Sands Locked IN

A Mothers Plea!

I am writing publicly and asking fellow parents to join me in imploring our government to:
“PLEASE START VACCINATING OUR YOUTH!!!!”

I have now had two children U18 contract the virus and their symptoms far out way those of our family who have contracted it with the ‘PRIVILEGE’ of the vaccine.

The vaccine is NOT a PRIVILEGE it is one of our fundamental HUMAN RIGHTS!

We have had vaccination available for nearly 12 months in the country. Another privilege that we have been given due to the well managed delay of Covid entering our country. Nearly 12 months for ALL adults to CHOOSE between if they vaccinate or not!! However for our children there has been no ability to choose.

I understand that omicron is proving to be a light flu for many - but those many adults have been VACCINATED!
It is NOT proving to be the SAME FOR CHILDREN. Our babies and young adults are getting it and it’s scary, painful and traumatic for them.

Due to the nature of Covid when a family member gets the disease they are put in isolation. However….

Children CANNOT VOMIT….
ALONE!
Children CANNOT MEDICATE…ALONE!
Children CANNOT FEVER MONITOR..
ALONE!
Children CANNOT STRUGGLE WITH BREATHING ….
ALONE!
Children CANNOT HANDLE THIS…ALONE!
A MOTHER WILL NOT LEAVE HER CHILD……………………………ALONE!!!!
THIS ACT OF HUMAN NATURE… ALONE ….
Is causing the spread and running the risks!!!

So please can someone help me to answer the question…..
WHEN CAN WE ACCESS OUR FUNDAMENTAL HUMAN RIGHTS TO PROTECT OUR CHILDREN?

Georgilla Imkonru Worworbu
Daisy Rose Sipiti
Warea Kalsualomar Tigona
Prudence Sauna
Zach Sands
Sarah Sands

⚠️ WARNING! LONG POST AHEAD!!⚠️
Personal post from SELF ISOLATION:

I am currently in self Iso for a few hours incase my runny nose and sore throat develop into clear Covid symptoms, we are just being careful at the moment. So we shall see!😷

This gives me time enough to do some self reflection. 🌛
..

The last couple of days (past week) have been very difficult for me. I can start to feel the weight of being contained. A tighter chest from being around people.
Things that were never a big deal before suddenly became a big deal eg) like looking for a your orange 🖋️ and having a fit when you can't find it - also not wanting to use any other goddamn pen simply because it's not your orange pen. 😤 🤷🏾‍♀️

I felt miserable internally and I needed it to go somewhere so I projected it unto others over miniscule things that didn't have to be an issue.🪞🙄

Bottom line I just felt trapped and to tell you the truth I haven't been exactly productive with my schedule, had I been exercising a little I'd be releasing endorphins and "endorphins make you happy" - I quote Elle Woods from Legally Blonde. 💁🏼‍♀️

Anyhoo! My misery also vested from stress and anxiety over coming around to filling up an application. Noticed how I said 'coming around'. Yep procrastination! It's weird how I say this like it was a math assignment. In truth, I was nervous. And I saw myself as unworthy of such endeavors.

And this is where Aunty Sarah came along and helped me get through my application (She's going to be my 1st PA/SOL). ❤️✨
Then we planted Glory! 🌱 A plant vested in positive affirmations that I need to look after so it can grow (mich like the positive things I need to tell myself in my head). I haven't watered Glory today!!!! Oh no.
..

(Gogo has disappeared from the group chatt)

..

She's back! (I didn't leave LEAVE the room)
..
It's about to get HEAVY
..

Whilst on the subject of misery, I lost a dear friend of mine yesterday and my grandmother's older sister the day before.
Mourning in a physically and mentally contained space for the first time is difficult. I found ways to grieve in the best possible way I could by communicating with my friends and families over social media who are experiencing the same losses of friendship and love. And remembering these late souls in what they were sent to earth to do and most importantly how they made us feel in the time that they were here.

I grew up with Selena Jimmy 🕊️. We attended the same Kindy/DayCare and were in the same class. Not only that, we were best friends.
In 2019 Selena and I along with 3 other sistas were chosen into Care International's Young Women's Leadership Program and formed a sista group called the DEFIANTS to embark on a community project on eliminating violence against women and young girls & eradicating gender inequality. She was our star member! She was the singer and soul of our group. She wrote a song in our campaign for the unity and empowerment of women. She will be sorely missed. A defiant forever.

