My Lockdown Life: Baraa'h Qandeel / Gaza Project

As part of the Gaza Project, youth from Gaza and Tromsø shared their experiences being in lockdown with us. We asked them how their lives have been affected by COVID-19 and the following lockdown both in Gaza and in Tromsø, and they shared their honest, sometimes raw, and insightful remarks on the situation they have been through. These texts were written in the course of March 2020.

Today we hear from Baraa'h Qandeel, a young woman living in Gaza.

How is the pandemic affecting your daily life?

The locking down is restricting our ability to move and do the things we have got used to do every day, it just turned our lives upside down in all of a sudden, the education system is disabled, we can't do any sort of activities outside the house, but I do believe that in spite of all the bad things there is a reason for everything is happening, this experience is holding so many lessons for us to learn throughout this time of pandemic.

How have you been feeling about the COVID-19 situation?

I was depressed at the first days of the locking down but then I came to realize that actually the locking down is not that bad after all, If I look at the bright side, I believe this is a way to be committed to our social responsibility and to support each other and keep others save by staying at home and practicing social distancing in order to reduce the infection. Furthermore, staying at our homes have brought us more free time in order to do those things that were on our lists for a long times and we kept delaying doing them due to the tightness of time, we can communicate more with our families now, we can read the books that have been laying on our shelves for ages, and so many other things.

How do you see the future after all this?

It is so heartbreaking that the world has lost and still losing a lot of people because of the virus, but I believe that this will be the greatest lesson for the entire human race. I expect that there will be more efforts, money and time on the individuals, because governments will come to realize that every single person matters, and in order to achieve that the health care systems all over the world will be improved, more efforts and money will be put in the field of scientific research, Furthermore, the hatred will be way less than ever, and that's because of the state of solidarity that the world witnessing nowadays.

Concluding thoughts?

Well, I wrote this text long time ago, but I can tell that it really reflects my state of mind during the first days of the locking down, I really thought that my life was falling apart.

I can't define my feelings right now. I have no idea about what is happening inside of me. I can't do anything from the things I love and usually do. I really don't know! Maybe I'm losing hope, maybe my passion is fading. I can't feel my soul nor my heart. Am I depressed? I really don't know, but there is only one thing I'm sure about that I'm living a mess!

Text by Baraa'h Qandeel

Find out more about the Gaza Project here!