Wamkelekile, Welkom
COVID-19: Can you hear me?
20 May 2020 | Story Rebecca Njuguna. Photo Supplied. Read time 2 min.
#UCTLockDownLetters is a new feature on the University of Cape Town (UCT) news site. Staff, students, parents of students: we want to hear about your experiences of work and life in lockdown. Emails, audio and video clips, prose and poetry are also very welcome. This is your space.
This contribution comes from Rebecca Njuguna, a full-time master’s student in the Department of Information Systems in the Faculty of Commerce.
14 May 2020
I was on orders to get out more
Now I can’t go out at all
Not even to the chair on the corner where I sit each week
To gaze through the window of my soul
“The process must continue,” said the one who sits across from me
Now there is a screen between us.
Once she had to ask
“Is it your voice or signal breaking?”
She’s let no emotions get lost to bandwidth
A few times I’ve had to ask
“Can you hear me?”
And really, isn’t that the question of my whole life?
The private room is small and dark and has an echo
An evil satire
For it’s the echo from my past that brings me here
Yesterday I was on the seat for the weekly gaze
Then just sat there for long after
From thence I heard children play outside
Innocent, stress-free, unhinged
I looked at the chair on which I sat
And thought “what if they’ll end up here too?”
All the laughter and play faded
Things all seemingly harmless in their eyes now
Turned into vicious ghosts.
For growing up is nothing but an endless fight with ghosts of days past
Dancing to echoes of victory or weeping to dirges
And whispering
“Can you hear me? Does anybody hear me?”
Even when the signal scrambles
I know she’s there.
And that’s what it is about,
Knowing that someone’s there,
Whether I see them or not.
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UCT Lockdown Letters: Share your stories
In order to foster a sense of community during the COVID-19 lockdown, a new initiative – #UCTLockdownLetters – invites staff and students from across UCT to share your stories about life and survival at home.
How has the lockdown affected you and your ability to work or study? What does your study-from-home space look like? What adaptations have you made to working from home? How are you coping as partners, parents, children, siblings and individuals? How do you cope with stress? What will you do differently after the lockdown?
This is your space to express yourself in any medium you choose: in words, prose, poetry, audio, video or pictures. Your contributions will be curated as part of a special platform designed for sharing – and to create a unique archive for future UCT communities.
Please send your submissions to LockdownLetters@uct.ac.za.
Please remember to avoid including copyrighted material in your submissions. UCT reserves the right to review and select submitted content for publication on this feature page. Videos (in .mp4 format) and audio files (in .mp3 format) can be shared with the Newsroom through downloadable link services like WeTransfer or Google Drive, among others. If you are unsure about how to film yourself, please watch the video tutorial.
