COVID-19: experiences from around the world

Today our globe and its people are shaken by pandemic. It's the worst I have witnessed in my lifetime. When I was in Asia in January, I received messages from home with corona -virus news. At the time I didn't take the situation so seriously. Corona was some virus founded in China and didn't affect my life. The first chinese cities were starting to lock down then. That was about 2,5 months ago.

Now country borders have been closed here in Finland and everywhere. People are told to stay home and avoid unnecessary contact. My daughter is homeschooling. We are allowed to go the grocery stores, pharmacy and for a walk, if we are healthy. We can go to work, if it's necessary. I work in health care so I still have a workplace to go to. Many people have lost their jobs and are battling to survive everyday life.

I wanted to hear experiences of this situation from ordinary people around the world. I sent the following questions to the ones I've met during my travels and others I've been in contact with on social media. I got answers from 11 countries and six continents. They are in alphabetical order by country.

1.  Where are you from?
2.  What do you do for living?
3.  What is the COVID-19 situation in your country at the moment?
4.  How has the pandemic affected your daily life? (quarantine / restrictions)
5.  How do you think this virus affects traveling?
6.  What do you hope for the future?
7.  If you could choose any destination to go to after this pandemic, what would it be?
8.  Anything else you want to say?

Australia: Ash

1. Perth, Western Australia 
2. Mining
3. Australia: stay at home unless work, shopping, medical. 
4. can’t go out, I used to go out daily/every night 
5. it will bankrupt all but the biggest airlines and shut down some of our favourite hotels/restaurants/bars for good. Mass unemployment.
6.  I hope we all live, and make it to a better world. This is a great chance to pivot from a neoliberal capitalist society (which is a failure), to the benefits of democratic socialism.
7. South and Central America 
8. I’ll see you there 👍🏽

Canada : Benoit

1. North of Montreal, Quebec, Canada
2. I'm a tattoo artist and also own business of concrete delivery trucks. 3. For now the minister of our province, Mr Legault is doing everything he can and people see him as a true leader. Something that was missing for 25 years plus and very welcome. Our prime minister Trudeau is acting like a politician. 4. I had to stop tattooing. Something I did even before the government ask us to do so. Soon after I had to layoff my employees from the transport business. I now have zero income, but still have to continue to pay bills in my personal life as well as my two business. I'm positive that the tattoo business will not make it. Government are announcing some help soon. We will see. 5. I usually travel once or twice a year but in 2020 we, my wife and I, had an idea not to because of big work in the house we just finished. It will be hard for everything that touch traveling on the planet. 6. In a near future it is crucial that they find a vaccin. And I really hope, that people will take their responsability about their money and understand, that it can and will happen again. We are too busy trying to live life and missing it. It’s been two weeks since I stop working directly and my daughter is with us all the time and I like it. It’s her birthday this weekend and she understand better than adults, why we can’t have friends coming over. 7. Well I can choose any place I want so we will probably go to Hawaii for a month.
8. The situation force us to rethink our life. Let’s not waste it. Our physical and mental helt is at stake here and those of our children.
-Ben-

Canada: Prateek

1. I'm from India, raised in Canada
2. I work for a bank as a global planning manager.
3. The situation here is all non essential services are closed and the country has declared a state of emergency - allowing access to funds designated to help those who really need it at this time. 4. For the last 4 weeks I have been working from home, which has been an adjustment - mainly because I no longer see anyone anymore.
5. All travel (rightfully so) is severely restricted to those who really need it. 6. That we learn that this virus affects everyone equally, regardless of race or wealth status, and that we remember that we're all equal when we come back to normal.
7. China, mainly because I can't right now..lol 8. A heartfelt thank you to health care workers worldwide and of course anyone, who still has to go in to work during this time and isn't allowed to quarantine.

England: Lewis

1. I’m from a Grimsby, UK

2. I’m a brand manager for an extreme sports company

3, We’re currently in lockdown, only able to go outdoors to pick up basic necessities from the supermarket or for a brief exercise. This is currently only for a 3-week period but very likely to be extended into the summer.

