‘Have a plan’: From Beaufort to China, secrets to surviving the coronavirus shutdown
Mike and Michelle Lombardi Henry teach school in China, but they can offer lessons to the world on combating the COVID-19 coronavirus.
Their adventurous spirit — and answers to a FindYourSpot.com questionnaire — brought them to Beaufort from chilly Philadelphia in 2009.
They loved it here, and touched many lives over the next six years as teacher or librarian at Whale Branch Elementary, Robert Smalls International Academy, Shell Point Elementary, and Red Cedar Elementary in Bluffton.
They lived in the Ashton Pointe apartments in Beaufort and the Mill Creek neighborhood in Bluffton, and fell in love with Beaufort County’s unique story, its palmetto trees and warm weather.
But adventure called again, this time pulling them to an international school in Dubai.
And two years ago, they felt the pull again, this time to Hangzhou, China, where he teaches kindergarten and she teaches art.
It’s where, about 70 days ago, they were sucked into a whole new world we now know to be a pandemic.
It came out of Wuhan, a city about 1,000 miles west of Hangzhou, and now has claimed more than 2,000 lives in far-away America.
Authorities in their city of 9.5 million people jumped on it fast — before anyone tested positive for COVID-19.
As the Henrys’ adventurous world shrunk into a 900-square-foot apartment, they did not worry about themselves. They worried about America.
Mike Henry remembers thinking, “I hope this never goes to the States. I just don’t know if people would comply with authority.”
He posted on Facebook: “The ONLY way to stop this virus is prevention and containment. You cannot be around other people PERIOD. I do not think Americans are prepared or willing to do what has been done in China.”
Hangzhou
Hangzhou is bright star, about an hour south of Shanghai. It has been attracting the adventurous for centuries.
It is known for its architecture, gardens, beautiful West Lake, higher education, and a long string of economic successes from rice and silk to farm equipment manufacturing and today’s high technology. It hosted the 2016 G20 summit and is to host the 2022 Asian Games.
It is home to Alibaba, a multinational e-commerce giant. The Henrys can joke, like maybe a half-million other people, that they live down the street from its co-founder Jack Ma.
But all that came to a full stop in late January.
Schools and businesses closed. People were to wear a mask in public. Infrared thermometers checked everyone for a fever, everywhere. Roads into the city were closed. The railway, and the city’s electric public transportation system, closed.
For two weeks, there was a total lockdown. Only one person from each residence could go outside their apartment complex only two days per week, two hours at a time.
“It was like Men’s Night Out,” Mike Henry said. Men were chosen because they could haul more stuff. In his case, it is a mile walk to the large grocery store, where the shelves stayed full, and customers were admitted after having their temperature checked and recorded.
Movement was regulated at the apartment-complex level. Mike Henry said each apartment management would document when residents left and when they returned, and the data collection quickly moved online. People used a popular wallet app on their smart phones that had enough information for them to be assigned a national color-coded QR code on health. Green means you can move about. Yellow means you must quarantine for a week. Red means you are to be quarantined for 14 days.
Thousands of doctors and nurses were moved to areas they would be needed.
When we talked by phone last week, the Henrys said there had been only one coronavirus death in their province of 25 million people.
They say the Chinese people took the threat seriously from the outset.
“People here are much more compliant,” Mike Henry said. “It’s just the way it is. They were told to stay inside, and they did. They were raised to obey authority.”
Quarantine advice
How do you shut down your life?
“Have a plan,” Michelle Henry said.
Their plan has included making candles, playing Monopoly, piecing together puzzles, making spaghetti sauce and cleaning house.
Much of their time alone has been in self-quarantine. They say it has not been fun or easy.
Life on the fifth floor of a 22-story apartment building led to this Facebook post from Mike Henry:
“I’ve learned many amazing things during quarantine, like ... the little girl in the apartment above us can jump rope 127 times without stopping ... AND ... she’s persistent. If she makes a mistake, she just starts over ... and over ... and over ... “
The Henrys continued to teach via computer, producing some video for Facebook of kindergarten “show and tell.”
“We’re learning how to teach in new situations, how to modify the way we deliver lessons,” said Michelle Henry, a master teacher who mentored other teachers during her years in Beaufort County and Dubai. “It’s been incredibly challenging. We really didn’t know how to do this. Still don’t.”
She sees that as one of the silver linings in the pandemic.
“I think it’s a great opportunity for innovations,” she said.
Parents with kids at home need to keep them on a schedule — a routine. Without it, behavior goes to pot.
Michelle Henry warned Americans: “This is going to be a long haul.”
Make sure your children get exercise, eat well and get good sleep, she said.
“I would wear a mask,” she said. “Google hand-made masks in China and you will die laughing.”
“Don’t get restless,” she said. “You are putting yourself and others in danger.”
The Henrys are now seeing what they call a brilliant light at the end of the tunnel. They hope to be back in school on April 7.
Each teacher and student is sending in their temperature twice a day, and if there are no problems over a two-week period, maybe a normal school life is not too far behind.
It’s been an adventure the Henrys never wished for, but they think they know its secret:
“We each have to take responsibility.”
