First contact with Corona
Influenza, HIV, West Nile fever, Ebola, Sars and now one of these tiny things has apparently managed to jump from animals to humans and make them ill. I remember reading once that there are said to be at least 320,000 different viruses. An enormous number. These creatures that are closer to life are probably more dangerous than hungry sharks, I think, because at that moment a young Galapagos shark swims under the dinghy in which Tanja and I are sitting. Moments later, I have forgotten or repressed the conversation? We enjoy the extraordinary time in one of the last, still healthy-looking, natural paradises of our beautiful Mother Earth.Back home, we hear for the first time about the coronavirus that is wreaking havoc in China. It doesn’t take long for the little thing to make the leap to Europe. The reports in the media are piling up and suddenly this tiny creature is scaring almost everyone on earth.
The all-encompassing, surreal threat suddenly determines the lives of everyone, rich and poor alike. A threat that no one can buy their way out of.
We were actually planning to set off on our three-year expedition soon, but this Corona pandemic has forced us to postpone our long-prepared project for the time being, at least until the situation hopefully calms down and the countries reopen their borders. In order not to endanger ourselves and others, we went into hiding and avoided any social contact. We are mindful of our responsibility to our fellow human beings and, above all, to our parents. We don’t want to endanger them with our reckless behavior. Although we hear it several times a day in the media, we also want to raise our voices and remind people that we have to stick together. This is the only way we are stronger than the coronavirus. There is something positive in every crisis. Perhaps we are finally waking up and thinking more about our consumer behavior than before? Perhaps the coronavirus is a wake-up call to all citizens of the world? Perhaps in future we will think about using less plastic and not buying cheap clothes, the production of which has been proven to kill many people? There is so much to do and perhaps the virus is the shot across the bow that we humans need?
If we all work on it and stick together, if we are empathetic and put our egos aside, we have a chance that the children of this earth will still be able to see trees and hear birds chirping tomorrow…