4. It’s actually allowed me to focus more on things I was previously too busy to do (or so I told myself) such as exercising properly, organising all of my own admin stuff (like finances) and given me some time to relax. Obviously I would prefer that this whole situation hadn’t ever happened, but I’m trying to look at the positives while obeying government advice.

5. It affects travelling because nobody can go anywhere. I think in the long run, it’ll make people appreciate their freedom more. I, for one, spend a lot of time on budget flights and I always feel grateful for the ability to travel, but hopefully everybody will start to realise the true wonder of it all after this is over.

6. I hope people will take the current lessons they’re learning (like using this time for personal care, for checking in on family and friends regularly, for essentially focusing on those that matter and feeling excitement for the future when it’s all fixed) with them when everything is over. I hope they won’t forget to keep doing these things and I hope that they have started to value the really important things in life - health and well-being of themselves and those closest to them. I also hope that we stop taking so much stuff for granted.

8. I think I’d like to go back to Georgia. It’s a lovely, peaceful, amazing country and I have really fond memories of visiting with my girlfriend. But I think you could place me anywhere on the map and I’d love it after being stuck indoors!!

8. Travel is such a special, special thing. No matter where I’ve been or for how long, I’ve always exploded with gratitude for the ability to do so. It’s so magical and I hope we treasure it even more after this episode is over and the world returns to normal. I’d like to see us do the same with the time we get with each other too, and realise how precious it all is. The world is wonderful and so are all the people in it!

( Lewis on Youtube → 📺 link )

Georgia: Nika

1. I'm from Georgia. 2. Work at Center for Strategic Research and Development of Georgia as a project assistant. 3. Right now it's curfew here, from 21:00 to 06:00. We have 110 total cases but only 89 is active and luckily no deaths. 4. Well, I'm at home all the time, working and studying from here and going outside when I need something from market or pharmacy. 5. About traveling, I think it's too complicated, for a few months people should stop traveling. I know it's not easy (Especially for addicted people, like you 😃) but I think that's what we need. 6. Hope everything will be okay and people will start normal life again. 7. It would be Italy, I want to see that these crazy people are happy again. Also, it's my favourite country especially the southern part. 8. Hope everything will be okay

Indonesia: John

1. Maumere Flores
2. I am a Tour Guide
3.It's getting worse now.. but in my island still safe at the moment
4. For sure for us who work with tourism, it's really difficult..I have no income at all. But need to brake the chain of this virus, stay home and follow the instructions from the government
5. Yes for sure. We cannot travel at all till this pandemic is gone
6. Hope this finish soon.. hope they got the medicine as soon as possible.
7. Our Country for sure. East Indonesia is the one best tourists destination
8. Could you please take care, and stay safe.

Laos: Simon

1. I am from England, but currently living in Vang Vieng, Laos. 2. Profession is chef 3. Current situation is not locked down, but everything has to close by 8pm very latest, police patrolling streets after with guns. 4. Life is cheap here and it depends from what I can see locals are getting more and more afraid of westerners. I know there are many people in quarantine. I only know this from Lao ppl. I think that Vang Vieng will never recover from this. Also riots will start soon enough. I've already been refused in shops n such.
5. It affects everything and will continue to do so forever after this. 6. Nothing will be the same again in terms of travel and how we live our life. Many ppl still think this is a joke and nothing to worry about . 7. I want to go back to England after this and see friends, family and loved ones.
Not only this but want my Lao girlfriend to come to the UK to see different cultures and meet my family.

