I was traveling in Malawi assessing our next projects when the pandemic was heating up in the US. As I was flying home, the borders began closing. I was seeing so many social media posts on the mass purchasing of TP, bottled water, and Clorox.  I thought it was all just a joke, until I returned home.  People were literally buying everything off of the shelves in the stores. It was about a month later when the same mass shopping began in Malawi.

The pandemic has definitely slowed down some of our projects. The impact on my Malawian friends is heartbreaking. Many of them depend on the visits of people from other countries to support their businesses. They, like many around the world, have been left scrambling for work and food.

Life in 2020 has definitely had ups and downs. My sons both work in healthcare and I am always worried about the impact COVID19 could have on them and others I care about. I have had friends hospitalized with it, and have one son who tested positive and thankfully, with very little impact on him. My youngest daughter now shares my home office with me to do her online school work. I love being with her all day, but I know there are things she is missing out on. Our family works to make the best of it.

We have been very blessed in this chaos and have tried to find silver linings where possible. One of those silver linings is being able to take opportunities for additional learning. I am slowly learning to speak French.

What have you started in quarantine that you normally wouldn’t have done before?