Covid-19 aka Coronavirus, Santiago - March 16, 2020
When thinking about Santiago, Chile, one might conjure mind-pictures of a tired, ancient, crowded city of too many people. It's easy to picture a lack of resources and facilities here or ready access to things that make peoples' lives nice. Please understand, that is not the case. Santiago is a city of industrious, educated, modern people. Yes, they are in the midst of a civil revolution. (Dear God, I pray we never do!! And I give my best wishes to and prayers for these people and their endeavors.) Still, life goes on here. Every day, people go to work as usual; they shop, go to school, relax, play and enjoy life.

Everyone here knows of Covid-19 and the changes and upheavals it is causing around the world. Just like at home, we and the people here watch TV, read newspapers and of course participate in social media. Stan and I watch CNN News and BBC broadcasts in English. We read NY Times. And of course, we all see posts from home and around the word on Facebook and Instagram.

Since there are relatively few Coronavirus cases in Chile and because the civil/political/social causes are so raw, so searing, so important here, the virus has taken second place in the minds of most people we talk with. It has been a virtual non-issue. Stores are still fully stocked with toilet tissue and hand sanitizers and literally anything else one might want. It has been a state of "total business as usual." That is until today. Today for the first time representatives from our escuela reassured us students that the school has instituted great safety, security and cleanliness procedures to keep students and staff safe from disease, especially the Coronavirus.

During break between classes, students excitedly talked about the situation. Students from Ireland, Denmark and Germany are being called home.

In the last few days we have been having frequent phone call and text discussions with Cody determining whether she should continue with her plans to visit us here later this week or to postpone for a period to see if things settle down a bit. She has pets and her job to consider. Her greatest fear is being stuck here with no flight home or even possibly even exposing us to the disease if she happened to unknowingly be a carrier. Just an hour after our last conversation she received the New York Times report that Chile is closing its borders to non-citizens this Wednesday. That answered that question for us all. Shortly afterwards, we received a notice from the State Department that suggests American citizens should plan to leave Chile "while commercial flights are available,"

We are in no way ready to leave this country. We have plans to see more of it once our classes are completed. Actually we think we have more protection from the virus by staying put for a few more weeks and avoiding crowds at airports and on a plane packed with passengers. But then again, the availability of commercial flights at some future date is a serious consideration. We will investigate our way home and its timing in the next couple of days.

I am sad. I am very sad. I am sad for our world. But we, all people in all countries all over the world, are in this together. My prayer is that people and their countries bind together so that we all come out of Covid-19 as friends, as one, and as partners together, forever.

Stay well and stay safe.