Irina Werning

La Cuarentena

It’s the new normal ! Lockdowns are being championed as a solution to the spread of the number one enemy: the coronavirus. In developing countries like Argentina, where 40% of the population lives in poverty, it’s difficult to just stay fixated on the fear of infection when one realizes how daunting the economic setback of these strict lockdown policies are for most of the population. In these economies so many more workers carry out hands-on work which is incompatible with the new moral high ground of social distancing. So many more are also likely to be employed informally and thus are clinging to cash payments in exchange for the type of daily work which the government has black-listed and penalized. It’s hard to buy much time with lower income and lower saving or to wait for hand-outs from bankrupt governments. In addition, experts advise that the peak of the virus spread should fall in June, precisely as winter hits South America. When you add to this the fact that developing countries have less old population and less “diseases of civilization” like diabetes or heart problems, this makes you wonder if the solution is worse than the disease.  

Behold! My family in full lockdown in Buenos Aires (41 days and counting…)

I wish I could say I’m one of those great moms who creates an activity for their kids to play and heal in such difficult time, but I’m not. I just can’t survive without a project.

As we all know, we are caged.

I must confess I love trashing my kid’s art work when they are asleep but these days I treasure it. On Day 20 we did a little exhibition on our front door – for no one actually.

Hurray! We celebrated my 44th birthday.

On the 7th day…it was still boiling hot down in south America, so we had to get away somehow and the beach seemed like such a splendid idea. Fun’s over, now we’re into autumn

The kids, of course, know everything about the coronavirus, news, fakenews, science, pseudoscience, and conclusions from all that big data…

Sometimes I give them undivided attention for hours, sometimes I hide in the bathroom, but I have to say…the kids are all right.

Day 26 : Lars (my son) woke up with a swollen eye. We consulted the Eye doctor via text message.