Day 68: Reuniting With My Family During Quarantine
Day 68: June 2, 2020
Global Cases: 6,470,008 Deaths: 381,608
Egypt Cases: 27,536 Deaths: 1,052
Hala Majed
CMA Senior
I still vividly remember the government announcing that all airports will shut down. I was sitting in the living room when my father came up and told me: “I guess you are stuck with us for a while, as we cannot go back to The United Arab Emirates due to the closure of flights.”
Hearing the news gave me mixed feelings. I was happy to know that I am staying with my family for some time; but I thought, would they be ready to live with me?
My habits and personality have evidently changed. Will they be able to tolerate me? Would we be able to tolerate each other? I hardly remember their habits.
As much as the coronavirus is life-threatening and fatal, it did provide an opportunity to help me establish a new, intact relationship with my family. My family and I are quarantined in one house, finally mingling in one room, house, and country after three years of living in the university dorms and apart. At the time, I could not stay alone in our residence because it’s thousands of kilometres away and too big for one person to live in alone.
I used to be away from my parents and young sister for so protracted periods of time. I would visit them for a couple of weeks per year. Hence, them being quarantined with me has been the best experience from a familial perspective. I had forgotten how fun and nurturing being around them could be.
It has reminded me of the silly fights with my mother, and the countless disputes with my young sister. It brought back memories of the good times I used to have with them. These tough times helped me appreciate them more and know more about them.
For the first couple of days, quarantine was difficult. I almost forgot how living with a 16-year-old feels like. I would wake up hearing my young sister Hana singing loudly while I am attending online lectures. When she is asked to lower her voice, she replies, “Hala, this is my house too. You don’t have the right to command me to do anything, is that clear?”
And when I ask my mom for help, she defends my young sister and says, “Hala, she did not even bother you. Stop being small-headed.”
As days go by, we’ve had enough of picking on one other, and we started dealing with each other’s flaws instead of fighting. We would have fun game nights playing Charades, Monopoly, and Snakes and Ladders. We would watch a funny movie and share laughter. My sister and I started to accept each others’ habits. I stopped making fun of her for doing silly lip-syncing videos on the viral application called “TikTok”. In fact, I decided to go wild and join her.
Our relationship slowly strengthened as we soon started sleeping over in each others’ rooms almost every day. We also spend time gossiping about our friends and family.
Despite our continuous fights about her not respecting my privacy and being loud, I’ve discovered that my sister has some wisdom. I would say that I have gained a new best friend that I wouldn’t have gotten to know if it wasn’t for the quarantine. We got especially closer after she saw me crying about losing a close friend of mine. At the time, she tried to make me feel better and gave me some advice on what to do. Since then, we’ve been more open to talking about whatever bothers us and we listen to each other’s advice.
For The Caravan‘s previous diary entries in Arabic and English go to our COVID-19 Special Coverage page.
My mother, on the other hand, started to have quite the temper. Regardless, spending time with her was the most entertaining.
Despite her loud voice and how strong she might look, she has the biggest heart of all. My time in quarantine gave me the luxury of being able to talk to her more. I began to hug her more often and got all the love I was missing for the past three years.
Our conversations were amusing. We would talk about food, people, and my least favorite topic: marriage. Once my mother starts talking about marriage, she does not stop. She would talk about how she used to be when she was at my age and already married to my father. She would also talk about how my cousin, who’s the same age as me, is engaged and getting married soon, while I am not.
The topic that always sparks an argument is that I do not help her with chores. But when I enter the kitchen and offer some help she would scream, “I don’t want anyone to bother me and stay in the kitchen, get out!” This topic of me not helping with chores always ends in the same way: marriage. She would shout, saying, “your husband will abandon you from day one. How do you not know how to cut onions?”.
My father was the easiest to cope with. We would spend countless hours debating topics that are quite interesting. My father and I are incredibly alike in terms of thinking, and he believes that one day, I would achieve something notable. He always reminds us that women can achieve great things.
We would talk about the geography and historical places of countries we have visited. A while back, we had a deep conversation about how Hagia Sophia museum in Turkey is both a mosque and a church. When we visited, both religions were manifested in it.
“Hala, do you know that I count the hours we spend together per day now? We spend 10 hours a day. We used to spend less than an hour together before the quarantine. I cannot imagine us not being together again after this is all gone,” my mom said.
