Coping with Covid-19: SA expats try to stay positive

TALI FEINBERG

Dorron Kline, the chief executive of Telfed (the South African Zionist Federation in Israel) has been in quarantine in Israel since he came to South Africa for the Aliyah Expo and travelled home on Turkish Airlines on 25 February. He has to be in quarantine for two weeks.

“An Israeli on my flight from Istanbul to Tel Aviv, Shimon Dahan, was in quarantine on the Diamond Princess cruise ship in Japan. He tested negative [for coronavirus] in Japan, and positive on his arrival in Israel,” says Kline.

Being in quarantine means that he has to stay in his bedroom as much as possible. “If I leave my bedroom to go around our apartment, I need to wash my hands with soap, and wear a mask. All of my family members need to keep a two metre distance from me. I’m working from home. Modern technology helps to keep me occupied and in constant contact with the Telfed office and outside world.”

Kline even voted in the Israeli national election on 2 March at a special voting station. “There was a very high turnout of those in quarantine. More than 4 000 people (out of a total of 5 500) came to vote at the 14 special sterile tents set up around the country. Besides fulfilling their civic duty, I think many wanted a valid excuse to get out of their bedroom!

“We had to travel alone in private cars to and from voting booths, with no stops along the way. We had to wear masks while waiting in line. Although we were meant to keep two metres apart from each other, the long lines soon turned into a social gathering, exchanging stories about how each of us got into quarantine.

“I waited 2.5 hours in line together with Carla Kamilar, who was at the Aliyah Expo with me and on the same flight back to Israel via Istanbul. We didn’t complain. We were enjoying the fresh air, sunshine, and company of about 100 others in the same situation. The voting took much longer than usual because of the sterile process involved.”

Former Capetonian Gadi Burman lives in the megacity of Shenzhen in the south of China with his wife and two young daughters. When the virus hit, he was at home while his family were in Taiwan, visiting his in-laws over Chinese New Year. They have not seen each other since 24 January. “There was no window of opportunity for me to join them in Taiwan as by the time the scale of the disaster was realised, Taiwan had shut its borders to mainland travellers,” he says.

He has been confined to his apartment in the heart of the city, and has ventured outside a handful of time to take out the garbage. Describing the scene around him, he says, “My neighbourhood erected an extensive barricade allowing for only one entrance in and out of the suburb for residents, and then only after mandatory temperature screening.”

He is grateful his wife and daughters are safe in Taiwan, and that he can communicate with them and his parents in South Africa. His wife orders food for him online, and it’s delivered to his door.

“I have busied myself with cooking, painting, and communicating with friends back in South Africa in addition to engaging online with my high school students and other members of staff,” he says. Burman heads up the drama department at Shenzhen College of International Education.

“Teaching continues to be a challenge. My drama students are keeping positive and doing the work that they can, but it’s too early to know what will happen with their practical examinations. Our weekly check-ins are as much a comfort to them as they are to me.

“We are doing our best to innovate with the technology available to us. The biggest lesson learned in this context is the need to be prepared for unexpected situations on the scale of this one,” Burman says.

“One thing I wish people would realise at times like these is that panic is the greatest enemy, and will not change anything on the ground. The best advice I can give is to keep your mind active, take care of your body, and try your best to maintain a routine to keep you focused as you move forward. We will get through this crisis. All we require is patience, and a good pinch of faith.”

Dylan Stein of Johannesburg recently returned from the AIPAC (American Israel Public Affairs Committee) Conference in Washington DC where at least five individuals (at the time of going to print) were confirmed positive for the virus. “I had no symptoms upon landing, and continued to have no symptoms until the morning of 8 March.”

With a sore throat, mild cough, and minor headache, he called South Africa’s coronavirus hotline as he knew the official instructions were to avoid hospitals if presenting with symptoms. Yet the operator insisted that he go to hospital, where he sat in a crowded waiting room for hours, and was assessed by nurses and doctors not wearing masks in spite of him telling them his situation. When he finally saw a doctor, he was told that the hospital didn’t have the test for the virus.

A private doctor later saw him and tested him for the virus. It came back negative.

His assessment of the whole experience is that South Africa isn’t ready for the coronavirus.

Former Johannesburg resident Hazel Chait lives in Melbourne and is the assistant librarian at Yeshiva-Beth Rivkah School in the heart of the Jewish community. The school was closed on Wednesday, 11 March, on the recommendation of the Australian health department.

“I was alerted early this morning that school was closed for the day. One of the staff members had tested positive for the dreaded coronavirus [after travelling home from the United States].”

She says there are many ex-South African staff and students at the school. “It came as a bolt that this threat is now very real – and here – in spite of the travel bans imposed on various countries. No one is used to the new normal.”

Noah Tradonsky of Johannesburg is 22 years old and studying finance at Yeshiva University (YU) in New York City. Its Washington Heights campus has been closed because an undergraduate student tested positive for the virus.

“On Tuesday [3 March], there was news that a man from New Rochelle – a big Jewish community 20 minutes north of the city – had contracted coronavirus. A week earlier he had been in shul with the La Rochelle community. So, all the people from New Rochelle at YU, five of whom live on my floor, went home and into quarantine with their families. This case was unique because it was a person-to-person transmission. He didn’t go to Italy; he didn’t go to China. He just went to work.”

The patient has a child at the Salanter Akiba Riverdale (SAR) high school, and one at Yeshiva University. “The son was at school [Yeshiva University] for at least four days where he came into contact with other students. But school went on,” Tradonsky says. “Then on Wednesday, we got an email from the president, Rabbi Dr Ari Berman, saying the man’s son had tested positive for coronavirus. The letter announced that school was cancelled, and asked students to stay out of communal areas like the beit midrash (shul) and dorms, and those who could go home should do so. On Thursday, we got a message from New York Governor Andrew Cuomo saying that YU and SAR High School would be closed until after Purim.” This has since been extended for another week.

“I’ve never been this careful about washing my hands in my life. I’m [also] being careful not to touch my mouth. Seventy percent of the undergraduate body live in New York, so they all went home. Wednesday night was like a ghost town. It’s cold, dark, and lonely, quiet, and a little bit spooky, and you have to find a way to buckle up. To get over your sorrows is easier said than done in a cold, dusty dorm room in Washington Heights.”

However, the community has “really pulled together”, he says, and he has been invited to numerous homes for Shabbos and Purim. There are three other South African Jews on his campus, and they are all fine.

“I’m not considering going home. School could open soon, and the borders might close,” he says. “I might not even be able to come home for Pesach. But everything will be okay. I don’t think people should worry.”

• Gadi Burman’s account was originally published by the International Schools Theatre Association (ISTA) in ‘Scene’ www.ista.co.uk/scene on 4 March 2020, and is republished with permission here.