Malta: Katja

1. From Finland but living in Malta 2. I work for online gaming industry and in sales 3. Currently in Malta we have about 160 cases but no deaths so far 4. Whole country is in semi lockdown. All people with diseases what can make you more vulnerable for the virus and people over 65 are quarantined at home. Nothing is open except grocery stores, banks etc. and people mainly just stay indoors. Everybody works from home who can do it. Our household only goes out when we need groceries and otherwise we stay indoors. 5. It defnitely affected my personal travelling, I have lost so far 3 trips because of this. I was supposed to go to London, Paris and Germany but none of those things happened naturally.  Airport is mainly closed here and only few flights go out anyway. In the future nobody knows what will happen and how long this takes. 6. I hope a vaccination is found for the virus and we could all continue living our normal lives. 7. As I missed all those holidays what I had planned, I hope to go to those places: London, Paris and Germany. 8. This is truly a unique time for us all, let's hope this blows over soon.

Mexico: Mons

1. Mexico City
2. Teacher, graphic designer, videographer and video editor, musician. 3. Just being declared national emergency to try and stop the faster spread, we're in phase 4.  I'm a freelancer and independent business owner... So, classes are being shut down, as well as public gatherings, so the teacher, musician and videographer bits have stopped. We have been recommended not to leave home, so all local businesses are struggling, therefore not spending money on graphic design either. 5. Well, if you can't leave your house, less you can leave your city or your country. Also with all the economy being affected, the money you get is to be reserved for basic needs. 6. I only hope there will not be a brutal economic recession... I do think things need to change, but hopefully not by massive suffering. 7. Actually i bought plane tickets before the pandemic. I was supposed to travel to Finland by the end of August, and visit Sweden, Denmark and Germany. 8. We're living dark times, I hope we see some light soon enough.

Mongolia: Undral

1. I am from Ulaanbaatar, capital of Mongolia.
2. I am running a small tour company and a small guesthouse in Ulaanbaatar.
3. Since January 27th mongolian government did strict control against corona virus. First all schools and universities are closed till 30th of April. All public holidays are stopped, as well all borders to China and Russia are closed too. Flights from and to any countries are forbidden. We have now 12 cases, but all are under control. They came from outside of Mongolia, 1 french and 11 mongolians.
4. First I was thinking it will be soon done and will take some days, but now I'm more afraid. I can not imagine, if no one could enter Mongolia. I don't like this isolation. As normal citizen we could go out little bit and visit our parents. But our job is just stopped: no job, no fun.
5. I think because of that virus people will not be traveling as much as before. We'll see, how bad it goes.
6. I only hope people are not losing their dream, loving each other. Maybe this virus teaches being more human and respectful, being with nature. I see more positive than negative.
7. Maybe I will choose Italy and hug italians. I don't know. Italy makes me more sad.
8. Now those days seem like rainy days, but after that the sun will rise back.

Morocco: Najia

1. Morocco

2. I work, but in these circumstances we stop work.

3. We have in this moment 516 cases and 27 deaths. But I think, it will be more than this in a few days.

4. It has been 10 days that I stayed home with my husband. He goes out just to buy food, then returns.

5. Traveling is no longer a priority. The borders are closed now. There is no possibility to go abroad. I started steps to have a visa to go to France in August. But I think it wouldn't be possible for this year.

6. I hope that this virus stop affecting people in the world, to return to our daily lives and visit parents and family, go shopping and have liberty to move.

7. Sincerely i'm not in the mood to think about it, because I dont think countries will do well, if they dont find a vaccine.

8. After this misery i hope that the humanity continues to live in this earth with love and less poverty.

Portugal: Sonia

1. Portugal
2. Physical Education Teacher
3. The number of people infected and dying is growing every day 4. People infected can not leave their houses (if they aren’t hospitalized), those who contacted infected people are in quarantine.
We can only go out to buy food or for medical reasons. There are jobs considered fundamental related to health, and essentials.
5. No one should travel 6. The cure
7. Can not think about that right now
8. Stay safe

Thanks to everybody, who took part in this. I can see that no matter, where we are from, we share the same hopes and dreams. I wish this all be over soon. Meanwhile, lets take care of each other. 💓

"Nothing we do can change the past, but everything we do changes the future."