I have lived and studied in China for the last six years going on seven, hoping to attain my dream career as an architect. Therefore unlike the majority of my family and circle of friends down in Uganda, this COVID-19 pandemic sprung up on me just like everyone else in China out of the blue. At the turn of the year, rumors started trickling in on WeChat the most popular messaging platform in China that there was a new strange disease in Wuhan that was causing significant deaths. Being the optimist that I am I shrugged it off and thought oh well it’s probably the seasonal flu common in winter and they must have this under control it can’t be that big of a deal… Boy was I wrong, by around the third week of January everything took a turn for the worse and we found ourselves under lockdown.

Public transport was the first to go, and in a few days, the stay-home order was enforced something that was to last 2 more months. We only got to move out once a week to restock our supplies and we had to be fully masked up and granted official permission. The lockdown meant I had to find ways to keep myself busy at home, so I found myself cooking much more than before, baking cakes, educating myself on YouTube through watching history and educational channels. It also gave me time to work on a few architecture projects with minimal destruction.

All in all, I would say the lockdown has taught me to live more independently and that I can survive without moving as much. That doesn’t mean I don’t miss the outdoors and fresh air though, I do but this is only temporary and I hope to be here at the end of it all to talk to future generations about this very pivotal moment in history.