My COVID-19 nightmare
Some people might think that there's nothing scarier than having nightmares, and nobody is there to save you by waking you up.
But at least you can still save yourself by waking up from the nightmare and getting back to reality – to your normal life. Imagine living a nightmare and nobody can save you by waking you up. Imagine that this is your normal life: your reality is a nightmare.
My name is Precious; I am a twenty-one-year-old female currently living a nightmare.
I am from Marulaneng village, one of the small villages in the Limpopo province. The village is hot and there are small rivers here and there. Luckily, it has rained recently, but this means a lot of mosquitoes. So, one night I decided to spray DOOM in my room an hour before I went to sleep. I closed the windows and doors and sprayed, then I went outside so that the mosquitos and flies could die in peace. An hour passed before I returned to my bedroom to sleep.
But somewhere around 03:00, there were mosquitoes biting me. I decided to bomb them with DOOM and cover myself with a sheet. I fell asleep quickly. During the night I let go of the sheet and inhaled the chemicals.
The next day I woke up earlier than usual. I was not feeling well. I was sneezing nonstop and my throat was itchy. My head started to ache badly. As the day went by, I got worse. My aunt gave me a headache pill and I decided to sleep, hoping to get better.
The following day I got even worse; my body became hot, I had nasal congestion and it felt like my ears were blocked. I was coughing like a person who had been smoking for years and probably had a lung disease. My chest was sore. As I was tossing and turning in my bed, one of my cousins googled the symptoms of Coronavirus.
“What if it’s the COVID-19 thing?" she joked.
I went through the symptoms with her because I was scared and paranoid. It felt like I had every symptom that we read about. I started to freak out. I thought about it until I fell asleep.
Night passed, then it was morning again. My voice had gone, and the coughing continued.
My aunt then decided that we should go to the hospital. Since we don't live far from there, we decided to walk because transport was too slow due to lockdown rules. We got to the hospital, lined up in the foyer, took a number and waited for our turn to be called. We had our sanitisers, masks, and so on.
While we were waiting, a lady who knows my aunt came to greet us. She started talking to my aunt and it didn't seem like she was going to finish anytime soon.
I wanted to cough.
It was a hectic cough, so I tried to hold it back. My throat just got itchier. I couldn't ignore it, so I prayed for it to go away.
Then I burst out coughing.
Although it was probably only a few seconds, it felt like I was going on for minutes. The lady gave me one hell of a look; I could see that she was very uncomfortable. After my cough calmed down, she stood up and left.
Finally, I was next in line. I filled in some papers at reception, then lined up to see the doctor.
He asked me a few questions, took my temperature, and then suggested they keep me overnight. My aunt had to leave, and I stayed overnight. It was uncomfortable and scary, but I had to be tough.
While I was in hospital, scared and uncomfortable, that lady we saw earlier was broadcasting her own stories. Because of the cough, she assumed that I had the
Coronavirus. And no, she did not stop there. She even said I infected the whole family and that they are all sick.
The next morning, the doctor came back with the results. The problem was the DOOM I inhaled; so, since it is poisonous to the body, my body had to react. This is where the cough came from, so he gave me medicine and I went home.
The pills really helped because I was feeling better and my voice was back again. The next day, my aunt sent me to buy bread. I put on my shoes, my headset and phone, then played music as usual on my way to the shop. Like I do every day, I greeted people on the way, but this time it felt different. I couldn't put my finger on it, so I continued walking to the shop.
When I got there, I was greeted by a guy at the door holding a bottle of sanitiser. He looked really uncomfortable – even scared. He spilled some sanitiser on the ground.
Finally, I went through this new ritual before entering the shop. I picked up two loaves of bread, but as I was doing so, I noticed that everyone was staring at me. Some looked angry, while some were whispering, thinking I didn't notice them. It was clear that I was the subject of the conversation. I decided to ignore them and walked over to the counter. The clerk quickly stood up, moved back, and told me to keep the money and that I can pay some day when I am OK. This confused me, so I decided to head back home as quickly as possible – with the bread money in my pocket.
Outside, things were feeling strange; the community was cursing us, and they wanted to get rid of us – and more specifically – me.
When I got home, I explained the strange things that transpired.
While we were talking, my cousin ran towards me with her phone in her hand shouting, "You won't believe this".
I asked what it was and looked on her phone. It was a Facebook post:
"One of the Maswanganyi daughters has Corona, she was seen a few days back in hospital coughing to death and she was admitted by the doctor. Now she is back and infected her whole family. Be careful around them guys #staysafe #covid19 #stayathome".
For some reason, I felt like I was running out of oxygen. I felt hot, emotional, and everything made sense now why people were acting strange towards us.
As the days went by, people were really distancing themselves from us. We were not allowed at the local supermarket anymore, we couldn't get water from the tap (a shared tap on the street, shared by six to eight houses). Everything was just a nightmare. We lived in fear, nobody wanted to hear our side of the story. We were side-lined and treated badly by our community.
For almost five days we stayed inside the house, away from where people could see us.
One day we heard a car hooting at our gate.
“Ignore it. It is probably someone trying to make fun of us," said my aunt.
The gate was locked, so the car kept hooting. The next thing we heard was a police siren.
My aunt checked through the window, and there were like six cars. Big black ones alongside police cars. My aunt went outside and spoke to the people. Then she unlocked the gate and allowed them in. Among the people were the mayor, council members, and police. We sat down and they said a lot of things, including that they went to talk to the doctor who treated me, and that they knew no case of Coronavirus was reported from that hospital.
They knew I was not infected!
They apologised on behalf of the people and for how they treated us because of the misinformation in a Facebook post. They said they knew who posted the information on social media and that the person was in a police van and wanted to apologise.
My aunt, being such a sweet person, agreed. It was the lady we met at the hospital and a friend of hers. They came to us and said what they wanted to say with crocodile tears. My aunt, also crying, told them how disappointed she was. But she forgave them.
After a long and uncomfortable talk, the people left. But before that, they assured us that the law will deal with those two and make examples of them, because it is illegal to spread such lies and defamation. They then drove off.
Days passed, and somehow, we felt better as a family; more because the mayor announced in the local newspaper that there is no one with Coronavirus in our family. He made
everything clear and hopefully everyone read and understood it.
We still had to go to court and police stations because of those two people who nearly destroyed our family. But it did not take that long, because they were just fined, and my aunt did not open a case of defamation of character.
We are now still trying to get over this. Although our names have been cleared, we still feel uncomfortable in the community. I still get nightmares. The walk to the shop is no longer the same for me and I don't think it will ever be. I am living a COVID-19 nightmare from which I don't think I’ll wake up anytime soon. - Thapelo Maswanganyi
