On Sunday, March 15, 2020, Peru’s President Martin Vizcarra announced a mandatory 2 week quarantine for everyone in the country. He also closed the borders, hoping that these two executive actions will stop the spread of COVID-19 in the country.
Stay-at-home orders aren’t new to Peruvians, who lived through this during the Sendero Luminoso (Shining Path) years. In my 20 + years in Peru I’ve also experienced this, but to a much lesser degree during localized “manifestaciones” or demonstrations, when we had to stay home for just 2 or 3 days at a time. Since this is a much longer time frame, I have been documenting our quarantine on Facebook, and have decide to copy those posts here, as a “daily diary” of what we’ve been doing… and how slowly or how quickly we all get on each other’s nerves!
Quarantine Day #1 
Day #1 of a government mandated 2 week quarantine in all of Peru. It’s homeschool as usual for us, but I know that the boys will really miss their music & karate lessons.
(NOTE: You can tell that we’re all in pretty good spirits on Day 1!)
Quarantine Day #2
Since it is St. Patrick’s Day, Sunny & I dressed up in kelly green and Irish orange! I guess the donkeys didn’t get the message that they were supposed to stay home!
Quarantine Day #3
Since we won’t be using our dining room table for guests for the next two weeks, we turned it into an art station. It still counts as school of course, and I’m reading them history while they draw.
(NOTE: I got several comments on Facebook about the gorgeous flowers and lovely colors… some good memories of sharing meals at this table – Laura Burns – and sadness at not being here this week to join us at the table. The Hintz family had to cancel a trip to Peru this week because of the virus!)
Quarantine Day #4
Ade is catching up on home-repair projects. In another life and another place he would probably have made a business of this… he does amazing work! (NOTE: lots of friends want to see the finished project. I’ll have to remember to post pictures.)
Quarantine Day #5
Re-organizing our classroom library. As you can see from the pics, the boys are getting a bit stir crazy and patience (mine) is wearing a bit thin!
On a good note, we’re thankful for all of the amazing books that we inherited from other missionary families … ( Seaveys, Wroughtons, Millers, Scotts…) I wish there were younger English-speaking kids who would like the hand-me-downs.
(NOTE: I think it was on this day that I called my sister and told her I was a bit weary of being the “happiness police!”)
Quarantine Day #6
I escaped briefly this morning to go to the bank and stop at a store for supplies on the way home… the 2 legitimate reasons we can leave our homes. Near downtown, I saw about 30 police and military people with big guns patrolling the area and telling people to go home. When they told a hand-holding couple to separate and walk at least 2 meters apart, the pair stupidly refused, and was immediately whisked into a police SUV and taken away! I really, really wanted to take a picture, but I also really didn’t want to be the next person stuffed into a police car, so I kept my phone stashed away.
The only picture I have is of some of my emergency shopping supplies… I guess the military guys didn’t notice or appreciate my very special shopping bag! (Thanks, Sarah!)
(NOTE: I’ll admit that this experience was a little bit scary! Ade wanted to take us all to the farm the next day, but I wasn’t about to break the rules and end up in the slammer!)
Quarantine Day #7
It was so nice to join my Ohio home church family for a live stream service this morning! And it’s also nice to not experience any of yesterday’s police drama… instead, Ade & the boys continue working on home-repair projects.
(NOTE: One of my Peruvian friends posted that it would be a good idea to have mandatory quarantines on a regular basis for the men so they can finish all of their home repairs!)
Quarantine Day #8
Reasons to give thanks today:
1. Sunshine after several cold & cloudy days
2. A beautiful backyard where we moved our classes for the morning
3. Seeing our “pet” hummingbird defend his favorite tree from a couple of tiny finches
(In an effort to be completely honest, we had an amazing morning, but things deteriorated rapidly by late afternoon, and it was only partly the math book’s fault!)
Quarantine Day #9
This is for all of my friends and family who are also quarantined or under “Stay at Home” orders… and especially for the moms who are suddenly homeschooling without feeling prepared!
Y para los español hablantes, el verso es:
Colosenses 1:11-12 Pedimos que él, con su glorioso poder, los haga fuertes; así podrán ustedes soportarlo todo con mucha fortaleza y paciencia, y con alegría darán gracias al Padre, que los ha capacitado a ustedes para recibir en la luz la parte de la herencia que él dará al pueblo santo.
Quarantine Day #10
Well, it has come to this… I’ve lowered myself to posting pictures of food.
But on a more upbeat note, isn’t this purple & white potato beautiful? It’s just one of the hundreds of native varieties grown in the Peruvian Andes.
Quarantine Day #11
Today I participated in a Zoom meeting with almost 600 other people from our organization. I usually dislike Zoom meetings (extroverts don’t enjoy being alone, looking at a computer screen), but this one was really good. Kudos to our leaders for doing a great job and helping us to all feel included in the SIL family around the world.
Also, being stuck in the Zoom room for 2 hours gave me the chance to work through a huge pile of shirts that needed to be ironed. Glad to have that job finished, but it’s too bad we don’t have anywhere to wear those dress shirts!
Quarantine Day #12
The chickens 🐓 and the cat 🐈 are working on social distancing.
Quarantine Day # 13
Our boys are doing their first Zoom meeting ever…. chatting with all of their Ohio cousins, who are also on a “stay at home” order.
This is so fun! It just might help us get through our new, extended quarantine that will last until April 13!
Quarantine Day #14
We’re 2 weeks in, and this Sunday looked pretty much like last Sunday…
– a quick trip to OH for a “live” church service with Delaware Bible Church
– Ade fixed our gas hot H2O tank that sounded like it might blow up at any minute (yikes!)
