It's been interesting to observe the progression on the current pandemic scare. I can pretty much tell who's listening to which "news" source by whom is considered to blame for the entire fiasco. Here in Coffee Country it seems like each alcalde and governor is vying with the rest to see how much of a petty tyrant they can be during this episode of "Globalization Comes Home To Roost". This is also mirrored in the actions of some of those who are in the enforcement of laws and regulations line of work. I far prefer the old idea of "peace officer", a person who took it upon themselves to use common sense and compassion to ensure that the purpose of the laws and regulations was enforced but with enough horse sense to know when to stretch things a bit or look the other way.

So we've been "sheltering in place" for 10 days now. I've made a couple of excursions out to take care of necessary things, once to take care of some banking needs, once to take the dogs for their anual shots and to buy and deliver groceries to folks severely affected by the shutdown. That was an easy run to make as I had the dogs' shot papers with me and our mixed breed bundle of good will and enthusiastic greeting is labled as "pitbull" on her's, so the argument would have been "Her shots are due, we can't have her coming down with hydrophobia while everyone's locked down, can we?" Thankfully we didn't have that talk as we weren't stopped anywhere along the way. Parked in the shade at the grocery store, left the windows down a bit just in case and stood in line for a half hour or more just to get in the door.

Once inside the process of selecting fresh fruits and vegetables along with various non-perishable dry groceries began. Everywhere were signs stating "Only three items per shopper", but I was buying for four families. Loaded down the cart and got up to the checkout line. Once it was my turn I asked the cashier's help to place the identical items in four different bags. A young lady came over to help bag and no mention was made of the one item over in each category as I made it plain it wasn't for personal use but to help those in need. Most folks seem to be more than willing to lend a helping hand when it's made clear it's to help the less fortunate.

Drove to the vets' place. They live on the premises and I'd called to make sure they had the necessary supplies. They are members of the church and so this was the one "pastoral visit" I've been able to make since all this hit the fan. They're in good spirits, although their business is greatly affected by the shutdown. The girls were happy to see them despite the indignity of the thermometer up the unmentionable and the needle pricks between their shoulder blades. Yeah, our dogs are defective, they love to go see the vets.

From there it was off to the church's meeting place, just around the corner from one of the families the groceries were for. I opened up, grabbed some things we needed, emptied the pantry of perishable items and closed up, delivered one set of groceries and headed towards home via the shortcut. You know that the shortcut is always longer and wanders around a bit, right? But still plausible deniability, "Just got the dogs vaccinated and am heading home!" - but nobody asked so didn't need to tell them. Stopped by another of the families place to drop off their groceries on the way home, but didn't stretch things by trying to deliver the other two sets.

My wife called one of the families and the mother rode her scooter over and we loaded her up and sent her on her way. Folks can get out to go shopping, so she also had an excuse to be out and about. We called another of the families and he came by in the company vehicle he drives as a delivery man. He came by and took the things to a family that's shut in and has no resources.

One of the ladies from the church called and the dropped by and left 8 bags of groceries plus some plantains from her farm to help others with. I'd picked up some more items on my way home from the last grocery run so we've been handing that out to folks over the weekend.

I really don't know what's going to happen to the economy here. Folks are hurting bad as most live practically hand to mouth. We've used personal and mission funds as best we can to "help the one in front of you" and several locals (including folks who aren't from the church) have funneled funds our way to help purchase needed items for families in need. At this point we're still two weeks away from the initially declared end of the quarantine order - but no idea if it'll end then or if they'll order a longer lock down.

It's kind of ironic that the "ancient chinese curse" (may you live in interesting times) should come to pass due to a novel chinese virus...