A World Turned Upside Down
The
Coronavirus. Although I did not want to mention it in my blog, it seems that I
do not have much choice. The situation in Europe is turning from bad to worse
to absolutely ghastly and there does not seem to be much chance of things
improving sometime soon. The only light at the end of the tunnel is China,
where life is slowly getting back to normal. After nearly three months of staying indoors, my friends in Shenzhen tell me
that gradually more and more people are venturing out of their apartments and
the streets are getting busy again.
Last Tuesday we left our apartment in Sofia in the morning and came to our house in Kalotina. My Nissan X Trail is still waiting to be repaired, so the garage lent me a courtesy a car. First, we drove to the big METRO supermarket near the ring road and bought some food. The store was pretty well stocked with just about everything, including toilet paper, but there was almost no pasta left on the shelves.
Wednesday was mostly spent making a second batch of orange perfection, another twenty jars of delicious homemade marmalade. Irena did most of the hard work, as I was busy giving online lessons with ZOOM and preparing teaching materials, mostly for my Grade 3 students. I think it was on Thursday that I went to buy some more pellets for our central heating system. Bad weather is forecast for next week. On Friday we went to a local shop in Kalotina, as the supermarket that we usually go to in Dragoman is closed for refurbishment and I think that they are also going to be making it bigger as well.
A big surprise has been the arrival of workmen and machinery for re-surfacing the roads in Kalotina. Ever since we first came to Kalotina, about fifteen years ago, the main road through the village has been dreadful, with potholes (dupki in Bulgarian) and badly-done patches. Most of the old asphalt has been scraped up by a machine with a sort of conveyor belt to take up the broken pieces and drop them into the back of the lorry that is following on behind. When is the new road surface going to be laid?
The news from Sofia has been bad. Lots of doctors and nurses at the two main hospitals in Sofia have resigned, as they do not want to be treating Corona virus patients without proper protective equipment. The restaurants, many shops, bars, cafes, theatres, cinemas, gyms, churches and parks in Sofia have all closed. The International Baptist Church of Sofia, IBC, is having online services on Sundays. St. George’s has closed and the teachers are still giving online lessons and setting work for the students to do. I wanted to go to my classroom to get some teaching materials, but the school’s security staff would not let me into the building. All Bulgarian cities now have Police checkpoints on the roads and all non-essential travel is prohibited.
On Saturday we did the best possible thing we could have done, which of course was to take Tina for a walk along the river. The weather was gloriously sunny and warm, considering it was not even the end of March. That naughty little doggie was very happy to be off the lead.
Last Tuesday we left our apartment in Sofia in the morning and came to our house in Kalotina. My Nissan X Trail is still waiting to be repaired, so the garage lent me a courtesy a car. First, we drove to the big METRO supermarket near the ring road and bought some food. The store was pretty well stocked with just about everything, including toilet paper, but there was almost no pasta left on the shelves.
Wednesday was mostly spent making a second batch of orange perfection, another twenty jars of delicious homemade marmalade. Irena did most of the hard work, as I was busy giving online lessons with ZOOM and preparing teaching materials, mostly for my Grade 3 students. I think it was on Thursday that I went to buy some more pellets for our central heating system. Bad weather is forecast for next week. On Friday we went to a local shop in Kalotina, as the supermarket that we usually go to in Dragoman is closed for refurbishment and I think that they are also going to be making it bigger as well.
A big surprise has been the arrival of workmen and machinery for re-surfacing the roads in Kalotina. Ever since we first came to Kalotina, about fifteen years ago, the main road through the village has been dreadful, with potholes (dupki in Bulgarian) and badly-done patches. Most of the old asphalt has been scraped up by a machine with a sort of conveyor belt to take up the broken pieces and drop them into the back of the lorry that is following on behind. When is the new road surface going to be laid?
The news from Sofia has been bad. Lots of doctors and nurses at the two main hospitals in Sofia have resigned, as they do not want to be treating Corona virus patients without proper protective equipment. The restaurants, many shops, bars, cafes, theatres, cinemas, gyms, churches and parks in Sofia have all closed. The International Baptist Church of Sofia, IBC, is having online services on Sundays. St. George’s has closed and the teachers are still giving online lessons and setting work for the students to do. I wanted to go to my classroom to get some teaching materials, but the school’s security staff would not let me into the building. All Bulgarian cities now have Police checkpoints on the roads and all non-essential travel is prohibited.
On Saturday we did the best possible thing we could have done, which of course was to take Tina for a walk along the river. The weather was gloriously sunny and warm, considering it was not even the end of March. That naughty little doggie was very happy to be off the lead.
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