Every Cloud Has A Silver Lining: Day 41

Day 41: May 6, 2020
Global cases: 3,817,382; Deaths: 264,837
Egypt cases: 7,588; Deaths: 469
Kuwait cases: 6,289; Deaths: 42

Hanin Sedky
Communication and Media Arts junior

Every Cloud Has A Silver Lining

It’s been 41 days since quarantine began and everyone has been complaining. We’re practically imprisoned so it makes sense that we’re not too thrilled about it. But unlike everyone else, I am kind of thankful for the current conditions the coronavirus has imposed on us.

I woke up today reflecting on these past few weeks and what they meant for my family. Around two years ago, I left Kuwait and my parents and came to Egypt for university. For these two years, I lived alone with my brother, who is a year older than me, and on many days I even stayed in the on campus-residence in AUC. It was quite lonely. We’ve always been extremely close as a family and separation was never easy. During the holidays, my parents would visit, or we would go back to Kuwait for a week or so, but it was never the same. During these two years (and an extra year where my brother left Kuwait before I did), the four of us were never present in one place at the same time.

For starters, my parents rarely visited together at the same time, and would always come one at a time. Also, my holidays are completely different from my brother’s, so when my holidays start, he would still have more than a month left of school. So I would visit them on my own. By the time that he’d be done with his studies, my holiday would be over and I’d have to go back to Egypt. There were so many scenarios that inevitably lead to us never being all together at the same time.

Now that there is a travel ban, many people that live in the same circumstances as I do are now either living with their aunts or uncles or even completely on their own. But my case is completely different.

My mum was scheduled to have a small surgery at the end of February and so she and my dad were in Egypt for that time period, for checkups and all. On the same day my parents were meant to take a flight back to Kuwait, the Kuwaiti authorities banned all flights coming from Egypt, and my parents were not able to go back.

Like everyone else, we thought that this would last for only a week or so. But this was not the case. They’ve been stuck here for almost two months now. And for the first time in almost three years, the four of us are living under the same roof.

For The Caravan‘s previous diary entries in Arabic and English go to our COVID-19 Special Coverage page.

Now, obviously, there were a lot of complications. Firstly, the fights. Oh my god. I think we were not used to these living arrangements and we are all just very cranky and riled up all the time. But also, we all have our separate problems. My dad has never had a holiday that was longer than two weeks, in the past 30 years of his career, and so the current circumstances are awfully foreign to him, and he’s still trying to adjust. My mum is constantly worrying about the future all day long and is trying to keep us all sane.

My brother and I were so used to going out on a daily basis and pretty much doing whatever we wanted, (within reason of course) without much supervision or restrictions. This changed with my parents’ presence (mostly my mum’s).

With that being said, none of us are complaining. We all feel that we are way too lucky for all these consequences to happen at the same time, which resulted in us living together again. We’re all very thankful for God’s plan and we’re almost too embarrassed to complain about the quarantine and the pandemic.

Of course, I hope that this whole Coronavirus situation is over and that life goes back to normal. But I can’t help but think about how when this actually happens, my parents will have to go back to Kuwait, and my brother and I will go back to living alone.

It’s alright though. I’m planning to make the most of my time with them until this is all over.
It’s past midnight now, and I’m actually writing this while we’re all sitting in the living room, watching a movie on Netflix. Irreplaceable.