Quarantine

Like you in Canada and in the USA, we are living under quarantine for corvid19. The measures were extended last week until April 24th, and we expect that will be extended. Everything is closed, except for some stores that sell essentials. There you may need to get our temperature taken, sanitize your hands, order and pay for your stuff and pick it up outside. Some restaurants are doing takeaway and or delivery, no one can eat inside. Meetings are limited to ten people.

The farmer/vendor markets are all closed, too which has affected many people living in the village, last week a neighbor with chickens brought Garry and Max two buckets of eggs to give to the students. Normally, a man comes to the village and sells them in the market in the city for him, but now he can't sell them.

Milk trucks are not picking up milk driving through the village like they normally would, and people can't sell in the markets, so people with four or five cows have a problem because they can't legally sell the milk their cows are making. The people we used to sell milk to five years ago would have been unable to sell their cheese products because the markets are shuttered. We now have an official contract with the milk company to pick up our milk. Factories with more than 50 employees had to shut down, so we were worried at first, because the milk factory has about one hundred employees, but food production is considered essential, so they are exempt.

Yesterday we had our staff meeting outside at the Crawfords. You can admire their beautiful lawn, and the masks Shannon sewed for everyone. We are trying to avoid contact with people other than the students. (Scott and Shannon are even avoiding them, as Scott has had lung issues this winter). Sometimes this is difficult, Garry says every neighbor is dropping in at the building site to check it out, and Ukrainian men always shake hands when meeting (even if it was yesterday they saw them). He's been trying to get everyone to use the elbow bump instead.

Last week he decided to get more serious about avoiding contact, trying to keep a meter between him and people (except the students, with no buses running its hard for them to contact people other than in the village). However, he says the man he bought lumber from was chasing him to his car to shake his hand after he bought the wood for the baseboards. Misha, our neighbor was following him around the van two times as he kept backing up to put more space between them. He finally yelled cor-rona vee-rus! to get him to stop, but he only smiled and shook his head.

The official numbers of positive cases (as of yesterday) in the area are 11 in the Zaporosia region and 8 in the Dnepropetrovsk region, but who knows if that is just the tip of the iceberg. Better safe than sorry, I am sure no one wants to end up in the infectious disease ward of the hospital in Dnepro. Remember I was there a few years ago with mono.