Quarantine 2.0

And here we are again.

Quarantining is so weird.

Upon arrival at your quarantine site, your luggage is doused in an anti-something spray, just in case your luggage has Covid.  You are put into a room and told not to come out.  You do not get to quarantine with those people who you had been living with and traveling with to get to the quarantine location.

You are put in a hotel room and sit.  Your food is delivered.  Your temperature is checked.  Your throat is swabbed. The hallways are sprayed down twice a day with the cleaner.  You are guilty of Covid until you are proven innocent.  And even after you have proven yourself Covid free, you are given gloves, and a special mask to exit the building.  Your luggage is sprayed down again because while you have proven yourself Covid free, your luggage could still be contagious to the other luggage.  (I guess.) 

In case you forgot the delightfulness of the food they serve, here is a reminder:

And then you are moved to another quarantining location.  You can't sit by each other on the bus and if your mask is not on right, you're told to adjust it because it 'just isn't safe'.   

At the second quarantine location, the above steps are repeated.  Only, if you are lucky, and have Jacky pleading your case, you get to be in a room all together and then quarantining is much more doable--and you can at least laugh at the weirdness of it all together instead of going at it alone.  

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This time around our quarantine in Shanghai was in a quarantine compound---a facility apparently built just for the purpose of quarantining.  I admit I was a bit aghast by the coldness of it.  So prison-like.  All hard surfaces, stark white walls, weeds outside of my window.  The bare bones. The only saving grace about the facility is that it is new and so in mostly good condition and quite clean.

Tom says these pictures make it look nicer than it was.....

The first night in the quarantine compound, I didn't have an adapter so I could charge devices (because of a careless error I made while adjusting luggage weight at the airport), nor was the sound working on my phone so I couldn't listen to audio or video messages from people, listen to conference talks or study my Chinese; I felt so lost and alone.  In the middle of the night I woke up on the mercilessly hard bed and wondered "What in the world am I doing here?" I felt a bit of anger towards the people and I started spiraling to a dark place. I felt prompted to get out of bed onto the hard cold floor and pray.  I did.  In that prayer the thought came to me to have compassion on the people.  That little thought changed me.  What about them?  They are all just doing what they are told. How good can their lives be?  So oppressed.  So little reason to hope.  So little to look forward to.  I could make a difference by praying for them and smiling at them.  Again I was reminded that I'm not here for my own good time or comfort, but to pray for these people.  To serve them.  To try to put the light of Jesus Christ into their lives through prayers and smiles.  It seems like such a small and simple thing.  There was this sign in the quarantine compound.  

It is there, I suppose, because people do fight.  They don't like it.  They are very grumpy about it. I totally see why.  There is so little logic in the quarantining processes. So what effect does it have on those who come to my door to take my temperature or swab my throat to be greeted by a smile and a 'hello' and a 'thank you'?  I'm sure it has to be memorable in a very good way. I hope and pray that it is. My freedoms may be limited, but my response to it isn't.  I can choose a Christlike way to respond and make life better for all of us.  And as I've learned many times before, if I can find a way to serve, I am happy.  My heart is made light.  I don't feel so alone.  And I don't feel sorry for myself.  Those are miraculous outcomes; I'm thankful for the healing balm provided by Jesus Christ's higher and holier ways.

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For our 2nd stint of this quarantine we are back in the Grand Soluxe Hotel---where we spent 25 days in May.  We are in a suite on the 25th floor---it is not large, but it does have 2 rooms and that makes a huge difference in helping the girls navigate this experience.  In looking out of the windows this time (we are on a different side of the building), I recognized something---Comb Alley!  It is a famous alley in Changzhou where historically they made combs from all sorts of wood. At the time, these combs were well known across China.  And we are right across the street from the mall where there is a Häagen Daz.  We have been there a couple of times. We have wondered on several occasions where our quarantine hotel was and have wanted to explore some of the streets that we watched so much during those 25 days.  Now we know how to get back so we can do some exploring. This is good to know.