Our Easter family trip to Carrara, Italy has been canceled. If Antonio’s school is closed till summer vacation, we would love to go back to Korea even if we should be in quarantine for two weeks. We can stay at my parent’s house, eat some delicious Korean food by my mom. It will be just glad to be at “home”. The problem is, that the Schengen Agreement is not applied in times of Covid-19, and Marco would need to apply for a visiting visa to enter Korea, which needs more than two weeks with all other documents including health certification. Now the best solution is to keep calm and stay at home.
Finally Antonio went to school with his heavy school bag( since he is not allowed to leave any of his stuff in the classroom) wearing masks. I am happy that he is back to school, but at the same time worried about the virus attacking the students. I went to Mannheim, my school, yesterday to borrow a laptop from school. There I met my teachers wearing masks, but it was so nice to just see them and say “hello” to them.
Some years ago, when we first went to Sierra Leone, West Africa, I was surprised at how people greet each other even for the very first time of the meeting. They looked you in your eyes, smiled, giving their hand, and softly said “Kushe-a, How di Bodi?”(Hi, my friend, how is your body feeling?) “I am so happy to see you alive!” The time when we should leave, we said to them “goodbye and see you again tomorrow.” And their answer was always “Yes, by God Grace”.
The expression is probably a Muslim way of greeting. But we found it very funny and add “and with man’s will”. We thought that their expression was kind of an excuse for their unpunctual behavior on making appointments. But now I realized that it mirrored their struggle, the life situation in a not very safe daily life, and the insured social system.
Yes, with God’s grace and man’s will…we are going to manage our life and we will be used to it as we have been doing.