– the boys are (sort of) doing homework tonight
Quarantine Day #15
This was supposed to be our last day, but the lockdown in Peru has been extended another 2 weeks! Don’t worry… I’m not going to try to keep up with the daily quarantine posts, because everything is looking pretty much the same these days!
HOWEVER, if you want an explanation for this picture, be on the lookout for a new post on my blog within the next couple of days. And YES, that’s a legitimate police vest.
Quarantine Day #16… and the start of our second 2 weeks. Here’s the blog post that I promised you… The Evolution of a Lockdown.
Quarantine Day #20
The tooth fairy did not make it our house yesterday. There are 2 possible reasons why:
1. She’s in quarantine, too. OR…
2. She’s out of coins because she hasn’t gone shopping in ages.
Quarantine Day #21 (Palm Sunday)
Stay-at-home-stress has reached the kitchen. This was our lunch today: the apple pie was perfect. The lasagna was, too, until it took a nose dive on my kitchen floor.
Quarantine Day #22
Here’s a gorgeous song written by my talented sister, Liz, recorded & sung by Josh Fronduti, Liz, and their kids. It’s bringing me a lot of happiness on our 3rd week of lockdown, and I know it will bring cheer into your home, too.
Quarantine Day #23
It’s Ladies’ Day in Peru!
Men and women now have specific days when they are allowed to go out for essentials, and today was my day! This is my new “shopping look.” What do you think?
Quarantine Day #24
I almost crashed & burned due to Permutations in 7th grade math. Many thanks to my college friend Heidi Good for taking the time to meet us on Zoom this afternoon to explain some of the basics, and also why & where we might use this someday. On a happy note, it was fun to see Heidi again… I guess it has probably been since 1992 when she graduated from Cedarville.
NOTES on FB from a few friends:
Barb Townsend Seavey I had to google what that even meant. A website called Math is Fun couldn’t be trusted just because of the name. What are 7th graders having to learn these days?! Glad you had someone to call and get help.
Bethany Seavey Permutations just sounds complicated and makes me want to cry! Glad I learned math when I did…it was hard then, I can’t imagine what it’s like now! So glad you have someone to help!
Maria DelaRocha Ayala Permutations — isn’t that when you perlan one thing for dinner, but part way through preparing it you discover you are missing a key ingredient, so the recipe mutates into something else?
Quarantine Day # 25
Our lockdown has been extended another 2 weeks. I hope by the time it’s finally over that sweatshirts and “Mom jeans” are back in style, because mine sure are comfortable. (At least I have cute socks, though!)
Quarantine Day #29 
I’m glad that we can still see beauty from our roof… just wish we could be out there! And lest I give the impression that our life is always rainbow-bright… today was most certainly NOT. I probably committed every Mom & Teacher fail possible. Sigh…
Quarantine Day #30
Doing much better today… Time to relax with a good book and a huge tub of Legos & Adventures in Odyssey. Ade continues plugging away at his painting projects, but that’s relaxing for him. Thanks, all of you, for your encouragement yesterday.
Quarantine Day # 32
I was bored, so I googled myself and found a couple of interesting things! Here’s a link to a video from when Ade & I spoke at Cedarville University 7 years ago!
(Actually, I’m not quite so self-absorbed that I was googling myself just for the thrill… I was really looking for the link to our family’s missionary page on Wycliffe’s website.)
Quarantine Day # 34
Ade finished these really nice stools for our table and the boys learned to mop the kitchen. I can’t post pictures of the mopping experience, or they’ll never do it again!
Quarantine Day #35
Organizing photos, and I stumbled upon this old one of “The Girls” … our name for Bobbi & Melissa Smith and their name for me and my sister Becky.
There are SO many good memories tied to this simple picture!
Día #36 de Cuarentena
Yo escucho este radio (Radio Moody) todo el día… y hay algo para todos en su pagina web.
AMIGOS/AS – Hay que aprovechar estos días buscando comida para la mente y el alma, y no solamente para el estómago!
Quarantine Day #38
A little guy that I love is turning 1 on Friday, and there are NO stores open to buy him a birthday gift. So… 2 afternoons and left-over scraps from Christmas bathrobes made this cute puppy. I think I’m going to sneak over on Friday to give this to the birthday boy!
Quarantine Day #40
I didn’t post these pictures on Facebook because it’s a bit too public. But I did walk over to Emanuel’s house on his birthday to give him his gift and a few hugs & kisses. I love this little guy so much… and his family, too!
Quarantine Day #42
For all of you parents who are bogged down by unexpected homeschooling… I am supposedly a “seasoned veteran,” and this is what my lesson plans look like these days!
Quarantine Day #43
I’ve been doing Salsa workouts(check them out HERE) with one of the boys (but I can’t let on which one!) During the routines I hear frequent comments from Luis about “that white lady…” and always in the context of something she’s doing wrong. Not sure if he’s talking about the lady in the video or ME! 😆
Quarantine Day #47
We are all sooooooo tired of the lock-down, but, it’s hard not to smile when you’re cooking up a pot full of stars!
Quarantine Day #49
Desi, our “self-isolating cat,” thought he had the perfect place to social distance… but he has been discovered!
Quarantine Day #50
Danny is learning classical guitar… this is one of his quarantine projects. (I’m so proud of him! And thanks, Aunt Lizzie, for including him with your piano students.) Click HERE for Danny’s guitar solo.
Quarantine Day #56
Happy Mothers’ Day from our backyard to yours!
Quarantine Day #57
Pictures around Huaraz
(taken from our balcony and over the last few days when I’ve gone out to buy food.)
Eucalyptus Air 
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