It’s been 4 weeks since my school closed down and went to virtual learning in order to address the concerns of the Polish government around Covid-19. In that time, and even before it really, a lot has changed.
Prelude:
In January, like much of the world, we started to see reports of what was happening in Wuhan. In some ways it was terrifying. People dying, disease spreading, the Chinese government clamping down. But all of that was something we’d seen before and so while alarming was not ringing bells in our minds. A few weeks later and our friends and colleagues back in Beijing told us that during their annual Chinese New Year break the school had told them that in person contact with students was off the table. The school would close to physical interaction, like many schools in China at the time, and would rely on distance learning through online schooling. That was near the end of January. Shortly after that we heard that our friends who had been in Beijing during the break were also leaving. For them there was little sense in riding out the pandemic in Beijing since school was online for the foreseeable future and they had homes in America to reside in.
February 22nd to 29th
By the end of February Aya and I were getting excited for our trip to Iceland. This had been in the works for some time and was our 10th anniversary trip so we were extra exuberant to be going. Of course, by that point we had heard about some cases outside of China and it was a small concern but during our week in Iceland it became very clear that this was going to be big. It was during that week that we learned that a carrier could be asymptomatic but the patient could still pass on the disease. We learned that there was possibly up to two weeks for the person to show symptoms. We learned about more cases in Europe and elsewhere. Most alarming to me was that we knew there were cases popping up in the US and the president during that week had said, “The Coronavirus is very much under control in the USA…I think that's a problem that’s going to go away… They have studied it. They know very much. In fact, we’re very close to a vaccine. This is a flu. This is like a flu. …you treat this like a flu"; None of which was true. We knew it was not just a flu nor was there a vaccine even close to being produced. Vaccines. Take. Time. The number grew, but by the time we left Iceland cases in the US were at 60 people. Iceland had none, though we saw in the coming weeks in both places the confirmed number of cases explode.
It was frightening, but what to do? We were already in Iceland, enjoying our trip. So, we decided to keep doing that and take what precautions we could. That was basically staying away from people coughing or sneezing and washing our hands with alcohol or soap as much as we thought we should (a lot!). By the last day of our trip I was so paranoid of people in our hotel that I made sure to stay as far away as possible from everyone during breakfast and to not touch anything with my hand unless I had to.
On our way home we noticed a lot more people than normal wearing masks in the airport, many of them westerners, really unusual. We had a layover in Copenhagen and our longtime friend who now lives in Copenhagen graciously met us at the airport. Not only that, but he brought ramen take away and bought me a beer! What a guy. Of course much of our talk revolved around the growing concerns of the pandemic and economic impacts from that, including the availability and pricing of masks in Denmark. On our next leg of the trip from Copenhagen to Warsaw we were even more aware as many of the people on the plane were wearing masks. Even more to the point there was an older fella in the row behind us that coughed for a solid 30 minutes in the beginning of the flight. I can’t tell what was going on with him, but it was making us and a lot of other people on the plane very uncomfortable. Landing in Warsaw that evening I was surprised as there was absolutely no restriction like a temperature check or a declaration of where we had been prior to landing. By this point China, Korea, and parts of Italy were exploding in numbers and in the coming days people coming from there would be under ever increasing scrutiny.
March 1st to March 8th:
That weekend after our arrival Warsaw was just as normal as always, but in my mind I was already beginning to steel our defense. Twice that weekend I visited the grocery store to stock up on essential items (yes, tp!) and started to box away things in the closet (yes, beer!). My assumption was that within a week or two my workplace would be closing and there would be a mad rush to the stores to buy things. Better to get ahead of the curve and go shopping while there were fewer people about. That Monday, March 2nd my school had an in-service PD day for teachers. Usually this means teachers spend the day in meetings or doing activities designed by the curriculum leaders at the school. We did those things, but in the back of my mind was the nagging feeling to just tip over tables and yell about how silly it was that we weren’t engaging in a plan for when, not if, we were going to shut down. As my Catholic upbringing taught me, even Jesus turn over a few tables when he thought things were out of whack.
