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| LIKONI FERRY MOMBASA MARCH 2020 |
PANDEMIC
I write from a very comfortable abode in Urbana Illinois, caring for my 87 year old mother and working from home for Maryknoll Lay Missioners. This week I received a video clip from the ferry in Mombasa Kenya, a place I would regularly cross over, on my way to do my clinics when I lived there from 2010 to 2018. I had to force myself to watch the horror.
Kenya instituted a curfew last week because of Covid 19. They require people to be in their home by 7pm, which is dusk, until 5am. The first night the police and army used tear gas and beat people viciously to force them to run towards the ferry as the night curfew approached. These are all of the common people who live across the harbor in little shacks and work on the island doing menial low paying jobs for people of means. They live from day to day on the pittance they earn.
On March 22nd the Catholic church in Juba South Sudan installed the new Archbishop at a huge celebration bringing people together from all over the country to eat, drink and celebrate. I told our missioner who works there it should not happen and he should not go. Three days later the government closed the airport and all borders because of the pandemic. That is like closing the barn door after all the cattle have run out.
In the USA New Orleans is overwhelmed with Covid patients for the last 10 days. They celebrated Mardi Gras about a month before that, just about the time their cattle got out of the barn. I pray for South Sudan during the coming month hoping the same thing doesn't happen to them.
In Tanzania the president has said that all churches will remain open because the virus is a devil and it can't live in the body of Christ. He says prayers are needed to get rid of it. There are few test kits available where our people work. Tanzania reports only 19 cases as of today.
I am working long hours at the computer trying to support our people in Asia and the Americas too, but East Africa is what I know best. Here in Urbana, Illinois I go to the grocery store once a week and take my elderly mother on walks in the neighborhood. We have running water and electricity, shelter and money saved in the bank. Many people here have lost their jobs. The food banks and soup kitchens are ramping up to serve those who live from pay check to pay check since the last check just ran out and they can't buy food.
But I know we are blessed beyond measure compared to countries in the global south. There, people live from day to day on the water and food they bring home to their crowded shacks in the informal settlements. In this pandemic I suspect that those in the rural areas will fair better. There will be more fresh air and some food in their gardens if the rains come and the locusts go away.
The last pandemic was The Great Influenza in 1918. Some people call it 'Spanish flu' but it had nothing to do with Spain and that is a misnomer. It killed at least 50 million people. Because of WWI, various countries prevented reporting about the illness and huge ships with soldiers traveled from the USA to Europe spreading the virus which preferred to take the lives of young people in their early twenties. The lesson to learn from that debacle is TELL THE TRUTH!
If we are smart we will learn that pandemic means none of us has any immunity to this virus and we are all vulnerable to varying degrees. It is a super spreader which means it is very easy to transmit and because it is new we have a lot to learn about how it operates. We live in a very globalized world with movement everywhere and it will make its way everywhere. We may contain it in one place but if it pops up in another place it can come back to haunt us until we get a treatment and a vaccine.
The experts tell us we need to test and quarantine those infected to stop it from spreading so fast. It kills those who are most vulnerable because they are over 60 and weaker or have an illness like lung or heart disease or a bad immune system. It has already overwhelmed some of the best health care systems in the world. When it gets to the global south it will decimate them.
Lent is the best time to reassess the way we live our lives and let go of what holds us back from birthing something new and even better. I do believe in Resurrection and life. This pandemic will make sure we pay attention to what is essential...relationships and love.
PEACE OF THE DAFFODILS BLOOMING HERE TO YOU!
