I thought I'd highlight a little of what life is like for us here in Singapore in the midst of the pandemic. It might make me smile in ten years to remember all of this. Or it might be interesting for someone in my family reading this decades from now. Or, maybe most of all, the act of writing it will be cathartic in some way as the weight of this pandemic seems to be compounding on my shoulders.
In no particular order, here are some of the features of life as an Expat in Singapore in the Covid 19 Pandemic:
1. The masks.
Oh the masks. Who would have thought they'd become such a political thing? They are, anyway, in the United States. Masks aren't a big deal here in Singapore; or, maybe it would be better to say, the decision to wear/not wear a mask isn't a big deal. That's because there is no decision or discussion on the matter. The government has mandated that we wear them when we are in public. Period. End. Don't wear it and face a huge fine and, if you're an expat, the possibility of being kicked out of the country.
These are pictures from a dentist visit we had last week. To be fair, it's the only place that has made us do something so extreme, but, it did happen. So...
2.Restricted Entry/Closed up shops
For months, Singapore was shut down. In this picture, we went on a walk around the beach on a Saturday morning. Everything in the area was closed, including the beach, and the feeling was a bit eerie and even post-apocalyptic (or what I imagine a post-apocalypse moment would feel like anyway).
Now things are opening up, and we are grateful for that. Grateful to be able to go to a restaurant and sit down and eat (masks on til you get your food and back on as soon as you're done eating). Grateful to see friends, even though we cannot gather in groups larger than five. We have been very strict about obeying this rule.
For every location that is open, however, it seems like there are 5 more that are closed or operating at reduced capacity. For instance, yesterday we went in search of a splash pad, as there are several on the island. No dice. They're all closed til further notice.
If we do find a location that is open, we have to scan in using a QR code or our national ID cards. This is for contact tracing purposes. Sometimes we have to scan in multiple times, like at a shopping mall. We scan in at the entry, and then at any shop we visit. We have to remember to scan out as well. There are also temperature checks at every one of these locations. Doing so is becoming routine, but a complicated one.
3. Stay at home
Trent began working from home sometime in late February/early March. He's been doing so ever since. Every once in awhile he goes the the office if he has to do something that he can only complete there; otherwise he's home. This has been a great blessing to our family, actually, as he usually travels quite a bit. It's been so lovely to have him home.
We also stopped attending in-person Church in mid-February. In the last couple of weeks we've been allowed to attend church in limited fashion: only one hour meeting, chairs set a meter apart, masks on, no singing. We have the option of attending the same meeting via Zoom, but we've found it's quite difficult to understand what's going on when we attend virtually, so we still just worship from home when we can't attend in person church (which is due to the fact that our congregation has been split into two parts for size regulations)
There are more restrictions but that feels like a long enough entry for now.
We are bearing up well. But the weight is a heavy one.
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