Surviving the winter lockdown

#StayatHome

So here we are again, only this time it’s worse. We’re in the middle of the second wave of the Covid pandemic and the situation is serious. For the first time since the beginning of this crisis all three traffic lights of the coronavirus-warning system for Berlin are red. The number of Covid-related deaths in Germany is at a record high. The lockdown measures have been toughened once again and even stricter restrictions are expected to be announced next week. 

Unless you keep a steady eye (or ear) on the local news, it’s impossible to keep up with all the changes. The Tagesspiegel App has become my bible. At the moment we can meet only one person from another household (children are now included in the calculation). We are not supposed to leave the house unless we have a valid reason. We are also not supposed to leave Berlin, or at least we can’t go further than 15 km from the border into Brandenburg, our neighbour state. 

The spring lockdown was bad enough, but the winter lockdown is on another level. Winter in Berlin is always a difficult time of the year. I’m not just saying this because I grew up in Sicily. Even native Berliners struggle with the long, grey and dark days, when catching a glimpse of the sun for just a few minutes feels like a miracle. Now that we spend most of our time at home, the days and weeks are a blur. They all seem to be melting into one long week. It feels surreal. Is this really happening or is it all a bad dream? 

Schools have been closed for a month now and the whole school situation has been terribly mismanaged, with conflicting information and backtracking on decisions. Home schooling is proving to be an even greater challenge than during the previous lockdown. Finding the assignments for the week is a bit like a treasure hunt, as the information is uploaded on different websites or arrives by email. Excuses to avoid studying include “I’m hungry”, “I’m tired”, “my arm hurts”, “I need the toilet” and my favourite “my pen exploded”.  Today I read in the news that home schooling and working from home are not compatible. How insightful.   

The online learning platform called Lernraum Berlin (the website that all teachers and students in Berlin are supposed to use) is totally unreliable and keeps crashing. On several occasions, we’ve had to resort to alternative websites for videoconferences. I’m starting to wonder if the people responsible for Lernraum Berlin are the same ones that were managing the construction of the “new” airport.

Talking of Berlin-Brandenburg Willy Brandt Airport (BER) airport, it has been back in the news this week, as employees have reported suffering electric shocks while checking passenger luggage! You couldn’t make this stuff up.

On a positive note, and to parents’ relief, the playgrounds in Berlin are still open, at least for the time being (this wasn’t the case in spring). Usually, playgrounds are deserted at this time of the year, but not now, as they are currently the only place where children can let off steam. 

If you are looking for distractions to survive the winter lockdown, here are some recommendations. 

This week I’ve been watching British sitcom Mum on the Arte App (where you can watch films and tv series in the original language without subtitles). It’s a slow-moving “comedy” with a great cast about a recently widowed, middle-aged woman called Cathy. It has funny moments, but it also makes you cringe. Some of the other characters are quite horrible and you do wonder how Cathy manages to stay so calm and gentle. 

I also watched the documentary Bethany Hamilton: Unstoppable on Netflix . It tells the inspiring story of surfing champion Bethany Hamilton, who lost her arm in a shark attack while surfing as a teenager, and made a comeback against all odds. 

Also on Netflix, the documentary The Social Dilemma will put you off using social media forever, or for a while at least.

I’ve been reading A Manual for Cleaning Women by Lucia Berlin, who has been praised as “a literary genius” in recent years. It’s a wonderful collection of short stories based on events from the author’s diverse and itinerant life. Whether they are based in laundromats, classrooms or the emergency room, Lucia Berlin tells vivid stories with humour and compassion.  

I’ve also been reading The World’s Worst Teachers by David Walliams with my son. Plenty of funny moments in these gruesome stories about the 10 worst teachers in the world, with great illustrations by Tony Ross.

Finally, I’ve been listening to the podcast called The Writer’s Voice, where New Yorker fiction writers read their short stories. A great chance to hear a good story told by its author.

*The poster (pictured) tells Berliners to wear face masks and to follow the Corona-rules. It is a play on the words rumgurken, which can be translated as "hang out" and comes from the word Gurke, i.e. cucumber and Rübe, which means turnip or carrot but is also used to describe an ugly nose.

Back to lockdown

 

The partial lockdown that was supposed to save Christmas has turned into a full Christmas lockdown. 

Today is the last day of lockdown light. As of tomorrow, we will be in a hard national lockdown. From 16 December everything except for essential shops, pharmacies, doctors and dental surgeries will be closed, including schools. Restaurants will remain closed, although they will still be allowed to sell takeaway food. However, outdoor alcohol consumption will not be permitted. So no more drinking Glühwein from outdoor stalls! 

