The COVID Diaries is an OPEN SOURCE audio project tracking life under quarantine for people all over the world. Each album tracks one individual on a regular basis through this experience, culminating in a slice of life chronology of life during a pandemic. All are welcome to submit/contribute their own COVID diaries. The more people we have making them, the more interesting and wide reaching the project will become. All languages welcome as well! contact us at with questions and submissions the.covid.diaries.musicproject@gmail.com


ENGLISH TRANSLATIONS


Entry1:

My name is Emily, and I’m American. My father is American and my mother is British. After marrying my husband, who is Kuwaiti, we moved to Kuwait where we now live with his family and our daughters. I had never expected that I would be in this situation, with an illness spreading all around the world and I’m sitting here sitting inside all the time in a country that isn’t my country and a culture that is completely different from my culture. But I’m thankful. Now, in modern times, it feels like the whole world has become one village. Wherever you are in the world, people are suffering from the same problems and struggling with the same challenges. It’s true, I’m now in a place unlike the place that I grew up, but on the other hand there are a lot of similarities. For example, over here we are all thinking about where we are going to get our food, where we will get medicine if we need it. What would we do if, God forbid, we got sick? What is going to happen to our careers? They are all of the same challenges that we see others dealing with when we watch the news and when we chat with our family and friends in other places. They are facing exactly the same things. That’s also motivation for us, as we are sitting here in our houses, the same kind of technologies and the things that can in some cases create challenges can also lead to positive outcomes. We’re trying to do our best to make something positive out of this crisis. Before, I was volunteering at our local grocery store. I was handing out gloves and hand sanitizer at the door, and making sure not too many people entered at once to avoid overcrowding. Unfortunately, a week ago our grocery store closed because a number of the employees and volunteers contracted Covid19, so I can’t volunteer anymore. Now I’m mostly at home with my girls, taking care of them and homeschooling them. One thing that has really helped us is gardening. We have an open, flat rooftop and we can plant up there. We’ve been growing melons, spinach, basil, things that can handle the heat here in Kuwait in the summer. Of course, here it’s getting really hot these days and up on the rooftop there is no shade at all. We’re trying. Thankfully my girls are thrilled with this project. These days I also have a lot of meetings through Zoom. Even before Corona, as a Baha’i and as someone who believes in Baha’u’llah’s vision, I feel that my purpose here as a human being is to try to help build a world better than the one we live in now. We have a lot of meetings, these people who believe in the oneness of mankind, people who see that men and women are equal, people who are eager to eliminate all forms of prejudice and who want to do something about it and discuss these themes and help spread these ideas in our communities. Before Corona, we had all kinds of service projects and more tangible things, but of course now all of those efforts have switched over to virtual spaces. But it’s great that at least it’s ongoing, because for anyone who is really concerned with the condition of the world, it’s especially in times of difficulty and crisis that you want to do something.


Entry2:

Up until now in Kuwait, there has been a lockdown, but not a total lockdown. We used to be able to go out to the grocery store or step out for a walk any time. Now, they have implemented a full lockdown. It happened about a week ago. Even trips to the grocery store are regulated. We have to get appointments. You can’t just go whenever you want. However, from 4:30 to 6:30 in the evening, which is the last two hours before sunset – it’s Ramadan– people can go outside and walk around and get a little exercise. The funny thing is that here there really isn’t much of a culture of people going out for walks. At least, that’s the case in our area, in Shaab. There aren’t many nice sidewalks and people don’t normally go walking in our neighborhood. They might go walking at the beach or at parks or at the gym, but not around their homes. Now, everyone is at home. That in itself is something really strange, because at this time of year people are usually travelling. When it gets hot in the summer there are very few people who just stick around here, lots of people go to Turkey or other places, but now everyone is back in Kuwait and they are all in their homes. On top of that, there is only one opportunity to get out – from 4:30 to 6:30 in the evening. Because of this, we are getting to know our neighbors. We’ve been here for years, and we know some of our neighbors a little, but now we are getting used to seeing one another. We say hi and we ask about how everyone is doing. My daughters are growing things because one of our neighbors gave us permission to use some land next to his house to garden. So, things are happening because of Corona…we were not expecting these positive outcomes, but now we’re developing this sense of cooperation and love between our neighbors that was not as strong before.

Entry3

This week, I think I’m finally starting to feel the challenge of this time. Up until now, it’s been hard being at home, of course, but we were going on with our lives. We set up a full, busy schedule so that we wouldn’t just be sitting around bummed that we couldn’t go out. But the thing is that here in Kuwait it’s been on lockdown for over two months. Thankfully, the Kuwaiti government shut everything down as soon as Corona started spreading, but just now in that past two weeks it’s started to spread a lot more. Most people who went into lockdown when we did are out and about again. For us, it’s ongoing and actually stricter because now it’s full lockdown. Hopefully that will be over on June 1 st , but it’s been a really long time since we’ve seen anyone. I always knew that I was the kind of person who loves being around people, but I didn’t realize how much energy it gives me. I think my girls are the same way. My daughter has started complaining about not being able to see her friends and talking more about how she misses school. I really feel that I don’t have much energy these days. For other folks, maybe when they go out to see people or do something, they come home at the end of the day feeling tired like, “Wow, I’m done.” For me it’s the opposite, when I go out to see people for meetings or gatherings or any reason to get out and do something, it gives me more energy, it doesn’t take from me. All of this sitting around at home, that’s what’s taking from me. But what’s helping me a lot these days is my oud. Ihave this traditional Arabic musical instrument, an oud, and when I play it, I really feel like it helps me feel relaxed. I’ve had the instrument for a long time, but I never played it so often before. From time to time I would play it, and because I took piano lessons for a while when I was younger I do know how to read music, but now every day, at least a half hour or more I read some music, try to play my oud, try to learn a little more. It’s all just messing around, I’m really not any good, but I’m actually improving. We all have to try to find the things that help us through these challenges, and this is the thing that I’m doing.

