercise, new stricter measures are put in place from tomorrow until April 15th. We are not allowed out anymore for exercise, not even alone; no gatherings of more than two people in public places (fines up to 5000 euros); all artisans, construction, and home care must stop; non-essential private studios and offices closed; street markets are canceled; all accommodations must close and guests have 72 hours to find another solution. This makes me sad, not because of losing freedoms in order to prevent deaths. I just feel sad on top of sad.

Last paragraph now... to end on good news, the Chinese Evangelical church of Rome has raised thousands of euros to buy and give away 180 thousand face masks, dropping them off in mailboxes, one by one, across the city. And tonight I'm going to hug my husband extra tight.

Lockdown, and how does it work?

Over the last month, the Italian government has continued to modify what our lockdown looks like. There were game changes almost every day last week as the rules became increasingly severe and was extended to the whole country! Our leaders are working hard to understand what are the best restrictions, what are the priorities, in which areas, while balancing pros and cons of the varying dynamics. However saving lives has prioritized over saving anything else in Italy, of which I am very proud.

It can be difficult to stay on top of the constantly changing restrictions. Information is spread via official channels, news, and social media. We try to keep up, and we try to understand. Meanwhile the rules of the game are real laws and not following them correctly can result in fines or potential lawsuits and jail time. Now put yourself in my friend's shoes. She runs her family's café in a residential neighborhood with a lot of elderly regular clientele. She shared with me that she was keeping the café open because she identified that her clientele need that space for social contact, a human connection. At the same time she was terribly worried about each and every one of them and found herself begging them to go home as soon as they had finished consuming their orders, wanting to protect them from infection.

Finally Thursday's law for full closures of all non-essentials made things clear and, with a sigh of relief, she closed the café. It hadn't been easy to stay open because the government doesn't call or write you to explain what you need to do. She had to go search online last once a day to discover for herself the most recently enacted guidelines. If she missed one, and was found not adhering, she could have faced a fine of hundreds of euros.

This is the English language infographic published by National police last week to explain what should stay open and what should be closed, as well as guidelines regarding leaving your home and watching for virus symptoms.