Wednesday, March 18, 2020

Greetings from Quarantine!

Funny how that last one was posted days before my 40th birthday... So let's start there: Hi. I'm Khephra White, and I'm 40 now. It's wild how I started this blog at 34 years old when I was getting ready to leave the United States and move to Madrid, Spain. So let's catch up, shall we?

Two years ago, my maternal Grandmother, Rosemarie Robinson died. I had to fly home for her funeral. I only got to be home for 5 days but I was able to go. That was the only time I went to the US in 2018. When I was home last year, in August 2019, I got an entire month to be home with my family and friends. I turned 40, partied, had king cake for the first time in 6 years (there may have been tears), and lost myself in love, Lizzo, and karaoke. It was good to be home.

After the turning of 40 I returned to Madrid for the new school year, and ... damn, it's been a doozy! I moved apartments, changed schools (thank God), started hosting a local comedy show, and even joined a gym. I was getting settled in my new routine, and though I was busy and tired, I was doing pretty well. Going on under the surface was something we'd heard about, but weren't really paying attention to. COVID-19, otherwise known as Coronavirus. By now there's no one who hasn't heard of it, but back then it was something that I don't even remember hearing about until December 2019. More and more stories came out about the toll it was taking on China and the quarantines that were happening, but again: No one really paid attention. It seemed so far away. Then Japan started getting cases, then S. Korea... then Italy. I feel like that's when Spain's ears perked up. Especially when Italy started shutting down entire cities, and the first case popped up in Spain. I live in Madrid, where most cases are. We heard there were 200 cases of COVID-19 here... that was last week, Tuesday to be exact. That was the night they announced that all classes in the city of Madrid were shut down. I'd just gotten home from the supermarket, so I'd already done my shopping for the week. And it's a good thing I did because the next thing I know, my Facebook and Whatsapp feed is filled with pictures of people emptying the shelves at the store. There were lines going to the back of the building, snaking through the aisles. They were buying anything that wasn't nailed down.I saw this myself the next day when I went to the Mercadona near my school (bad day to forget lunch at home)... I took some pictures of the empty shelves, helped an elderly woman reach some things on the top shelves, then left and went to KFC. It was all too familiar.

I got home from work super early, so I went back to the supermarket. One thing about growing up in New Orleans, you're used to shopping during hurricane season. For me, this was no different. I went back over the next few days, with a list, picking up what I needed. Closing the schools was the first step. The next day, I was sent home early by my school and told I could return when the kids did (two weeks). The day after that, all the theatres, music halls, museums were ordered closed. My comedy show was canceled along with the rest. I went to meet a friend who'd just arrived in Madrid for her birthday, and everywhere we went: Nothing and no one. Practically every restaurant was empty. The bars and clubs: Ghost towns. We walked down Gran Vía pretty much alone... just the three of us and I said: "Man, this is some Vanilla Sky shit." I knew quarantine was coming, I could just tell. I mean, it was the next logical step! I told M, my friend: "I give it days. I doubt it will take a week." That was Thursday night. Sure enough, the President of Spain was there Sunday night giving us the details of the quarantine and what it meant. No going out on the street unless you're going to the doctor, the pharmacy, the supermarket, or work. There's a steep ass fine if you're caught, too: 600€ minimum.

So here I am... in Madrid, Spain. On Day 5 of quarantine. COVID-19 is alllllll over the United States now, by the way. New Orleans has closed all its bars and restaurants, so have NYC and other major cities. The UK announced today they're closing schools. They're going to learn the hard way, just like we did over here. NOLA breaks my heart too because it's home (you too, Atlanta) and it's a service industry city. The industry is tourism, and this is supposed to be the busy season over there. What d you do when you put pretty much an entire city out of work? So many of my friends are hurting right now. They're being laid off, closing their businesses, and no one... not ONE of us knows what lies ahead. But I have faith that we will make it. I have faith that somehow, we will be okay. I have no idea how but after the shit some of us have been through, this is just one more hurdle. If nothing else: we can never say that we lived in boring times. Quite the opposite, my friends. What a time to be alive!

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