4-5-20 to 4-18-20 - Life in Lockdown

In March, the Antiguan Prime Minister had enacted a nighttime curfew from 8pm to 6am as well as implementing social distancing rules, ordering the closure of “non-essential businesses,” and banning gathering orders with over 25 people. 

However, the local islanders apparently don’t like to be told how to conduct their business as they went about blatantly ignoring the Prime Minister’s orders.  Well the Prime Minister apparently does not like to be blatantly ignored so he goes on TV yelling at his people telling them how pissed off he is that they’re not following his directive. In fact, he has the police burst into the church and arrest the minister for holding a service with a large gathering and no social distancing.  

So it should have come as no surprise when the Prime Minister came out with a one week 7 day 24 hour curfew starting April 2nd. Everyone is ordered inside and not to leave their property and anyone found on the street will be arrested, thrown in jail and fined $5,000. The only are exceptions are for medical emergencies or to go to the grocery store and pharmacy which are open from 7am – 12pm but even there are strict rules about who and how many people can be in a vehicle on the road. 

The order leaves some grey area as it applies to our situation.  Our “property” lies with a gated community which has locked its gates to the public road. So we have been walking / running around the 4 roads that form a rectangle and serve as our outdoor track.  So technically, by using the track, we would be off our property but not on the public road. 

Kyle’s interpretation is that we would be fine continue to use the track. That is until the owner of the Airbnb texts him a message from the property manager of the gated community saying he is advising against walking around the gated community because it can be seen by the police from the public road and will result in our arrest. Oh geez! 

The property manager, our local friend Curtis as well as the Airbnb owner tell us they are dead serious about enforcing the lockdown.  So there goes our idyllic “get us in shape” track.  We suppose it’s still better than being in the Philippines where the President has ordered police to “shoot dead” people violating any lockdown orders.

But then there is the matter of swimming in the cove. From the main rectangle in the gated community, we have to walk up and then down a hill resulting in our house and the cove being completely out of view from the road and rest of the gated community.  Certainly that won’t be offensive or COVID-risky.  We technically have to leave the property to walk down a dirt road about 25 yards to get to the cove which has a sign indicating it is private property. 

Since it is out of view and we have only seen a handful of boats in the time we’ve been here, Kyle is feeling like this should be no problem.  That is until the Airbnb Owner says – just to be clear -- that the cove is also off limits during the lockdown because we would have to leave the property. Ughh!  

So we have lost of outdoor track and outdoor Olympic swimming arena but we still have a driveway and pool. 

Of course, we learn of the lockdown via island rumors well before its officially announced.  Apparently, the island is not unlike a small town where everyone knows everyone’s business.  Officially, we find out about the lockdown on April 1st and are debating another food run as we don’t know how long the lockdown will last.  It is scheduled for 7 days but everyone expects it to be extended past the seven days.

When Leanne was out walking she met the neighbor Karen in the one other house on the cove. 

It turns out that Karen’s husband Max run’s the local food wholesaler company.  They normally serve the local restaurants, hotels and resorts but they do have a limited cash and carry business where consumers can place an order and when you arrive, they load the food right into the back of your vehicle. They are open on April 2ndsince the 24 hour curfew starts at midnight so we decide to make one last run at the wholesaler.

Our taxi-driver friend Curtis picks us up on the 2nd and takes us to the wholesaler.  When we show up, it’s pretty chaotic as employees are running around loading trucks for the final delivery to the businesses. They have only a few hours left on the road to complete all orders.  We enter the office and say we want to place an order.  “Nope,” is the clerk’s response. “Yes, we do,” is Kyle’s response.  “Nope, you needed to have placed your order yesterday, we’re not taking any orders today.”  Oh frick.   

Well, we are about to turn around until Kyle recalls the name of the neighbor.  Facing a pandemic and at least 7 days with five hungry teenagers, it is certainly worth an inquiry even though we never met the dude.  “Is Max available, please,” Kyle asks.  The office manager looks up with a funny look as if to say, “how do these clueless tourists know the guy who runs this company?”  He tells us he is down in the warehouse and Curtis says he’ll take us down there. 

