QUARANTINE - DAY 40 - 14th April 2020
Today on day 40 of quarantine, Bethlehem sees no further cases of the virus. East Jerusalem has seen several new cases over the past few days but Bethlehem has been relatively insulated from infection because of the swift action of imposing quarantine on the town (some returning workers brought a few cases). As mentioned yesterday, a friend in Gaza will also be participating in the online cooking sessions - four of us on zoom. We are calling them online coffee mornings as they will include cooking classes but also discussions about cooking, shopping and food availability in the UK, Australia, Bethlehem and Gaza. Anyone can join us for these virtual, global coffee mornings...
Today's diary entry is depicts the experiences of Lina, a three-year-old girl living in Aida refugee camp (I have shared two videos of her on instagram Bethlehem_Diary and twitter @BethlehemDiary - links below). Her grandfather, Ibrahim Abusrour, who is Community Service Officer for Aida and Beit Jebrin Camps, tells her story :
Lina, my granddaughter, is three years old. For forty days she did not leave the house - every day she has sat on the balcony trying see if there is any child playing in the street. Of course living in this refugee camp (Aida), means there is no green area for her to go and play and no empty space for her to run around. Although it is spring season, the only thing she sees every day is houses stuck together. Sometimes she hears noises in the neighbour's house. It is hard as a grandparent or parent to see those eyes just moving 180 degrees - watching, waiting. So we try to entertain her at home. Teach her the colours in English. Play with her. The term Coronavirus is so familiar for all my grandchildren and all children of the camp, since the routine in the houses now is to clean and clean and clean and to wash hands constantly.
Living in a refugee camp means that social distancing is very difficult for us. The streets are narrow. There are a lot of people in a small area. The UNRWA team clean the streets of the camp and distribute hygiene gel to try and stop any cases of the virus. To keep the needy people safe, since there is no transportation and the clinic is far away from Aida, I regularly collect medicine for residents of the camp. In the houses we continue to use whatever hygienic means possible and to leave a distance of 100 square meters between us whenever we go out until this disease is no longer a threat to our camp or to Bethlehem...
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