What is it like to be teaching during a pandemic? As we close in on a year-and-a-half of what has been a world-shaking pandemic, everyone has paid a cost. Whether it has been personal or in your community, financial or mental-health related, no-one has escaped. But some have definitely paid more than others. A teacher friend asked if they could use this space to share some of their thoughts and feelings and experiences as [...]
My friend Ciandri, from the Twitterer, agreed to write a little something on vaccines for people like me who don't know all that much when it comes to that. My name is Ciandri Zinserling, but please call me Cici (unless you're a home affairs official or my angry mother). I graduated with a Bsc. in Genetics and Microbiology from the University of the Witwatersrand. I enjoy learning new things through books, travel and people. [...]
We are listening to the stories of people who have lost someone [or more than one] to Covid-19 and today my friend Nicky Vigeland shares some of her story with us:Life in the midst of death2020. We all had many expectations, many dreams and so much hope. Who would’ve thought it would end up the way it did?Coronavirus landed in SA, we all closed up shop, worked from home and adapted as best we could.We [...]
How do you cope with a death in this time of Covid-19? This is the first of a very painful type of story to have to share, and i am so grateful to Carolyn Blunden for being gracious enough to invite us into her story... My dad died last week, 09 January 2021 from Covid! When I looked at his last blood test results, his particulars were cited as 76, white, male but my [...]
How do you begin to get your head around all those who have faced death from Covid-19? As i start writing this intro to a new series, 2. 06 million people around the world have lost their lives to Covid-19, that we know of. In South Africa, the official number sits at 38 288. Each death from Covid-19 represents a family and very likely a wider community of friends, colleagues and neighbours that number [...]
i am super grateful to my friend Nicola Date for sharing her story here. The first line of it is devastating enough, but i also know there was a cost to writing this piece for Nicola - physically, emotionally - she has really gone above and beyond to produce this account while still in the throes of a disease that is not done with her. Thank you, friend. i hope this story will inspire [...]
Another glimpse into the life of someone who has had Covid-19 and is on the mend. This time an email from an old friend of mine who is a teacher who had covid and asked to remain anonymous. i find that with each new story i am learning not only about the disease and how it seems to work differently in different people, but also about some of the wider issues [What do you [...]
Today's story is about a couple who had a fairly mild experience of Covid-19 and yet still are strongly insistent that this is something you want to avoid in any way possible. The covid fatigue is real, people. The names have been changed for anonymity. A personal story of the COVID positive experience. Thomas and I tested COVID positive on 2 Dec. When I got swabbed I had no symptoms (I was tired, but [...]
Today's story is from another friend of mine on social media who asked to remain anonymous and so i am going to call her K [not her real initial!] My husband is a physio at Groote Schuur hospital. He's been working in covid wards and with covid patients for 7 or 8 months now. His department were really careful from March already with social distancing, changing clothes before going home and lots of deep [...]
Yesterday, we kicked off the Surviving Covid-19 series by hearing some of David and Jacqui's story of facing this coronavirus. Today we continue with some reflections, this time from Sue Diepeveen who i met a couple of years ago while performing with my Improv troupe, Improguise as she runs the delightful little theatre known as the Drama Factory in Somerset West. What strikes me with each new story i hear from someone who has [...]
