Coronavirus Stories - Reaching Out From Isolation

  Edited BY G P Kennedy   Gul - and her man - Istanbul, Turkey FINAL WEEKS OF SUMMER  Life continues as usual here. August is over, we have come almost to the end of summer, and we all have the same sadness. I wish we could freeze this moment and go to a year later. An uncertain autumn and winter are so scary.    The daily number of new cases in the country is reported as over 1500 every day but we assume it’s x 10. Insufficient testing in this busy summer months increased the cases and asymptomatic carriers are still spreading the virus. We hear news that there are not enough beds in the hospitals at the moment. Also idiot people hide that they are sick; there was not enough work to isolate people before its spread by the authorities. They’ve failed (again). Sadly, five doctors died this week; hundreds of healthcare workers have been infected with the virus. Last strawberries of the summer SCHOOL OR NOT  School year began with distance education but this i...

 Edited BY G P Kennedy Ellie - Milan, Italy  It's officially the dead of summer in Milan! In Italy, mid-August is when all dwellers of towns and cities collectively move to the beach. It's the official, vacation time - well, except for the hotel owners, room service workers and waiters - that coincides with a major Catholic holiday, the Day of the Assumption and with a name derived from the festival instituted by Emperor Augustus, but historically became synonymous with vacation because of Mussolini's decree in the 1920s. I was thinking that this rigorous urge to spend August at the beach would subside this year; what with economic disaster and a forced vacation in March, April and partially May. However, it seems everyone has decided to overcompensate and go overboard with their vacation vibes.     So, this means city transport is mostly empty. Some people are coming back from mostly European countries, and the increasing rates of infection in other countr...

Edited BY G P Kennedy Uncommonly wet and cold here right now Simon - Perth, Australia  Hello there, World. Hope everyone out there is as safe and happy as you can be!    Well another week rolls around and here I am again, Once again it appears that we are in the same situation as last week here in Perth.    Basically, we have no new COVID-19 cases, no community transmission and nobody in hospital. Our Stage 5 restrictions will not come into effect on Saturday though due to the situation in Victoria and New South Wales. That would have meant no restriction on crowd numbers and and ending of the 2 square meter (6 sq ft) rule. As it is, Perth Stadium hosts an Australian Football League match tonight with a half-capacity crowd of 30,000 people - unthinkable in almost any other place at the moment.    Obviously on a global level the situation is worse than ever, I’m sure we all know the facts and figures but the trend is still a bad one. It looks like the o...

Edited BY G P Kennedy Wish You Were Here?  Hi – I hope you are staying safe and well. Week 11 marks a shift in the way we are doing things here at Global Village 2020.    We are going to start focusing more on individual and pairs of stories. To do this we will publish one or two Stories each day, starting each Monday. I hope you had the opportunity to read Peace’s moving Story Monday.    There will still be the occasional weeks when we decide to focus on a topic or single issue. Look out next week for our contribution to the current global conversation about equality and justice.    Our brave New Week continues with contributions from Simon and Espe in Australia, and a very differently appointed Gul, in Turkey.     Simon and Espe – Perth, Australia  Hi everyone, I hope you are all well and traveling ok.    So its week…something…of the pandemic and it looks like its showing no signs of slowing down globally.    I am w...

Edited BY G P Kennedy Black Bean Quesadilla Sally – London, UK  Food during lockdown has played a major part and I think it’s mainly to do with the fact the certain foods became unavailable when the panic hoarding started at the beginning and also supermarket shopping became so stressful with all the new social distancing rules, which led to buying longer lasting food in tins, and frozen foods.    Maybe also because we started baby led weaning so we have been trying to do more home cooked meals and making foods even like pizza from scratch.  So things like vegetarian lasagnas, vegetarian cottage pies etc. have been made and batch cooked.    When it was the babies birthday in April, we couldn’t get flour anywhere and I really wanted to make her a cake from scratch, as it was her first one.  But because of the flour shortage in the end we bought a packet mix, which was totally fine, and the cake came out better than expected. Baby's Birthday cake  T...

Tastes even better than it looks! Peace – Lagos, Nigeria  To be honest I really haven’t had the best of appetite during this lock down period, but my Coffee has been a blissful companion for me during this duration. Afang Soup and pounded yam is a favorite. Also If I say my  Jollof rice made in my own way  fresh tomatoes and peppers , prawns and sweet corn with a dash of curry and yellow pepper. It is inspired by my mom’s recipe.   Jollof Rice - Dorothy's Recipe  Fresh tomatoes 3-5kg  (7lbs) fresh Plum Tomatoes Vegetable Oil: 5 onions Red hot chili pepper Cameroon Pepper Yellow pepper 3¾ cups (750g) long grain parboiled rice Chicken (whole chicken, drumsticks or chicken breast) Pepper and salt (to taste) 3 Knorr cubes 2 teaspoons thyme 2 teaspoons curry powder (Nigerian curry powder) 2kg Prawns /shrimps Sweet corn Garlic and ginger Bay leaves   Cooking Directions  Wash and blend the fresh plum tomatoes. Cut the onions into small pieces. Blend some...

Edited BY G P Kennedy Stuffed Courgette Flowers Gul – Istanbul, Turkey    We’ve been at home almost three months now. We consider ourselves as healthy eaters and our fridge is usually stocked with fresh foods but it is hasn’t been easy to keep it like that since the pandemic started. Instead of going to local markets for fresh fruit and veg, we began online grocery shopping we’ve never done before. In addition, cooking became more creative and Mike had to work with what we have at home.    Dining out is a distant memory now as we are eating all meals at home. I must admit that I am terrible at cooking unlike typical a Turkish wife. Luckily, Mike, my husband always loved to cook but now more than ever, he’s more productive, and he has lots of time on his hands so good way to pass the time.    My husband also bakes bread obsessively. I think working with the dough is calming and sort of meditative for him.   All the bread  Unfortunately, I need the ...