“…it is mid May and I am noticing my feelings are turning much darker than before. When I venture out for quick trips for groceries and supplies, I see masked people everywhere, but I can no longer see smiles anymore. I so miss that. (I have occasionally seen some unmasked people and I want to scream at them to get a mask!!)…”
“每一天差不多醒着的时间都想跟妈妈开着视频，担心他们出门，担心他们感染，担心他们出现症状。[…] 1，2月份，我担心家人却只能靠视频确认他们是否安好。3，4月份，家人担心我也只能靠视频消减担忧。除了互通电话报个平安，我们能为彼此做的事情几乎没有。[…] 打发独处时间变成了一门艺术。 但似乎更多的是庆幸，还好我还活着，身边的人还活着。一切都还有变好的可能性。”
“그러나 확인되지 않은 타인을 만나거나 노출될 경우 서로 의심하거나 좋지 않은 감정으로 시작하는 점은 이 시기를 견디기 어렵게 하는 요인으로 파악된다.”
“…in the second week of March, just before New Zealand shut their borders to non-citizens (which includes my husband, although he grew up in New Zealand), my father-in-law was diagnosed with cancer. We decided to wait and see what initial test results suggested in terms of prognosis, before booking flights to fly over. By then it was too late […] He died in mid April, before we could see him again…”
“…And just one commute away, I will be risking my life each and every day at my workplace. I will be a front-line worker, without the personal protective equipment afforded to medical workers, facing students who do not have to follow safety or cleanliness rules for most of the 24 hours in a day. Many of the families in my community believe in magical thinking, believe that God will protect them, and believe in the propaganda spouted every day from President Trump and his corrupted supporters in government and the media. I could not be more disgusted at this willful ignorance. It’s like a death cult…”
“Na familia de minha esposa, ocorreram casos da doença, irmão, cunhada e minha enteada, todos com sintomas brandos sem necessidade de internação…”
“Swerte ako 4 days bago maglockdown sa Pilipinas naibook ako nang mabait Kong amo nang Cathay Pacific at nakabalik dito sa Hongkong. Pagbalik ko dito stay room din tuwing holiday dahil sa pandemic na lumalaganap nagkaroon na Rin nang takot kasi di mo alam or makikita Ang kaaway mo. So para makasiguradong walang virus na makuha sa labas mas pinili Kong manatili na lang sa room mo at sa kaligtasan narin nang mga amo mo.”
”
This young young man, who commutes over an hour a day to our son’s private school, moved in with us to study from here rather than a crowded Bronx apartment. […] His family is from West Africa so his life is very different from ours. We feel so lucky to be in a position to offer him a home. It’s a small thing we can do during a period where so many less fortunate people are suffering.”
“…There is a divorce in the works here. Mom has moved out and all the tentative, shaky routines we worked out starting in March are up in the air again. […]. Before the lockdown, I had come to realize that I serve as an anchoring support in this family […]. That’s still true, but it’s harder now for me to keep my own emotions balanced and healthy…”
Life in Quarantine: Witnessing Global Pandemic is an initiative sponsored by the Poetic Media Lab and the Center for Spatial and Textual Analysis at Stanford University.
Center for Spatial and Textual Analysis (CESTA),
Stanford University
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