Kenyan student’s experience in Italy dorm self-quarantine
What does it mean to be self-quarantined? This is my experience as Italy enters its second week of a total lockdown.
On March 9, 2020, the government of Italy under Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte imposed a national quarantine, restricting the movement of the population except for necessity, work, and health circumstances, in response to the growing Covid-19 pandemic in the country.
As a result, schools and institutions of higher learning were not spared as the government moved to secure its citizens and deter spread of the virus.
Since the total lockdown, life has really changed both for the citizenry and visitors, especially students from other countries who study in various Italian universities.
Being a student at the University of Rome Tor Vergata studying MA in Global Governance with specialisation in Global Politics, we have been compelled by our university management to strictly follow university schedules online, do assignments and submit them on time.
Buy masks
I must acknowledge that self-quarantine is very expensive because one is required to be stable in economic, health and mental wellbeing aspects.
It is not easy to wake up every day in your four corners dormitory room and spend the whole day and night there.
Before the lockdown this month, on Saturday February 22 at around 6.15 am, my friends and I had travelled to another city in the south of Italy called Naples for one of my friend’s birthday.
We took the risk and went because earlier we had booked for our trip and paid the cost-related expenses.
It was not something we wanted to miss despite news that the virus was already spreading in some parts of Italy, especially in the North.
Prior to the trip, we bought masks to keep ourselves safe since we didn’t have a personal car and we were going to use public transport provided by Flix Bus.
The trip to the South of Italy was almost two hours long and we had a good time without thinking about Covid-19.
I remember vividly that evening after I returned to our student residence, my mum called me to find out how my day was and I told her that my day went well, we travelled to another city and we just got back.
Restrict movements
My mum paused and changed her tone and at that moment, I knew that something was wrong because after the virus was reported to have gotten to most parts of the country, mum had warned me to restrict my movements.
On this particular day, I had not told her of the planned trip because she would have told me to cancel it. I had been looking forward to explore the city because in the past I had not had time to explore the city and I felt that was a good opportunity to do so.
Fast forward, exactly one month since we had the trip to Naples, a friend from Malawi, who is also my course mate, developed some fever and cold.
Her situation threw panic across the campus, and those of us who had accompanied her to Naples had more reason to be worried. I quickly recommended that she takes some medicine called Tachipirina because it is one of the drugs one can get at the pharmacies without prescription. In Italy, no pharmacy sells medicine without prescription from a doctor.
However, our friend recovered and we started to share our fears of illness.
On March 2, we went shopping in preparation for a possible lockdown. We bought groceries, fruits and dry foods which we have continued to use to date while quarantined.
Some days before the closure of universities I also had some crucial appointments with the immigration office. Then on March 4 mid-morning, the Italian leadership closed all schools and universities from the next day to March 15, and we were asked to stay home.
The lockdown period was later extended to April 3.
In the early days of the lockdown, it’s likely some people got some directives wrong, such as when the university was closed and for many students it was an opportunity to go partying until when the leadership came out strongly to enforce the lockdown.
I am happy to see how people have embraced self-isolation and the mandatory self-quarantine rules.
As of now, we continue to have lectures online. Since I have been indoors for over two weeks now, I have learned new things and clearly know what I would like to do more after the lockdown.
While on quarantine there were two Iranian students that were suspected to have Covid-19 but after check ups at the hospital this was not the case.
We are dealing with a challenging situation, some people are experiencing fear, desperation and anxiety. The sooner we can get Covid-19 under control, then life can begin to return to normal.
Some lessons that Kenya can learn from Italy: The health care sector in Italy was not prepared for the outbreak, the framework that has been in place for many years was not one that could easily expand to cater for the sick people.
Doctors and nurses in Italy are doing their best but if political systems continue to reduce money meant for health care, many countries will always be unprepared to face such kinds of emergencies. - Grace Sabiri Mageka is an MA Global Governance student specialising in Global Politics, at the University of Rome Tor Vergata in Italy.
