The life of a student in times of covid-19
My name is Victorina Pérez Calmo. I was born in 1999 in the hamlet of Tuiboch, municipality of Todos Santos, near the border of Mexico. It is located between mountains, in the middle of green areas. It is a scattered town with 1000 to 1500 people who get along well with each other. Our house is above the center, ten minutes from the Cooperative. It is made of adobe with a tin roof. Before we were six to live in the two rooms, now we are four: my parents, my younger brother and me. We have water and electricity. My father is a member of the Cooperativa La Todosanterita and makes his living producing coffee. Almost everyone here lives from agriculture, especially they grow coffee in their more or less large plots. The harvest begins in December and ends in April.
My school career started in 2005, when I was six years old. I finished elementary school at the end of 2011. There were two years lost for my studies due to lack of financial resources. Only in 2014 was I able to enroll in a basic institute located in another town, an hour away. After getting a basic diploma in 2017, I decided to enroll in a typing course. In 2018 I started studying at Mam high school in Todos Santos. Now, in mid-October 2020, there is a month and a half left and I get the diploma of an accountant with a computer orientation. There are eight courses: 1) Accounting - supervised practice 2) Bank Accounting 3) Commercial and Labor Law 4) Auditing 5) Computing 6) Statistics 7) Business Organization 8) Seminar (dedicated to a certain topic). I love studies, especially everything related to mathematics. In my degree we are four women - we are a close-knit team that always work together to prepare the courses.
The eight courses are held on Saturday, from 7.30 a.m. to 4 p.m. I get up at 4:30 a.m. to take the 5:00 a.m. van that arrives at Todos Santos at 7:00 a.m. Since they give us homework to do on the computer, I spend the night at an aunt's house and work on Sunday in an Internet cafe. The other tasks I finish at home. Study hours are at night, starting at 8:00 p.m. because during the day I work, knitting five to six hours a day and helping my parents with their jobs. Tejo huipiles for women and collars for men's shirts. It is the only job there is in Tuiboch where almost all of us wear the traditional costume. So I earn about 200 Q a month (about $ 26), if that's a third of what I pay for my studies taking into account all expenses.
On March 13, 2020 my life changed radically when the first case of Covid-19 was announced in Tuiboch. On the 15th, all the schools in the country were closed. They informed us through loudspeakers what the other measures to take were: do not travel, do not leave the house, wash your hands, stay away from other people. Public transport was suspended, only private transport remained. On March 22, the government decreed a curfew from 4:00 p.m. to 4:00 a.m. Here the access to the farmhouse was closed. Checkpoints were put in place at four points during curfew. In general, the people were very respectful, only a few disagreed and protested. This measure was applied until the end of May, after which it became less strict. However, the number of sick and deceased remains impressive. On October 1, they indicated that there were 84,738 hospitalized and 3,347 dead.
Here in Tuiboch there were neither sick nor dead, while throughout the municipality they say that 30 to 40 people died. Yes, the atmosphere changed in Tuiboch. There is no distrust between us, not that. We are always aware of how the neighbors are so that we can help quickly when someone gets sick. So friendships stay as before. Most people act like I do. When I go out, I wear a mask and I always wash my hands with soap when handling something. Many people prefer to stay in their home. It is true that Covid-19 has emotional consequences. We ask ourselves: What are we going to do? What will it be tomorrow? We have many more worries ... Only a few are not afraid. They say that the virus does not exist or that it is not serious, they always walk, also at night. With vendors who come from abroad, we insist that they wear masks and that they respect the measures to be taken. There are some who do not listen ... what do you want us to do? Better to talk about something positive: Some migrant neighbors who work in the United States made a collection and sent the money collected to the authorities of Tuiboch. They bought corn, rice, sugar, soap and gave a portion to each house. This is the solidarity of the people of Tuiboch.
For small producers, especially those who have more land than my father. the pandemic also has negative consequences. The workforce from other municipalities does not arrive and the waiters had to return to their place of origin. Thus the coffee plantations are affected by rust or because they are not cleaned. Know how the market will react ...
For me, the fatal thing is that the studies become complicated with the high school closed. I had my last face-to-face classes on March 14th. It took a long time to receive the first tasks over the Internet. Some teachers explain the study topics very well, but not all. In Commercial and Labor Law, the teacher, very applied, leaves us tasks with topics that we investigate, summarize and explain in a video. There I learn a lot since each topic is very clear and he always encourages us to move on and not give up. I also like the Statistics course since it deals with numbers and different statistics graphs that are easy to make and very understandable. In other courses, communication with teachers is difficult, sometimes there isn't.
At the beginning of my last year of studies, I was very excited. He had many plans for this school year. None of them have been fulfilled. I try to do my best in all subjects. We recently had a small meeting with the director of the high school. I saw my companions again, which made me very happy, although it was only for a while.
If it were not for the pandemic, at this date we would be planning our graduation and waiting for the titular fair of our municipality that was suspended due to the virus. This year has been practically abnormal in every way and has affected us all ... but what do we do? I think that we just have to wait and comply with all the measures to protect ourselves.