by Surene Esterhuizen
One thing is for sure … no matter what happens in the world, South Africans mostly deal with it in humorous ways.
Although the Coronavirus is deadly serious, you will find jokes, memes, TikTok videos and the likes all over the internet. Humor and laughter are known to reduce stress. The downside of all the jokes is that people are misinformed about the seriousness of the disease and attach a “don’t care-attitude”.
In the meantime, while you just realised that your daily lifestyle is actually called quarantine, someone else is contracting the virus because of another careless person.
The next thing is that everyone goes out and buy all the toilet paper, rubbing alcohol and aloe vera gel. Don’t know why that much toilet paper, but someone said it is because if one person sneezes, six others want to poop themselves. 🙂
There are now various states of working from home (source bordedpanda.com):
- Yah, I get to work from home
- It would be nice to talk to people
- I hope that pigeon sits in the window today
The picture that went viral during the past few days when South African school closed, while some parents wished they could actually drop their kids off at the teacher’s house.
Another good one is that the Coronavirus won’t last long as it was made in China! Hahahahaha!!!
And yes … Corona is a beer, and a car too!
All jokes set aside: it is important to reduce contact. Being away from school or work does not mean it is party time! It means that now is the time to act responsibly and make sure that you and your family are safe from the Coronavirus. Keep up a good, better than normal, hygienic routine. Stop all the kisses and hugs, avoid large crowds, avoid even smaller groups – you don’t know who had contact with someone who was exposed.
The reality hits you when you receive emails of all the local stores, like SPAR, Pick n Pay, the restaurants like Spur and even Takealot, to reasure their customers of their Corona action plan! When you take the N1 to Cape Town and you get there in a record time! Cape Town is quiet and you realise some people are taking it serious enough to actually self isolate. The Coronavirus is crazy, but not a joke!
To my fellow South Africans, and the rest of the world, be safe! 😉