I had just woken up by the ray of the sun and the cracks of hearts of the people in the village. Even in times of sorrow, they knew they all had themselves to rely on.

I live in a village where there’s a road that would leave cracks on your feet when walking barefoot so many children didn’t get the feel of being sent to the shop running barefooted, schools were where children went to just get food at break time and we drank water that we had to pray that it won’t cause us diarrhoea. The sun was accompanied by bad news that morning that a monster had arrived to take their people. It was on that day that the President announced 21 days lockdown and it was also on that day that people has seen inequalities around them. Many people in our village knew that the lockdown meant hunger, depression and a decrease in the mortality rate. 

I was just living with my paternal grandmother who was sick with cancer. Her clavicle bone was visible and looked like a stick that children use to play *suk-suk* ( a game where one has to hide a stick and if one finds it, she beats the players with it). To us who have no medical aids, going to the hospital was as bad as staying because either way you were going to catch the virus. I had to watch her soul separating from flesh and living with her body for days because the mortuary was full of people who had fallen prey to the virus.

I had just started my vegetable stall just near the train station but now hunger prevailed because soldiers had to make sure people were not outside to combat the spread of Covid-19 , of course, I had to stay in hunger. Going to the river to fetch water was much riskier because if you were not going to die from the virus then you’d definitely die from typhoid. Water was so precious that when someone offered you water then the person had offered you life.

I never got to go to school because when they announced that school were opening, I had to go to the social workers to help me find the other side of my family which abandoned me at an early age because I really needed someone to take care of me or else I would turn to be a prostitute, a hobo or even probably die.

Even after everything that happened we had to see the virus coming to touch and take, kiss and kill. The only way you could hear people talking to you is through the loud noise made by their stomachs.