Quarantine Chronicles (pt. 2)

As we're concluding week two of our distance learning program and our new normal system. We're beginning to settle into a new normal with our schedules and the expectations that come with that. It's a little difficult to find time to get in 8 hours of work per day, but we have been purposeful about sticking to a strict schedule or sorts and that has helped us find a system that works. Since we have some flexibility with when we get our work done, we have been able to take advantage of the idea of alternating days to sleep in since only one of us goes into work early every morning. So yay for silver linings in a pandemic ridden world. I usually go take on the morning work routine and Shannon does morning baby duty. I have been able to get into a pretty consistent workout routine in the mornings as our school's gym has been available to us, and kept super clean. I have never been in there for more than 20 minutes without having seen someone from our school's custodian staff come in and clean. Plus, there are lots of cleaning solution bottles around for those civilized among us to clean up after ourselves. Having an option for exercise has been huge as there are definitely times where we go a little stir crazy. So I'm thankful for that. The rest of my routine usually involves me going in to work at 8 and working until 12. During that time, I have virtual meetings, lesson plan writing time, grading time, or video office hours so students can check in with me if they need to talk face to face (on the internet). Physically going in to work to do that is super convenient because a home with a one year old running around is not a quiet place. It's also convenient because we live about 30 yards from work. School has been doing a pretty great job of disinfecting, fumigating, wiping down, bleaching, and cleaning any and everything. So I don't feel like being there has been a safety concern at all so far. Plus I don't really see many people along the way, and I definitely don't see anyone in close quarters. 

We are doing our lessons in a week by week module style now rather than trying to adhere to our previous schedules. That makes sense to me and my students have been receptive to that for the most part. It is hard though as the best part of teaching, and the most fun part about teaching is the interaction with students. We have been deprived that to an extent. We record video tutorials for our lessons and provide feedback but the interpersonal connections have been difficult. I recently began the process of emailing check ins with students and I have found them to be in dire need of that so far. Many of my students are really struggling with the lack of socialization and boredom, which is a totally fair complaint. They have been rising to the occasion however on their academic expectations. I have had students doing their work for the most part, and completing it all at a high level. They have really pleasantly surprised me with their self-management and their maturity in all of this. It really brings to light the fact that many of them are deserving of more autonomy like this all of the time. 

When I go home at noon, I have lunch with Shannon and the baby and then she goes off to do the same at work. I have really enjoyed having so much extra time to be with him. During the school day, when things are normal, I see him for an hour or two in the morning before work and an hour or two at night before he goes to sleep. With him being at such an interesting and fun age, it's been great to see him for like 8 hours a day. I've been able to show him new things, teach him new words, play with him, and really get to enjoy the highs and lows of spending quality time with him. It's not always easy, obviously, but I feel pretty confident that I'm going to look back at this time fondly and without regrets and not being able to be around him. 

During our time together, our routine usually consists of eating lunch together and then going to play outside. Right now, for us, playing outside involves walking around and exploring things like trees, neighborhood cats, kicking a ball, sometimes running, and pointing out things he knows, like cars. Occasionally, he'll spot a little basketball hoop and we spend twenty minutes with me lifting him up to dunk various objects through the hoop. Then we go back inside and try to take a nap, to varying degrees of success. After our nap, we usually go on a walk (with him in his stroller) around the neighborhood. Unfortunately, the playgrounds in our neighborhood have been barricaded off as a precaution so we are mostly left to our own devices with regards to what we can play with and how. Recently, we have been going to the school's track, and soccer field to provide him with a giant open space to kick a ball around or run around on soft grass. But aside from that it's been a lot of reading and playing inside. It has recently started to creep up in terms of temperature, so that has me worried about the long term viability of outside spaces as this thing continues to go on, but for now so far so good. On a few rare occasions, we have gone over to play with one of his friends who lives down the street, whose family is in a similarly isolated situation. We're doing the best we can. 

When Shannon gets home we all eat dinner together and after the baby goes to bed, we have been continuing our work at home emailing kids, grading things, providing feedback, and lesson planning. We have found some time on occasion to get some movie time in together. For the near future, this seems to be what our lives will be like. But on the whole, I would say we are settling into the new expectations we have and we are making the most of it. 

COVID-19

So as I mentioned in our previous blog post, we began seeing the impact of the COVID-19 virus a month plus ago. At the time, we did not really have any idea how widespread it would be become or what the impact would turn into for us. Similar to last post, I won't use this space to summarize the entirety of the case except to clarify that I take the recent developments of the virus seriously. I recognize and empathize with those afflicted with the virus. I also empathize with those who have been directly impacted by the effects of the virus as I can now say that I have as well. At the time of this post, there are over 156,000 cases confirmed, with hundreds of thousands more suspected but not reported. Over 5,800 people have died and 75,000 have been confirmed as having the virus, but have fully recovered. Over 140 countries have reported cases as well. For live stats, this site is very helpful. The virus is very serious. For the purposes of this post, I am going to write down, for posterity's sake, our own specific experiences as I imagine this is something we will want to remember in detail later.