Parents all over Germany are bracing themselves for the hard task of having to entertain children at home during the extended Christmas holiday with little or no contact with friends or family. My survival strategy, at least initially, will involve lots of baking with my son, assuming that flour in supermarkets doesn’t run out, as it did the first-time round. I’ve already seen several people out on the streets carrying huge bags of toilet paper so that is rather concerning. I’m not even going to think about home schooling at this stage.

The national lockdown was only announced on Sunday, giving people little or no time to prepare. Since Monday customers have been queueing outside hairdressers and barbers not knowing when the next chance to get a haircut will be. Luckily I managed to get my hair cut just in time! The lockdown is supposed to last until 10 January, but given the high number of Covid cases and Covid deaths, it may well last longer.

Bookshops are allowed to stay open as they are considered to be “systemically relevant”. So if you haven’t yet done all your Christmas shopping, in Germany you can at least buy books from your local bookshop to avoid using Amazon!

Once upon a time Berlin used to be famous for its cultural and party scene, but nowadays the posters advertising gigs, plays and club nights have been replaced by adverts for Covid test centres. Even the KitKatClub has been turned into a Covid test centre. Where clubbers and fetishists once used to queue up before partying the night away, they now queue up to find out if they are Covid positive. This is the new normal in the year 2020. The only glimmer of hope is that the coronavirus vaccine may soon be approved in the EU as well, so that we might start to see the light at the end of the tunnel.

Solidarity during lockdown

 

There are plenty of ways to help others

There is no doubt that we are living through difficult times. Lots of countries around the world are currently experiencing a second wave of coronavirus. For people living in the northern hemisphere it’s also the darkest and coldest time of the year and as Christmas approaches, many of us will be spending the holiday season away from our families.  On top of that, we can’t go out to restaurants or to the cinema or theatre or to concerts. Still, there are things we can do to bring some light and joy into our lives and the lives of others.

Support arts and culture 

Do you miss going to the cinema, to the theatre or to other events? Luckily, there are plenty of digital offers. As well as the online streaming giants, there are alternatives, such as, online film festivals, literary festivals and digital theatre, concerts and opera. It’s a great way to combine entertainment with support for the arts and culture sector. This week the National Theatre launched a new streaming service called National Theatre at Home, offering a selection of plays available to watch on demand. You can choose to subscribe or you can pay for a single play. The Royal Opera House is offering digital performances of opera and ballet. Meanwhile in Germany, Human Rights Film Festival Berlin is offering the chance to watch 11 films for 11 days (until 7 December so hurry!). All revenues from ticket sales will benefit three independent cinemas in Berlin. 

Sign a petition

Signing a petition is a fast and effective way to bring about change. I’ve lost count of the number of petitions I sign every day. Here are a few organisations that you might like to support: Avaaz, We Move Europe, change.org, One, just to name a few.

Amnesty International’s global campaign Write for Rights is back this year. You can save lives by signing the petitions to free brave human rights activists. Here are the links to the UK website and to the Italian website. You have time until 10 December! There are lots of other petitions to sign on the Amnesty website.

Donate to a charity

There are so many charities out there that it might feel daunting to choose which one or ones to support. You might prefer to support a well-known charity (UNICEF, Save the Children, Greenpeace, Oxfam, WWF, Médecins Sans Frontières) or a small NGO. I suggest you pick a cause that is close to your heart, whether it’s human rights, women’s rights, animal rights, medical research, climate change, hunger, poverty, helping children, refugees, the homeless, the aged, etc. They are all important causes. You can either donate money or you can donate clothes, books, toys, etc. to charity shops, donation centres or clothing banks.  You can also buy Christmas cards to support charities. In Germany, for instance you can buy UNICEF cards either from post offices or online. 

I recently discovered an app called ShareTheMeal, which is part of the United Nations World Food Programme. You can make a one-time donation or you can choose a monthly subscription. I was matched with a family in Nigeria last month and I could actually see how my gift to “the Table” was spent to buy pasta and local maize.

Human Rights Film Festival Berlin

This week I watched films from the Human Rights Film Festival Berlin. I would like to recommend an uplifting documentary called Learning to Skateboard in a Warzone (If You're a Girl). If you live in Germany, you have until 7 December to watch it. This 40-minute documentary filmed in Afghanistan deservedly won an Oscar this year. It follows the progress of a group of girls who attend Skateistan, a school in Kabul that empowers girls from poor backgrounds by giving them an education and teaching them to skateboard. Its shows a different side of Afghanistan from the one we are used to seeing in the news and it offers a message of hope and courage.  

The film NASRIN, about Iranian human rights lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh, currently in prison, is available to watch from this evening. You might remember her from Jafar Panahi’s Taxi, which won a Golden Bear at the Berlinale (Berlin Film Festival) in 2015.

Whatever you do, don’t give up hope!