We walk down the hill to the warehouse and again ask for Max.  One of the employees grabs Max and he comes out.  Given we have not actually met Max before, he looks at us with a puzzled look and says, “How may I help you?” We explain that Leanne met his wife Karen yesterday and she said you do cash and carry but we didn’t realize that we had to place the order in advance. 

“Well that’s what I do these days, I solve problems.  Don’t worry, I’ll take care of you,” he says. Yes! Score! We have now dubbed him Max, The Food Hero.  The Food Hero leads us up to his office to place an order. The Food Hero is originally from the US but has lived in Antigua for most of the last 30 years except for a couple brief stints in Santa Barbara, CA and Florida.  He has been running Horizons for 20 years and was previously Executive Chef for several restaurants and resorts.  

In other words, Food Hero knows food. As we walk through the order, Food Hero is recommending us which of this and which of that to get.  We walk out with a rather large order with an assortment of amazing quality cheeses, meats and the like.  We return in a couple of hours having only come in contact with a handful of people.   Regardless, we are still armed with our face mask, gloves, sanitizer and wipes.  With five teens who always seem hungry, it’s pretty hard to keep enough food in the house! Lockdown or not! Curtis clued us in that the local grocery store, The Epicurean, is mobbed with hundreds of people trying to get in last minute food purchases. Curtis is in the know and our key source of island information.

So lockdown commences and we fall into our routines. Leanne unleashes her inner Michele Phelps (the female version of Michael Phelps) swimming 100 laps per day and doing water aerobics in the deep end of the pool. Corey does basketball workouts in the driveway that his high school basketball coach sent him.

Every dinner is a home-cooked meal and we are eating well thanks to the Food Hero. Chicken parmigiana, lasagna, steaks, casseroles, ham, you name it, Leanne and Justin have probably cooked it for dinner. 

As expected, the lockdown is extended for another week on April 9th.  Because Horizons didn’t have any Easter candy and no way to color Easter eggs, which are a critical food source anyhow, we will have to get creative this Easter.  More specifically, Leanne will have to get creative this Easter. 

The kids awake Easter morning to a quarantine box with bunny ears sticking out and note taped to the outside delivering the disheartening news to the kids that the Easter bunny has tested positive for the Coronavirus, is in quarantine and thus will be not be delivering Easter treats this year. 

Leanne has arranged a community Easter basket with small potatoes in lieu of eggs, some granola bars and face masks. The kids are instructed that Leanne has hidden paper Easter eggs around the house with a number on them and that after they are found, she will tell them what prize each number corresponds with.

After all the eggs are found, the kids assemble and Leanne begins to read out the “prizes.” John goes first and he learns his prizes consist of a meditation session with Leanne in the garden, a yoga session with Leanne by the pool and unfortunately, he got the rotten egg which was a cleaning day with Leanne. 

“This Easter sucks,” John remarks dourly. 

Justin goes next and gets a workout session with Corey, a cooking class with Ashlynn and a history lesson with John.  Corey goes next and gets a star gazing session with Justin, an art Manga lesson with Ashley and swim lesson with Kyle.  Ashlynn turns out to the be the big winner as she won the cash money egg with $20 and the only chocolate bar in the house. 

Justin says, “Wait, let me see if I have this right, our Easter presents are that you’ve given away all our time?” Everyone explodes into laughter as he pretty much nailed it but you have to make do with what you have during lockdown quarantine.

On April 16th, they extend to the lock us up yet another week making it 3 weeks. Yet a huge cheer of joy emits with this official announcement.  This week they are permitting residents to walk, run, or job on public roads during set morning hours as long as they maintain social distancing.  The next day, excited, we emerge from the property’s confines to the breathe of concrete freedom for our legal morning walk.   Joe the local gardener sees us and asked us why we haven’t been walking around the complex lately.  To which we respond, “the lockdown.” 

“Oh mon, that’s not the case.  You are allowed to walk around the gated community, everyone is out walking around.  What goes on out there doesn’t impact our little community,” Joe proclaims. Oh great, so we could have been out walking the past 2 weeks on the private roads, instead of grouchily testing each other’s patience hour after hour.  

Such is life in lockdown in Caribbean quarantine…