Ukraine's Response to the Coronavirus
Nationwide shutdown, UBI moves online, and we just can't get well!
A National Slowdown
On Thursday, Ukraine announced the closure of all schools and universities and placed a ban on gatherings of 60 people or more. On Friday morning, they announced that foreign citizens wouldn't be allowed entrance into Ukraine until the end of March and that only 49 of its 219 border checkpoints would remain open. By Friday night, the decision was made to cancel all commercials flights in and out of the country for the next two weeks. We received word this afternoon that if want to get out, we have until Monday night. (We'll be staying, thank you.)
By all official counts, Ukraine has appeared almost untouched by the virus. As of a couple days ago, there had only been three confirmed cases. But—get this—only 53 people had been tested. Fifty-three. Out of 40 million or so. The truth is, no one actually knows how entrenched Ukraine is in this mess. The measures taken this week appear to be proactive, but there is no telling how many thousands are already infected here. Regardless, we support the drastic steps being made to slow the unnecessary spread of this disease.
How It's Affecting UBI
Even though the Ukrainian Bible Institute is a religious organization and therefore isn’t necessarily required to close its doors, we made the decision to support the country's efforts and hold our next three-week term online. This will be a first for UBI, and so over the last two days there have been a lot of discussions and decisions and changing our minds about those decisions. Sergei, our staff member in charge of all things technology, has been working very hard to make sure both teachers and students will be ready to go Monday morning.
We've had to make several schedule changes as well. Some visiting American teachers have cancelled their trips, and others are still a question mark. My youth ministry course has been pushed back to our third term and another teacher will be leading Revelation starting Monday (meaning I won't take over that class until next year).
How It's Affecting Us
Whether it's COVID-19 or not, all three of us have been battling sickness for the last couple of weeks. These past few days, however, have been especially difficult. Katie was bedridden for two full days with a temperature that hit 103°. She had a terrible dry cough, headache, and back pains. I stayed home to take care of her and watch Justus. (We were also so grateful to have a friend from church come and spend some time with him as well as cook for us.)
Ukraine's paramedics provide at-home urgent care, so we called them to take a look at Katie when her fever wouldn’t go down. They prescribed a few things to help, and thankfully by yesterday afternoon she was already feeling significantly better. (Their visit also made it painfully obvious there is no protocol in place for addressing potential COVID-19 cases. "Let's hope it's not coronavirus," was all he said about it.)
Katie and Justus are still dealing with a bad cough, and my body can't seem to decide which direction it's going. Yesterday it felt like my time had come, but today I'm not feeling worse. We are sad to report that Justus' temperature is now on the rise. We’re praying for good sleep tonight.
It's been a very packed, socially-distant few days, and the weeks ahead will certainly be interesting for all of us. Please be praying for us and we will be praying for you.
We love you,
Brandon and Katie