Day 89: Back to School, for a Day
Day 89: June 23, 2020
Global Cases: 9, 345, 568 Deaths: 478, 949
Egypt Cases: 58, 141 Deaths: 2, 365
Amina El Bendary
Associate Professor and Chair, Department of Arab and Islamic Civilizations
I woke up very early today, excited. It’s my first day back on campus since March! Emptiness greeted me. I had all the parking spots to choose from, it was surreal. It’s so hot out here though; we really need more shade.
I’ve been planning this visit for a week or so. In preparation, I took a calculated risk yesterday and visited the hairdresser’s for the first time in months. Vanity got the best of me after all. I needed the grooming, but it was quite exhausting; wearing a mask the whole time, and worrying about who was not wearing a mask, repeatedly spraying alcohol on my hands, keeping my distance and playing mask police etc, etc.
At the office, some of my plants are surviving. But it’s all so quiet with very few souls around. This is not first day of school vibe. Even the cats seem to be hiding. Going to campus today turned out to mean going to another empty room.
A good friend of mine from college lost her mother the other day. It was very sad, we have wonderful memories of her and their house. Normally, our college group would have been with her during this difficult time. They were all there for me when my own parents died. But with corona, there is a different kind of social distancing that means we couldn’t visit. It seems unnatural. I keep thinking of historical pandemics that I study and how they must have changed people’s rituals and daily routine. The history of the 14th century Black Death now has new meaning to me. I think of the fear that must have overtaken people then.
It’s Sunday, so I need to call my brother and his family in the US. We won’t be able to visit each other this summer as we often do, what with international travel being so uncertain and irregular. I don’t when I’ll see them next. And it seems a bit strange not knowing when to expect to see them.
The long drive home from campus was much smoother than usual, the heat and the curfew working magic. But when I close my eyes and imagine the fall semester I automatically place myself in one of our HUSS classrooms on the plaza level with a room full of young people! And then I have to remind myself that most likely it will not be this way for a while. [Note to self: I really have to find a better Zooming spot at home. So far, I’ve tried almost every corner, and it’s impossible to perfectly align good Internet connection with good lighting and comfortable seating! Something has to give.]
Meanwhile, time to check out what’s new on Netflix. I read that some Egyptian art house films were dropped there recently so it might be time for some classics. Or not. I also want to plan some baking for later. This week I want to bake an apple pie, upon request. There’s much that’s therapeutic about baking: the magic of planning ahead and imagining things in advance and then watching single ingredients transform into something else. And then there’s the patience involved: no matter how easy the recipe, with baking there must be time and there must be waiting to get the final result. There’s a metaphor there for many things. If we have enough patience.
For The Caravan‘s previous diary entries in Arabic and English go to our COVID-19 Special Coverage page.