Speaking for myself, I can say that I largely experienced the COVID-19 case with some distance. I was following the news, and intellectually aware of what was happening. Yet to me, my concern still mostly remained on my own experiences with an underlying assumption that it would all go away soon. I spent time expressing frustrations and hopes that the virus would be finished spreading in time for me to take my Spring Break vacation. Then as cases kept spreading, my focus shifted more towards the inevitable loss of that time and more towards a wary observation of the stats and spread. Now I find myself jumping back and forth between my responsibilities and worries as a parent, my role as a teacher having to figure out distance learning for the first time, a partner to my wife with all of the roles that come with family responsibilities and I find myself compartmentalizing. I feel that I am shifting my focus, roles, perspectives, and responsibilities to each of the groups of people I am committed to, and care about. It's a surreal experience to be responsible for the life and entertainment of a toddler in a time like this, to be in charge of planning and food procurement as the only driver in our home, worrying about the health of my wife and child, and also worrying about the educational experience of my 120+ students. All while being aware of my shift in responsibilities depending on the context of my tasks at hand. Previously, it seemed like these things were automatically sorted for me by location. In school I am the teacher. At home, I am the father and husband. But with this new blended approach to working from home and balancing child care duties with work responsibilities, all while surrounded by the same things, I have found it odd code switching between perspectives.

To briefly summarize our experiences so far after the cancellation of our 'Week Without Walls' trip, I can summarize it best in order of events. As news continued to trickle in about the spread of the virus, the government Saudi closed religious tourist visits. That's a big deal for the government of Saudi Arabia as those visits are of significant religious importance in addition to the economic boom they provide. It signaled to us that the government was taking their responsibilities seriously. If anything, at that point, I felt a little relieved to be living on a compound, in a country with a somewhat restrictive access to visas. Basically we are living in a country with walls, inside a community with walls and all along, at every checkpoint, there are restrictions to get in.

Shortly after that, the first case in Saudi was reported. It was reported in Jeddah, which is a flight away but it was a shock to the system that it had arrived in the same country we were in, although we were aware with our surrounding countries all involved that it would happen here too. Not long after that, our school cancelled after school activities as per Ministry of Health and Education requirements. At that point it seemed inevitable that we would be taking alternate precautions at school. We had a planned 'Virtual Day' that was moved up so we could practice, and well, regroup and come up with a plan. Shortly after, we started virtual school. This is a practice our school isn't new to. As I mentioned, we've been conducting virtual school days twice per year since long before I got here, so that gave us a helpful framework of systems that work and don't work. I read about and hear about schools trying these systems for the first time now and I am grateful for the opportunity to work at a school that has experience with these systems. As someone who regularly follows the happenings at other schools around the world, I was seeing all kinds of plans. Some schools sent their teachers and students home. Some teachers left the countries. Others were required to go to school. Some decided to try to hold daily lessons virtually. Then, as the school anticipated government mandated shut downs of schools, we re-worked a lot of our systems and procedures for online school, meetings, etc. We spent a week or so fine tuning our online program while providing lessons, and figuring all of that stuff out. While it was nerve-wracking, it was an exciting and fulfilling time as I love the creative aspect of problem-solving. At least exciting from that standpoint; I don't mean to misrepresent my intentions and imply that I was looking forward to this. It just put me into a mindset of problem-solving in an authentic way. Something needed to be done, and I had to help figure it out.

During this time, Shannon and I would cope with the stress and anxiety of this transition period with lots of walks around the compound while talking out our thoughts. Then, as we watched the cases continue to grow within Saudi, I started stocking up on groceries and medicine and baby products. I made frozen breakfasts, emergency frozen dinners, and loaded up on as much as we could regarding supplies in case things ran low or we were prevented from getting out later. Then this past weekend we woke up to the government shutting down the borders. There are no international flights now for the next two weeks at least. That's a whole new situation too as we have never been in a position where we COULDN"T leave even if we wanted to. There is a level of peaceful resignation to the fact that one of the possible scenarios has been taken off of the table, so we're left to deal with our current reality. Again, I'm not happy about it or excited about it, just aware of how these changes and decisions are impacting me personally.

Now we're somewhere in the middle of this process. We have officially begun our long term plan for distance learning. Shannon and I have worked out a system of shifts to rotate and cover all of our required responsibilities at work, with the baby, with our students, and everything else. It's going to be a time where we need to be flexible, and one where we wish we had some extra childcare help. But one day, we will hopefully look back at this and view it as the happy medium between being stay at home parents, and working full time. We are certainly going to be getting a lot of stress relieving (and inducing) playtime with the little guy.

Now as recently as last night, there has been a confirmed case in the compound. I hope that person recovers quickly. But I would be lying if I didn't say that news made me a little nervous. My previously held facade of walls creating a proverbial nesting doll structure, a protective cocoon, is shattered. Most of the compound facilities including stores, gyms, etc. are all shut down as a precaution.

So that brings us to here and now. We are doing the best we can with what we can. We are taking care of each other. We are taking care of our responsibilities. We are hoping for the best. We are hunkered down if need be with all of the resources we need and we know as much as anyone about how we need to treat this from a preventative standpoint. So until otherwise noted, we will be sitting in our homes, doing our jobs, and entertaining our one year old to the best of our ability, all while trying to take it all in stride.