Life lately in Kenya
No matter what part of the world you find yourself in, I’m willing to bet these past few weeks have looked different than you thought they would. For all of us, it seems, our lives have changed so drastically in such a short amount of time. It’s hard to wrap our minds around it.
I find myself losing track of what day it is - they all sort of look the same now: cleaning the house (the dust here is a constant, that’s nothing new), doing the laundry (which includes hanging it to air dry), doing the dishes (by hand, no dishwashers here), preparing food (always preparing food - these kids never stop eating!), homeschooling our eight year old (which admittedly is not my favorite - I prefer to just be mom), taking care of our two year old (making sure he doesn’t get into all the things he shouldn’t while I do homeschool with our eight year old), doing some sort of art project or legos with our five year old (she’s constantly asking me to do something with her, which I love but also loathe because I never seem to have enough time for her).
It feels like a TON of work. It is a ton of work. And I know I’m not alone in feeling like this is a lot. But for me, here in Kenya, all the while as I go about my day, the thing that remains in the back of my mind is this: how long will this go on? What new restrictions will be put on us tomorrow? What will happen to us if one of us contracts Covid-19?
Things are much different here than they were a few weeks ago. As of today, Kenya has 184 confirmed cases of Coronavirus. Though the labs here only have the capacity to test about 600 per day, so the number of cases is likely much higher than what is reported.
It was not even four weeks ago that we got word on a Sunday night around 8pm that all schools in Kenya would close immediately. There was no warning, no ramping up to it. School was just cancelled one Sunday evening. Our kids did not get to say goodbye to their teachers or their friends.
Then, two weeks ago (when there were less than 30 cases) the Kenyan government shut down all international travel. We could have taken the last flight out of here to JFK for a price of $3,500 one way per ticket. That would have been $17,500 for our entire family to just get to JFK. We chose to stay.
Just two days after that the president initiated a countrywide curfew from 7pm-5am. The curfew started off on the wrong foot - police across Kenya reportedly used excessive force, beating and tear gassing crowds of people on their way home from work. And you may have seen in the news where Kenyan police shot dead a 13 year old boy for playing on the balcony of his home just 20 minutes after the curfew started. If that hasn’t put a level of fear into all of us here, I don’t know what has.
And now just this week, the president of Kenya declared Nairobi a “Covid-19 infected area” and banned all travel in and out of Nairobi. So, we’re not on a total lockdown, but we aren’t allowed out of the city. Everyone also has to wear masks when out in public.
The Kenyan government is also arresting and forcefully taking people who they believe to have come into contact with Covid-19 positive patients to mandated quarantine facilities, which are often dusty, dirty old hotels or dorm rooms at a training college. In order to get to these quarantine places (which are not free - they cost anywhere between $20/ and $100/night) people are often rounded up and put on crowded busses all together. So, chances are, if someone didn’t have Covid-19 before getting on that bus, they would contract it at that point. It’s awful. And once you’re in one of these quarantine facilities you are required to stay for at least 14 days and in some cases up to 28 days.
All of this is quite stressful. Kenya is more stable than many African nations, but there are so many unknowns right now. And something like this causes us to pause and think about what’s to come. What if an emergency happens and one of our kids needs to go to the hospital during curfew hours? What if one of us gets Covid-19? What if one of our kids gets Covid-19? What if we came into contact with someone who tests positive for Covid-19 and the government tracks us down and forcibly takes us away to a mandatory quarantine facility? Do we all go? Wow. So many thoughts…
Africa has been one of the last places hit by the Coronavirus pandemic. Many African leaders shrugged it off as the “rich man’s disease” at first. But now, all over the continent drastic actions are being taken to stop the spread of the virus. And we have a front row seat to watch it all go down, whether we want it or not. Our hope and prayer right now is that the general sense of calm that exists here now would remain, no matter what happens. But the truth is that Kenya has less than 250 ICU beds in a country of 50 million.
If Kenya experiences an outbreak like Italy or Spain (countries with similar populations in terms of numbers), it will be beyond devastating.