At the end of the day my department of about 10 teachers did have a short discussion about if we felt prepared to go online. Most people said they were fine with a couple seeming to squirm at the idea. I said I’m fine, but we are not. We are not prepared, we are not preparing, and we should be. A couple of the guys agreed with me, but nothing came of it and the next day the kids came to school as usual. By the end of the week I’d reached out to administrators and by that weekend an emergency meeting was called for the IT department to hash out a plan for what online learning would look like. I was lucky to be invited to that meeting and so got to give my input and perspective on what the school might plan going forward. The school began to take small actions like putting alcohol hand gel in every room and asking students who’d been in potential hot spots to stay home. They had already been doing that for students from China, but now that meant Iran, Italy, and a few other places. They started to beef up the school’s planning documents for what a virtual learning environment might look like, but to my chagrin nothing big came down the pipe in terms of learning about tech tools or strategies. All the week I was shopping. Filling my bag with tuna, pasta, beer, soup packets, beer (yes, it’s there twice, can never have enough), and other things we might need that would last for some time. I was also trying to make sure that if we did get sick and end up at home battling the virus we could live so easy to make soups, hydrating salts, lots of aspirin also got checked. I was trying to plan for the worst but to pretend to be living normally in the present. It was a bit stressful to keep up a façade at work some days, but we had to keep moving and we had to do the best thing for the kids which was indeed to conduct our day to day live as close to normal as possible.
On Monday March 9th it was announced that the following Monday would be a “practice” online day and all students would stay home while teachers came in to see what it would be like and work out the kinks. This was all a step in the right direction, but two steps behind where we needed to be. By Wednesday of that week it was announced we would be closing down for at least 2 weeks. Thursday and Friday I practiced as much as I could with my students and offered guidance to what teachers I could connect with. On Friday morning I held an hour long session to play around with tools for teachers who were interested. About 5 came. Teachers were asked to come in on Monday the 16th, a bit baffling to us all but in the end valuable since we got to work out some of the kinks as intended and then we were on our own.
All the while I was shopping. Getting cans of veggies, making sure we were topped up on aspirin and other medications, making sure things around the house were in order and wouldn’t need to be topped up. I was also beginning to move things from my classroom to home that I thought I might need for a longer haul. Microphones, e-drawing pads, notebooks and my most personal effects all went home with me.
We had decided around this time that Aya would not go out alone. We were already hearing some reports around the world of Asians being targeted for harassment and we knew from our previous nine months or so living in Warsaw that people were kind but there were a couple bad apples and in generally Aya was quite noticeable and noticed when we were out and about. On that Thursday I popped the tire on my bike and I assumed I better get it fixed right away both as I used it a lot and because I thought shops might close soon. Aya and I walked together to the first bike shop, but they were unable to do it. As we walked on to a second shop she said she would go to the grocery and meet me at home. I agreed and went to get my tire repaired. When I arrived home she told me that in the bakery someone had sprayed something around where she was, like a disinfectant. It was laughable, and we did laugh, but it was also upsetting. We agreed that Aya should not go out unless we were together. Stores were beginning to see signs of empty shelves by the end of the week.
Later that week president Trump announced that the US would close its border to incoming European travelers. That was shocking. I could still go to the US and so could Aya, but the walls were closing in. It was clear to us, just like it had been a couple weeks prior, that the wave was continuing to roll across the world and the US was next. I wrote to a friend in the US describing what was happening and told him to get ready because he was just a week or two behind us. Late on he wrote me back, “It happened!”.
March 15th to 22nd
The 16th was our official “practice” day for online learning which now was a reality, but teachers still came to the school to be in their familiar environment to make sure all things were working properly. Some teachers, because they were also parents of young students now stuck at home, were not on the campus. The feeling was beginning to turn now that the school was closing and kids were not on campus. We were wearing our fears on our sleeve and people were being extra cautious. Still though, we mostly ran the day as normal. Knowing that it was quite possible I would not be able to return to campus soon I made sure to pack up the last of what I needed of student work and materials and headed home that day feeling like the world was off its axis. The rest of the week we were on a full time schedule, trying to maintain normal, while teaching online and from home. Teachers were not officially told to stay off campus and some opted to keep going in for various reasons. The school did check temperatures at the gate and again at the front door and they did ask for distancing on grounds, but the gym (which is quite compact) was still open to any and all and the pool and track were open for use. All tempting to me, but I had the Kabaty forest out my door and plenty of other things to keep me fit from home.
