JAMILAS TRAVEL DIARY: Day 2 of quarantine separate from my son

It’s Day 2 in quarantine at the Hotel Grand Pacific in Victoria, Canada. The time difference from back home in Kenya is minus 11 hours. My son is in a separate room.

The body and mind confused: is it day or night? And the cold! 6 degrees! Not snowing here, but cold and windy.

I am able to feel all this by going outside to the balcony. No leaving the room at any point. My son and I speak on phone and say hello from our adjacent balconies, masked as we do this.

Supplies provided in the room should last us two weeks: towels, soap, garbage bags, bedsheets, tea bags, coffee and sugar.

Meals are provided three times a day at specific times and the food is left outside our rooms..a knock..and we have to count to 30 before opening the door, masked of course.

After eating, we leave the dishes outside the room. Our garbage is collected three times a week. We put the sealed garbage bags outside our rooms and walk back: no interaction with hotel staff.

The school chaperone calls twice everyday, asking questions about our health as well as the reading on the thermometer after we check our temperature.

We also have to respond to queries from government health authorities every morning through an app, everyday at 7am.

The body has not yet adjusted to the time difference: sleepy during the day, and awake and energetic at night.

I have classes on Fridays and Saturdays for a Masters Degree I am undertaking back home. Due to the time difference, I had the two classes in one day: morning and evening. I found myself sleeping at 4am Victoria time.

I am sure the body will adjust. My son is having an easier time, I am glad for him as he is adjusting faster than I am..the perks of youth!

He has to start catching up with school work now. He has already missed 3 weeks of classes as we waited for the visas to travel here.

He understands how important this is to all of us. At some point, getting the visas and traveling seemed nearly impossible: The COVID-19 pandemic making it very difficult.

We are told that we are very lucky we were even allowed to travel and enter this country. They are very strict as Canada tries to curb the spread of the virus.

There are restrictions for residents here but the rate of infection in the BC (British Colombia) area is slowly reducing: watched it on the local news here, the relief evident for leaders and residents.

At least I am able to attend classes and have time to do assignments. However, the time difference makes it difficult to attend some office meetings online. I am sure in a couple of days once the body adjusts to the changes, I will be able to plan my time better.

I have been trying to skip rope and exercise around the room, taking it a day at a time.

I miss my son. But we speak all the time and meet on the balcony a few times.  I miss home too, my family.