16 LUMEN | COVID-19 PANDEMIC - TRANSFORMING THE WAY WE WORK , STUDY , PLAY AND LIVE
Nguyen Viet Ha , FN603 , Vietnam
“ I think what is most challenging about being away from family in this time of pandemic is the loneliness and fear . Seeing my friends having their family physically by their side to provide them with assurance during this time of uncertainty , I often feel lonely and sad . There were a few times I would try to talk to my friends about it , but I tried not to do it too often since I did not want to burden them since they are all having a lot on their plates as well . I would sometimes feel scared as I do not know when I will have the opportunity to see my family again and spend time with them , as the Covid situation is getting more complicated in both Singapore and my home country , Vietnam . This makes me deeply regret not spending more time with my family when I could .”
A poem by Dinh Cao Tue , MN519 , Vietnam :
HOME AFAR |
the Lunar New Year , being enjoyed truly as Tet , was |
a past |
time to visit the family ’ s graves : |
now gone , |
when cousins reunited and chattered |
what entails are |
twelve feet rushing to the tables – oh , such |
will-o ’ -the-wisps of memories – |
spreads of spring rolls and bitter gourd soup have become |
dreams to be tucked away as |
a part of my heart , while |
reality strikes me that returning back to Vietnam |
little sister chasing me around our grandfather ’ s orchards |
does not mean I am safe at home : |
laughing , screaming ... |
coughing , vomiting will follow each other tragically . |
it was funny how |
being trapped inside my hostel , |
I began to wonder about the times |
I love making sand art cards with my sister and occasionally |
I called my mother over Messenger for over one hour , |
I even listened to Trinh ’ s music on loop |
though I initially decided to |
get an assignment done soon . |
how I remember times waking up to |
thoughts of my family being sent away – thoughts of |
the hands that patted me up for breakfast , |
all of them vanishing scared me |
and gave me the tightest squeeze |
within my heart , I felt an invisible viper crouching – |
bracing to attack |
before every flight back to |
Vietnam , and of course |
Singapore , |
where I am now . |
how I wish |
to relive such moments |
those lovely days |
now far away , I have no choice but to dream and wait , |
forever remain |
within me are hopes |
that I can return safely once more . |
Mr Raymond Karam , Year 5 Head of Level , found himself stranded between a visit back home to England and the start of term at the beginning of 2021 . He shares his experience in quarantine with Lumen :
You ’ re anxious to receive the permit to go back to work in Singapore even though you will be leaving your wife and children behind in England . The norm was to go to Singapore early January , the wife or the children will visit you in March , you are back in England the whole month of June , they visit you again in September and back to England for Christmas late November .
A non-living bundle of proteins and genetic material where you can fit about 2000 individual viruses in one dot at the end of this sentence turned the world ’ s routines upside down and for me no exception .
Since the start of Term 1 in January , I have had to teach my 7:50am lesson at 11:50pm and the 10:30am lesson at 2:30am British time . Yet this routine was becoming favourable , enjoying the snowy winter after an absence of 8 years and watching spring bursting through in April with daffodils along the country lanes of Oxfordshire and lambs in the fields .
Term 1 has passed by in the blink of an eye . Am I losing my Singapore friends abruptly like that ? No time to say goodbye , no proper closure to 8 years of teaching at SJI . What about that desk that I was meant to go back to in the New Year ? On the other hand , maybe that is a better way to leave my friends : the decision is made for me . It would be painful to decide myself to leave them one day .
No . Not to be . I am allowed back to Singapore . Go , go , go ...
COVID-19 test 1 ; negative . Return ticket booked . Holiday makers are not permitted out of the UK but workers like me are . No one is allowed into the airport but I was . Heathrow has never been so empty ever .