Entry4

I think this week it’s enough to say that I’m from Minnesota for you to know how I’m feeling and what I’m experiencing. Of course, it’s the week in which George Floyd was killed in Minneapolis, very close to the suburb where I grew up. I still have family living back there, some of their homes are close to the place where he was killed. The store where my mother used to work was looted in the aftermath. I never imagined that here in Kuwait, I would wake up in the morning and see my hometown on the front page of all of the news. It’s on all of the news even over here. All of the violence and the racism, coming from the police, who are supposed to protect and defend the people. They’re supposed to be there for us. So, of course, there’s tremendous anger and sadness. And on top of all of that, the other problems that are still going on. We’re still struggling with Corona. Naturally, everyone here who knows that I’m from Minnesota is calling to ask me about things and check in, see how my family is doing. The whole world is watching this, and it’s not just an American problem. The protests have spread to France, Australia, New Zealand. Really, the unity of the world and the oneness of mankind are becoming clearer and clearer. But unfortunately, while there is so much unity around the fact that the way things are right now is not okay, we don’t have the solutions yet. Thankfully, there are people who are working on that, people trying to find solutions, but there still isn’t a clear plan. There’s no systematic approach or unified vision. I think until we find that unified vision, there is going to be violence and killing and people shooting one another, because when people don’t have any hope in the current system, they have nothing to lose.

Entry5

On the one hand, this week was really nice. It was the first time that we went out to the beach. We’re getting up early, around 5:30 in the morning to get out of the house by 6, which is the time that we are allowed to leave our homes. We try to get to the beach before it gets too hot. We swim, have a good time, the girls play in the sand. Then we get back home around 8:30 or 9 and go on with the rest of our day. It’s been really nice. I think we’ve gotten to the beach three times this week. On the other hand, with the ongoing protests all over the world, I’ve been thinking a lot more about racism here in Kuwait, the place where I’m living. Here, with the Corona crisis, there are two things that have happened. One group of people have seen this crisis as an opportunity to emphasize our unity. They see any opportunity to help others whether they are citizens or foreign residents, whether they’re rich or poor, Kuwaitis, Indians, people from any background, they see that we are all one. We are all one in the struggle against Corona. We all have to follow the government’s advice and laws. On the other hand, there are some people, I’m not sure why, they’ve seen this as an opportunity to reinforce racism. I think Kuwait, like any other place, has problems with racism in general. Maybe here, the racism isn’t as much about one’s color as it is in America. Here it’s more about nationality. The passport that you hold here determines everything about your life in Kuwait. If you are American, Kuwaiti, Indian, Pakistani, Filipino, that’s what really determines your life here more than anything else. So, with the Corona crisis, there has been this new idea of “racism for the good of Kuwait,” which frankly is really shocking to me. I don’t understand this idea at all. To me it seems that anything that would be “for the good of Kuwait” would have to be good for everyone living here. We’re not going to build a better, stronger, more beautiful country if we’re always focusing on the differences between people. So, because of that, I’m thinking more these days about the people who are using this crisis as an opportunity to spread racist sentiment. I have no answers, but I’ve been having really good conversations with people and hopefully there will be some progress.

Entry6

Now, I don’t even remember exactly when this crisis started. If I think about it, I guess it was about three or four months ago that they shut everything down here in Kuwait, closed all the shops. People always say that there are stages to dealing with any crisis or any tragedy. At first, you don’t want to accept what has happened, then you get mad or try to change things, then you get depressed, and then in the end you get used to things and you accept it. I think to some degree that’s what has happened with this crisis. At first it was really hard and I wasn’t comfortable at all, but now I feel like I’ve gotten used to this new way of living. Thankfully, we can go out to the beach now, and we have our garden, we have our daily schedule, I teach the girls, I work on my things, I cook, we’re all together at home, I get out to the grocery store. But I’ve gotten used to these new norms. Now, I don’t even feel like it’s an ongoing crisis, it just feels like life now. Hopefully things will continue to improve and it won’t continue like this, things will open up. But I really am used to it. I don’t even miss that many of the things I used to do before. It’s taught me a lesson about the ability of people to adapt to anything when the reality is in front of them. And this week I’ve also been learning how to do something new at home. I’ve started making soap. I’ve been baking homemade bread for a long time; I really like anything you can do at home. I love holding the ingredients, the raw products and then making something new out of them. So, now I make soap. I was able to find everything I needed around here, and now it’s a new project for me. We’ll see how things go, hopefully things will continue to improve.