A view from the rooftop of my Panama apartment, April 2020

The COVID-19 lockdown continues, and the morale is going down a bit, I need to admit. I have been under the house-arrest for seven weeks already, and gradually it is becoming difficult to handle myself. Establishing the routine, making sure that I keep myself busy, eat healthy and carry out some physical activities is helpful, but finding motivation is trickier!

As I wrote in a previous post, soon we will be celebrating Tahir's second anniversary of arrival to Toronto. Some time back, the plan was that I would visit him in Canada to mark the occasion. We still have a bit of time to arrange it, and there is a bit of hope left, however as the world continues to have travel restrictions, it may be difficult to arrange for it. We will have to be inventive to have a good plan B! In the meanwhile, we have just learnt that two of Tahir's colleagues at his workplace contracted the virus, which also caused temporary closure of his company's operations. Also, together with the rest of the crew, Tahir underwent the COVID-19 test. The results should be made known today. In case, he was sick (as per my understanding), he would need to be hospitalised - even if there were no any major complications. Perhaps, this is not something that he is looking forward to, but I am so grateful that he is in Canada now, where the system seems to be looking after the people, regardless of how wealthy (or not) they are!

Here in southern part of the Americas, we are very concerned with the humanitarian situation of many various communities. Even without the pandemic, lots of people lived under various humanitarian emergencies. The COVID-19 makes things so much more difficult! News from parts of Ecuador and Brazil are extremely concerning. We also hear that more and more folks from Haiti to Chile loose hope that they would be able to cope, and decide going to the streets to protest. I am worried that these protests will be more common, more violent and very difficult to control with tragic consequences for individuals and entire communities.

We still have not heard any news, nor rumours on when Panama will start easing up its restrictions on life. So while home, in my free time, I am trying to keep myself busy with various activities. As the world, these days, keeps on speculating what may be happening in North Korea, I got a bit sentimental and went to look at my old pictures from my two trips to the country (in 2015 and 2019). I hope things will turned out well for the people of Korea, especially those living in a major humanitarian distress. People have suffered for far too long now!

I hope that you all keep yourselves safe and well, and managing the best you can. Do drop me a line, in case you feel like writing or talking!