Indonesia

Adrienne Prabowo – Jakarta, Indonesia 

“Honestly as a teen I’m not so worried about getting corona myself, but my parents aren’t the healthiest so I have to be very cautious so that they can stay safe.” 

“My mom is a psycho about leaving the house. I haven’t been able to go anywhere at all for at least the past week. The government hasn’t technically placed a serious lockdown (because many street vendors and sales people work on the street to get income) but my family has their own lockdown.” 

“I go to an international school and we have been off since early March. Our school has extended online learning till the end of the year. Personally, I’m really disappointed about that because I won’t get to see my friends, but I guess I gotta live with that.” 

Farell Prabowo – Jakarta, Indonesia

“School is closed for the remainder of the year! We have to attend online schooling until summer and normal school only starts after senior year. Our external AP exams are shortened and online, which is unprecedented, and I have no idea how it will affect university applications later on. Currently, there still a lot of unanswered questions regarding how internal exams will be dealt with and how the virus will affect our schooling and future. In terms of how we are living, my family and a lot of others are staying at home. I miss my friends but generally, everything else is okay. One thing that bothers me though is that there seems to be a lot of sketchy news articles and facts spreading through my parents’ Whatsapp groups which claim crazy things like, for example, that keeping chopped onions in your room will protect you from the virus or that drinking a lot of ginger will help. My family tends to ignore those things but I know many families who believe those superstitions perhaps just to not feel so helpless and feel like they are actually doing something to stop the virus, even if it might be placebo.”

“We’ve made sure to practice social distancing and stay at home. While we have tried to avoid moving around too much, my dad still needs to work and therefore still is out a lot. Some things are unavoidable. Other than that, I feel like we’ve just continued being hygienic in general.”

“Yes! School is over for the rest of the year. I feel like it was a good choice, not for the fact that students/faculty may contract the virus, but to potentially halt the spread of the virus so that it doesn’t spread even faster around the city. Although this means that our education may not be as effective, I feel that the risks far outweigh the fact that we have to attend online learning. And this is not only for our school. In Jakarta, students typically attend private school and the decision to cancel school was made by the individual schools and not the government. Many schools have decided to close their doors.Generally though, outside of school, office buildings are still running, malls are still open and all businesses are still on. Here in Jakarta, there are a lot of people who really need to continue working even if they fear contaminating themselves and their families. We live in a country where securing food is prioritized higher than avoiding the virus. Many men and women still work on the streets to sell food or provide any other service. One way large the malls and office buildings have decided to lessen the spread of the virus is to provide hand sanitizers and deny entry of people with unusual temperatures. This is ensured through having security at each entrance measure your temperature before allowing entry. It’s strange though to provide hand sanitizers as hand sanitizer is an antibacterial and will do little against a virus. Like I said before, there is not a lot of knowledge here about the true nature of the virus.”