Corona Virus and Portugal

Corona Virus Update in Portugal

It seems as though this is the only thing on anyones mind…I can’t imagine a time in the world’s history when everyone on the planet was having the exact same conversation.

At 53 years old and having never before lived through a war on our own soil, I can only imagine what the war time rations and austerity measures were like to live through. What it may have been like to hide in silence as many jews did in order to save their own lives – it makes these new changes to our own liberties seem insignificant, and yet –

Portugal has declared a state of emergency giving the government far reaching authority to limit mobility or commandeer property. In fact, I read through the measures and the comments from the PM and it seemed as though it was a terribly difficult decision to come to. It is strange having ones movements and freedoms restricted though nobody has any objections to these restrictions. Whatever must be done to save lives – we are willing. But these changes have really gotten me thinking.

In practice, these new measures have had very little relative impact on our current living situation – essentially the way we have been living since we left Stuart, FL 10 months ago. Where this will have the greatest impact will be to our travel plans this summer as we were planning to leave next week in order to give us 3 months outside of the Schengen area before heading into the Baltic. All of the ports are closed and even if we were permitted to exit, we would have no place to go. Without that 3 months in the UK out of the Schengen zone, we will be unable to cruise the Baltic since Portugal is a Schengen country and this is where we have been. I know! I know!, first world problems – and we are so very grateful for so many things. We are all healthy – as is all of our family and friends back home. We have stocked shelves and everything and everyone here in the Algarve seems to be behaving sensibly. But this has gotten me thinking about the changes our friends and family back home are experiencing and it’s interesting to us that they are the exact same changes that we ourselves experienced when we decided to live overseas and travel the world. The big difference is of course, we planned it, we chose it, and we worked toward it. But I can’t help but think that these changes are going to, on balance and with the gift of time, be a time that most people will remember with some fondness.

The first thing we noticed when we left the dock and especially when Jack arrived in the Azores was our own family values. If you aren’t sure about your own family values, this past week is a nice window into it. Not judging anything as good or bad, just observing where you (and your children) are spending your time and energy in this new world will provide tons of feedback.

We have noticed that we watch more movies. We never watched tv at home (or so rarely I can say never) but we also didn’t seem to have the time more than once maybe twice a week for dinner and a movie which is a family favorite activity. We do now. This is probably in the category of not the highest quality time but we usually limit it to an evening activity of a couple of hours and more so now that we aren’t traveling. We don’t watch any movies during the day (unless it is a rainy day and we are desperate but this is really rare). When we are traveling in the summer we don’t have this much time for movies either.

Alec and I had always spent a few moments at the start of the day in quiet prayer/meditation. We like to begin each day with a few moments of focus on the things (big or small) that bring us gratitude that day. Nothing earth shattering – just whatever it is that we are grateful for. We have both become more spiritual I believe since we have left. We have noticed that we prepare more meals on board than we did at home, just as many of our friends are now, with the restaurant closures and children activities cancelled (including school) – and that brings us to homeschooling.

Many of you are already aware of the rocky start our homeschooling efforts began with but we are now in a rhythm and we wouldn’t trade it for anything – I can’t imagine returning to our old school life – but neither would I like to go back to the early days of our working through the bumps. If you are a parent reading this and new to homeschooling – hang in there! I promise it gets better and the rewards for that are so many. Just as a side note – even if all you can manage is Math – try out Kahn Academy. This alone has done wonders to our homeschooling efforts.

We spend more time outside in nature together just observing the natural world in which we live. We spend more time making new friends rather than hanging with the familiar, safe and close friends – although this is not something that the current climate is going to facilitate.

And finally we are reading more. This was something I never made time for at home but now probably 3 or 4 days a week I can get in an hour of Family reading time. Jack even looks forward to it.

I can’t help but think this is a really great time to hit the giant personal reset button in our family lives and see where our time and energies are being spent and just make sure that it is where we want them to be spent.

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Alec has gotten Gratitude in tip top shape for our departure – whenever that may occur. Yesterday I broke Jack’s toilet so Alec spent the day with the head apart fixing it. I am so very grateful for my amazing and talented husband who, not only had the spare parts to fix the head, he had the ability to fix it even though he had never had our Vacuflush head apart before. I am so very grateful to our amazing and smart 9 year old son who continues to surprise and delight us daily with his kindness, his humor and his intellect. I am so grateful that in whatever community we find ourselves, there is always at least 1 or 2 individuals or couples who give of their time and talents to make life better for the rest of us. In Maine it was Milt and Judy Baker who organized cocktail parties and rallies to Nova Scotia. And in Lagos, Portugal, the couple who do this is Chip and Sue on Toujour. They organize a weekly walk for dozens of people, planning the route and even the bus transportation. They organize a dinner each week, cocktail parties, holiday events and just basically provide some entertainment and organization to a large group of boats who call this home for several months of the year. This weekly walk has been a source of education and delight as we have enjoyed making friendships and learning about this beautiful Algarve. So though we are limited in our movement and the plans for our future are uncertain, we are so very grateful to so many people and for so many gifts.

I pray that all of you are in good health and good spirits. Take care of each other and take care of yourselves!

xo
Laurie