HOW THE NATION’S LOCKDOWN HAS AFFECTED ME

Greetings my fellow steem members. Hopefully we are all doing great. The lockdown has been put across because of the current covid19 situation.

What is covid19?
Covid19 is a disease that is spread by the Corona virus. That is why it’s ia called “covid” Co standing for Corona, Vi standing for Virus and D standing for disease. It affects the respiratory organs and makes your breath cut short.

Some of its signs and symptoms are;
• Loss of smell
• Loss of taste
• fever
• cough and flue
• shortness of breath and many others.

Due to covid19, the lockdown has been put across which has affected me both positively and negatively as seen below:
The lockdown has affected me positively in the following ways;

The lockdown has strengthened my relationship bonds. Due to the lockdown, I have been able to spend more time with my family which enables me learn more about them. Before, I have been schooling and working which would give me some distance from my family but now I have all the necessary time to spend with them and now am certain about their likes and dislikes more than before.

Secondly, I have been able to give steemit more time which wasn’t the case before. In this lockdown, I am able to work hard online and at home without any pressure which keeps me busy and enables me improve on my writing skills. In most cases am on my phone on steemit building my skills which wasn’t the case before because I was always occupied during day so I would only visit steemit to post an article and only during the night because it’s when I got some time for myself.

Effective prevention from Covid19. Due to this lockdown, I am safe at home because I don’t move unnecessarily, I always wear my mask while going to the shops and sanitize when I get home. I am able to stay away from crowds and as they say that “life is precious”, I choose to stay home and be safe during this whole lockdown because prevention is better than cure.

The lockdown has helped me get some peace of mind. I have nothing stressing me currently because all I do is write my articles and post on steemit and read my books in preparation for when schools re-open. I am very glad I have enough time to sleep when I want to, watch as many movies as I can, play with my siblings and others. Everyday I get time to play hide and seek with my siblings in the house as a way of having fun and enjoying our lockdown holiday which keeps me happy and relaxed.

I have time for self education because of the lockdown. This lockdown is educative in a way that I have learnt the methods on how I should protect myself and my neighbors from spreading Covid19 . I have seen my cousin brother suffering from covid so I learnt to distance and also educate my siblings on it. Incase they want to play with friends I always advise them to go with their masks and remember to wash their hands with soap when they return home.

And I thank God he is getting better .

Through the lockdown, I have been able to get more support from the government. I have gotten support in form of security, education measures, free masks... the government has ensured safety as a measure by enforcing strict laws on curfew time which has also reduced on the rate of crimes that took place in the wee hours before.

The lockdown has enabled me embrace most of my activities online for example business, studies, and chatting more with both my old and new friends. In most cases when I want to buy something that I can’t get around my home area, I order for it online. This has helped me grow in trusting online sales which wasn’t the case before.

The lockdown has helped in the improvement of hygiene. I have now adopted proper hygiene so as to keep myself healthy and also prevent covid19. This is through sanitizing, washing my hands regularly, wearing my mask and maintaining social distance. Many people have also agreed to follow the SOPs and are putting them into full use.

However, the lockdown has still affected me negatively also in the following ways.

First and foremost, I can no longer go to any place of worship. I am a Catholic by religion so this has affected me because I love mass but I can’t go to church to pray. Mass was my daily routine before but now I only catch up with it on the Uganda Catholic Television (UCtv) and not on a daily basis. I now resorted to having family prayers every night before going to bed and reading my Bible when I get up in the morning as a routine for this lockdown.

The lockdown has affected my social life. This is in a way that I can’t visit and meet up with my friends. In most cases life is simpler with friends around me because am the first born and my follower is a boy, then the other two are still young so I have no one to talk to Incase I have something personal that I would want to share with someone. Before, I always shared some of my issues with my best friend called Vivien but now it’s just online jazz where by I can’t pour out my issues on phone.

Still on the negative points, the lockdown has impacted emotional stress on me because of fear and worry. In most cases when anyone next to me gets flue or cough, I am in fear and I have to stay away from them and their property because of the covid shock. A week back I was infected with flue which resulted into some fever but I was leaving in fear and worry all the time because they are signs of covid. This made me loose some weight.

The lockdown has increased unemployment. Before, I would go to work at 8:00am and leave at around midday and proceed to school for studies then go home. But now I stopped working and I can do nothing about it because the president addressed the country and closed most work activities including mine.

Due to the lockdown, I cannot move freely to my preferred destinations. I always loved going to Tal cottages for swimming and badminton on the weekends with my friends but to get there I always used public means of transport. But now, transportation of people was put to a stop for 42days so I no longer access swimming and badminton and yet they are the best sports I love.

Due to this lockdown, I lost a relative to covid19 but I couldn’t go for the funeral. Last weekend on Sunday, I lost my favorite uncle due to covid but I dint even pay my last rights because a funeral has to have a few people. He was buried on Monday afternoon by only the people he stays with. I was hurt I dint go to console my aunt and my cousins but it was the right thing to do due to the lockdown.

Due to the lockdown, no more access to school. This affected me in a way that I stopped going to school and yet my school still doesn’t hold online studies. I am in my second year at the university and the lockdown was put across at the time when I was only left with two days to sit for my final exams of semester one. I felt bad because this is another year home without my degree. This also happened in 2020 and it affected my education because I would be in my last semester of my final year right now but am just in the first semester of year two.

In conclusion, I would advice everyone to take precaution of the measures to prevent covid including vaccinating against it because it is killing very many people and many are in hospitals struggling for their lives.

Thank you very much @yohan2on for this contest