Dear Diary

Six things that UCT News writer Carla Bernardo has learnt from life in lockdown with her pit bull, Myrtle.

UCT’s Information and Communication Technology Services uses Microsoft Teams to boost staff morale and maintain a sense of community while colleagues remain physically distanced.

Lindela Malambe says it feels like Earth woke up one day and decided that she was tired of everything and sent us all to our rooms so she could have a few vacation days.

When lockdown started, Teams and Zoom took over the lives of colleagues at the Centre for Innovation in Learning and Teaching.

John Bolton says a bit of levity is required in tough times – when moved to poetry, he opts for writing limericks.

This melange of correspondence comes from UCT alumnus Dr Robert-Ian Caldwell of Leisure Island in Knysna, who reflects on the vicissitudes of lockdown – and a mistaken identity.

Bianca Warley, a classics lecturer and tutor at UCT, says lockdown has been a different and trying experience.

After embracing a new chapter, Janine Carlse said she had no idea what the following months would have in store for South Africa and the world.

Yacoob Manjoo, a communications coordinator at UCT, wrote a poem reflecting on COVID-19 while tying it to the changing seasons.

Associate Professor Ellen Hurst from the Humanities Education Development Unit shares her experience of COVID-19 and the nationwide lockdown.

UCT master’s student Rebecca Njuguna has online psychotherapy sessions twice a week – and the only place she has some privacy during lockdown, is in the bathroom.

William Haubrich’s lockdown video is also a musical project dedicated to a colleague who passed away a few hours after the video was posted on Facebook.

Behavioural ecologist and postdoctoral research fellow at UCT Dr Jessica van der Wal writes about valuable virtual meetings in the FitzPatrick Institute, a premier centre for ornithological research.

Cecilé-Ann Pearce, a secretary in the University Student Disciplinary office at UCT, says she has survived many things in her life – and she will survive lockdown too.

The GSB Exec Ed team hopes that all of you are keeping safe and healthy.

Niemah Davids, a writer in UCT’s Communication and Marketing Department, shares her Ramadan experience in the time of COVID-19.

UCT commerce student Terence Chikwavira says physical seclusion has caused him to search for his passion.

Dr Catriona Towriss shares her response to the deep need of her community during lockdown with a sequence of four artworks that echo their voices.

A few days into lockdown George Rautenbach, a computer science student at UCT, realised his biggest challenge was going to be staying sane.

As a recently appointed senior photographer at UCT, Lerato Maduna said lockdown disrupted the routines she had only recently gotten used to.

The then-imminent nationwide lockdown swiftly ushered Elske Joubert away from city life to small-town living, and towards her family on the West Coast.

Katherine Wilson, communication and marketing manager for UCT’s science faculty, says lockdown and isolation has been the most terrifying experience of her life.

UCT student Thato Mgoboli says she never imagined that COVID-19 would bring an entire year to such an abrupt stop. Here’s how she is coping with lockdown.

Helen Swingler, senior writer at UCT’s Communication and Marketing Department, recounts her first few days during the nationwide coronavirus lockdown.

Vice-Chancellor Professor Mamokgethi Phakeng gives us a glimpse into how she and her family stay sane during lockdown when they’re not working hard.