I’ve said before in this blog but I’m a big fan of the rainy season –
at least the rainy seasons that I’ve experienced in East Africa. It’s not so
much the precipitation, though the life-giving water is of course wonderful so
long as it stops short of flooding or mudslides (there’s been a few deaths
already this year in Kenya). It’s more about the dynamic weather. I love the
crazy weather patterns, violent thunderstorms, etc. It helps that the rain
isn’t accompanied by cold. It’s also different from other parts of the world
where the rainy season consists of nearly constant cloudiness and a perpetual
dankness. Here we have periods of sun mixed in where things can dry out a bit
before the next deluge of heavy tropical rain.
Being in self-isolation, I suppose I notice the weather a bit more.
We’re in an apartment above the trees so we have a decent perspective,
particularly during my endless Zoom calls. We also go up to the roof more to
exercise and hang laundry so we get a nice bird’s eye view of the ever-changing
sky. The sky is normally a bit clearer this time of year but there really does
appear to be a coronavirus lockdown effect making it clearer than normal. Quite
beautiful, actually. Supposedly you can see Mt. Kenya from Nairobi nowadays. I
can’t verify that given that there’s a big building under construction blocking
our view in the direction of where the mountain would be. It’s a wonderful
thought though – that the air quality might have improved to that extent.
Work is showing no signs of abating. Quite the contrary. Our Covid-19
response is in high gear. The virus seems to be working its way through Somalia
unabated. We’re trying to protect not only our staff but the people we support
in the general population. It’s not easy. Several staff have communicated that
they are ill. Very few want to be tested. The reasoning is complicated and it’s
not the same for everyone. People generally seem to know that the virus is
dangerous but for some, they don’t feel it’s dangerous enough to modify their behavior
in any significant way. Some are concerned that if someone dies then they would
be prevented from burying them according to local customs. For many there’s
also a certain cavalier attitude towards such things in the country. It’s hard
to explain but it centers on the fact that people in Somalia have been through
so much over the years. They’ve experienced the weight of sustained insecurity
and civil war. Drought. Famine. Flooding. Locusts. Poverty. Food insecurity and
malnutrition. Cholera. Malaria. Etc. Etc. Covid-19 is a new piece in a mosaic
of ways to be sick and/or die. It tends to make a person a bit more
desensitized to threats. For the more affluent people in Western countries who
don’t continually live on the edge, it’s hard to understand what this is like. For
them it’s a temporary suspension of a “normal” life. For most Somalis, it’s
I had an interview this morning on BBC/TV. The interviewer asked about
the current spike in reported Covid-19 cases in Somalia and the likelihood of
many more unreported cases. As is always the case in this country, I find it
difficult to formulate sound bites in this context given the complexities.
People don’t have the attention span to hear the whole story. The journalist
doesn’t want you droning on and on. They want you to get to the point. So you
need to find ways to convey complex messages that don’t require too many words.
It’s an art to do this well. Even before I began doing this job, but more so in
recent years, I’ve observed people do this with varying degrees of success. One
of the best I’ve seen was Bill Clinton. Not everyone may agree with his
politics but it’s hard to deny the fact that he was a master at this sort of
thing. Being a Rhodes Scholar from Arkansas, I think he instinctively knew that
he couldn’t come across as pretentious and not everyone listening to him had
the same level of education. As a result he developed a rather folksy way of
discussing rather sophisticated topics. It likely helped him get elected.
Unfortunately I don’t possess the same talent. I tend to over explain, at the
risk of losing my audience, particularly if it’s a topic about which I’m
passionate. I give the media editors something to do. But I’m getting better at
it.
In any case, people are not really staying home. They’re not social
distancing. They’re generally not wearing masks. Basically, there’s little to
slow the virus down at this point. People are still socializing much as they
normally would. It’s Ramadan and that complicates things further. We’re
fastening our seatbelts. It’s going to be a bumpy ride.
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