By the end of the week we were all knackered and it was clear the pace at school could not be kept up online. We also received word from the government that all schools would stay out until just after Easter, April 12th, so our plan extended and our hours got shortened from 80 to 60 minute blocks. On Friday I returned to the school building both for a meeting and to grab my desk chair to haul home as sitting on a balance ball was something I could only do for short periods of time and we didn’t have a suitable chair.
Polish society kept up mostly as normal but there was a marked decrease in people in public places. Public transit was desolate. I took the bus to and from work that Friday to get my desk chair. On the way in I was with 4 other people in a double length bus. On the way home I was alone until just a few stops before home when one woman came on. The bus had taped up notices, taped off call buttons, and plastic in front to protect the driver.
Large group gatherings were beginning to be restricted. We did see people beginning to wear masks and gloves as well as some stores posting signs that only a few customers at a time were to be allowed. Around public spaces like parks, signs were posted telling people to stay far apart. Towards the end of the week on Friday or Saturday we took a bike ride around the forest to get outside and get exercise. People were everywhere. People were having picnics, gatherings to play sports, taking walks together. All of the normal things people do, but all the things the authorities had begun to warn against. It was also this week that we saw the madness in shopping take over.
Earlier in the week we went shopping to stock up on a few things, but the veggie section was completely wiped out as well as shelves of disinfectants, toilet paper, and in some places canned goods. When Poland closed its borders on the 15th I admit we ran to the store as we assumed we might be stuck for some time and that goods again would be in short supply and as the transportation networks ground to a halt.
March 22nd to 29th
By this week things started to click for me in terms of a daily routine. I did go into work, as I would continue to do at least once a week. My online learning with Global Online Academy had also started to shift. Most of the US was now seeing the same things that we were in terms of cases growing and businesses shutting down. Many of my online students were talking about their own schools closing in Washington, California, Texas, Minnesota, New York, and Ohio. There was a lot of talk of what the government would do and how the central bank would step in since people were not unemployed and businesses were not generating revenue. On March 23rd it was reported that in the week prior 3.3 million unemployment claims were filed in the US, the largest ever single week in recorded history, but by the end of that week 6.8 million more would follow. The Dow Jones in the US fell to 18,600 points, at that time a more than 30% retrace from the high less than two months earlier. The longest expansion in US history came to a sudden halt. The Federal Reserve took action like it never had before injecting nearly 4 trillion into the US economy, or a little less than 25% of GDP.
Meanwhile I was watching the count grow day by day and waiting to see a case show up in my home county in Wisconsin, Door. Finally it came on March 30th. I had of course been thinking of my family in Wisconsin (and Japan, and Germany) quite a lot and what might happen to them as this grew and grew. At first it was seen as a virus that was mostly dangerous to older people and those with underlying conditions which made little difference to me because you never know if you yourself could be a carrier to them with or without knowing it. More troubling was that some of the family and family friends I was thinking of WERE elderly and DID have underlying conditions.
This week also marked our first delivery of groceries and food delivery with “no contact” orders where the delivery person would make the delivery, knock, then walk away.
As an introvert I have to admit that this whole isolation thing has had a silver lining and this was one of them. Of course, we tipped well which is generally not expected in Poland but these were different times. I bet the delivery people were making a killing on tips, at least I hope so. Like in many places around the world societies were leaning not only on medical staff but delivery drivers, grocery store workers, and other workers of essential services like electricity, internet, water, etc. to keep things going.
This week also saw further restrictions to outdoor activities with gatherings involving more than family members banned. While parks were still open a lot of their gathering spaces were closed off. In the woods where I run the picnic areas were shrouded in plastic to prevent people from sitting on them and there were signs everywhere warning people to stay 2 meters apart and not gather. Much of that week there were police officers in the public areas making sure that people did not gather. There were also police cars driving around with a message to the public to follow safety measures. For most of this week and the one prior a military helicopter had been making a loop south and around Kabaty forest. I don’t know why, but I suspect that they were checking to see just how many people were gathering.
