Contributor :
Thisanut Keawnukul (Bright)
Campaign officer
Once hailed as a success story for its Covid-19 control, Thailand is currently going through a huge surge in Covid-19 cases due to the delta variant. As of 6 August 2021, Thailand recorded 693,305 Coronavirus cases and 5,663 deaths.
APCOM office is based in Bangkok, and since July 2021 Bangkok has been on lockdown until further notice, and we asked our staff to do a reflection on their Covid-19 experience in 2021.
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As Thailand is going through a lockdown which began on 5 July 2021, it feels like we’re back to March 2020 when we had the first lockdown.
I am so lucky that I live with a friend. Ollie from Australia, who has been working in Thailand for four years. We have the same group of friends in Australia, where I used to work, and when I returned to Thailand and looked for work in Bangkok, Ollie was kind enough to let me stay at his place until I found myself a job. I intended to move out when my situation got better. And then Covid-19 happened – and, so, we are ‘stuck’ with each other for now.
Without Ollie, and if I were to be living alone, I would find it extremely difficult. I am originally from southern Thailand, and have not been able to visit my family. Ollie is in the same situation, so we can support each other. Luckily, we have our own rooms as we are both working from home. We used to go to the gym a lot, and with the restrictions during lockdown, we turned one of the rooms into a gym and bought equipment. I spend half an hour in the morning in the makeshift gym.
We cook for each other and eat together, too, and we also adopted a stray dog we found in the street, and named him Koby. He’s a great addition to our otherwise uneventful days. We take turns to walk him in the morning and afternoon, – and we play with him to get ourselves away from the screens, and when we’re a bit stressed.
Since the pandemic, I am also taking more fun online classes, such as online dancing, and I am learning to be a DJ to ensure that I don’t get bored, and to balance my work and private life. private.
In APCOM I do a lot of online work, and I get to see Covid-19 news updated regularly, which causes anxiety, as the number of cases is increasing due to the delta variant. Thus, over the weekend, I don’t use social media, in order a to give my brain a bit of a rest. For those that are experiencing hard times, particularly if you are alone. please do reach out to your friends and family, get in touch with them and talk with them.
Another tip that may be helpful, is to take advantage of online classes. I am amazed about the spaces and classes where, before, you used to have to pay a lot of money to attend an event physically, and now they are free online! Of course, it is not the same, but I still feel grateful that just because I am stuck in lockdown, I can still learn new things.