The late Noela B**g, is my grandmother's older sista. She passed away two days ago. She practically raised me. She had magic hands! Anything she touched turned to gold. She made banana muffins. She was a very kind and gentle old lady. She will be terribly missed by the many kids she has managed to raise over her lifetime.

And that's what locked in has been like for me so far. Hanging in there and I hope you are too! Love and light.

Georgilla

Back to Normal???

What is normal……

So the Sands Clan hit a stumbling block through week two of lockdown.
Nothing bad……. In fact it was totally ‘normal.’ We called a meeting on Sunday and in that meeting we discussed ‘morality’ and ‘complacency.’

The team moral was down and complacency was setting in as lockdown rolled into week 2. I say this is normal because it is human nature to roam the the earth, to have goals and aspirations from a daily ‘to do list’ to long term plans of career, education, relationships…… you name it…. It is in our nature to be aiming to achieve for something in our daily lives.

Lockdown interferes with that human nature, not just on a physical level but a mental level as well. Our animal instinct kicks in…we are not designed to be caged. Thus moral lowers and complacency kicks in. It’s so easy to ‘avoid a plan’ when there is a physical and mental boundary attached.

So what becomes important…. ?
We start to talk about ‘When -‘
When we get out…
When we get back to normal…
When this is over…
All of these statements are looking out from the sense of cage, stopped, ceased, blocked, telling ourselves we are ‘on hold’ waiting for….. normal?

So our clan with morality low and complacency setting in sat down and discussed how we could change this up. We decided to grasp the fact that normal is where you are today, what you have today, what you can do with now.

We decided to ‘look IN’ to ‘locked in!’ No more ‘when’ but…..
What can I do now?
How can I grow locked in?
What part of my goals can I develop from here?

We realized that there are so many things that we can do ‘locked in’ that we can do otherwise. It takes a bit more of a push and drive but it all there..

Each clan member set a schedule with their ‘normal’ goals and activities in mind. When they looked at these schedules they pretty much all ran along the same lines as a ‘normal’ day.
*Waking and preparing for the day as they would for school, work, training…
*Progressing to do said activities
*Creating environments that felt ‘normal’ eg.. a classroom, a work space
*Exercise for at least an hour
(1 of us who didn’t see the point of exercise - pointed out that if they looked to their ‘norm’ they naturally walked at least an hour a day just doing what they do by getting to work, taking lunch, getting home, coffee break, toilet breaks so including an hours stroll into their day was actually totally ‘normal’
*process.. what comes next, how am I going to keep myself motivated by using my ‘norms?’

As a result our day yesterday was FANTASTIC! Morality was high and complacency disappeared…. A sense of Achievement rolled all over our home.

So…… if I have held your interest this far…….. and you are struggling with lockdown, might I highly recommend approaching our situation and our lockdown with the process of
‘This IS MY NORMAL, so what can I do to keep growing from here?’

With love
The Sands Clan

As well all start our base line. NEGATIVE!
Thanks so much to the team at VPH AND ALL OUR FROUNT LINE WORKERS!
You are ALL AMAZING AND WE SALUTE YOU!

So today 18 March 2022 saw one big reality fall upon our happy crew.
After a really horrible night, this morning one of our family members has tested positive for Covid.

We hear about this happening to ‘other’ people ALL the time now a days. We feel sympathy and empathy for them and cross our fingers and say a prayer that they will be ok. Then go back to our lives feeling grateful- phew- that wasn’t me.

We have been so lucky to have escaped the reality of Covid in Vanuatu for over 2 years. Now, today, in our happy home it became a blatant unexpected reality.

We had done EVERYTHING according to all the rules, protocols and experiences we have ‘watched’ over the last two years.
We locked up
We locked out
We washed
We sanitized
We were cautious
We were educated
We researched
We vaccinated
We boosted- Well those with the PRIVILEGE DID!
Unfortunate for our U18’s our future, who had NO CHOICE,NO RIGHTS TO THE CHOICE!

And so now we are a family of 11 who did all we could to run from the plague of the 2020’s and we still got caught.

Our U18 family member had a really bad night, being supported by us all. We had no way to check or know what we were dealing with as we cannot even purchase RAT test if we wanted to unless we are so privileged as to be able to import them for ourselves.

So once we found out that we had a positive case in house it lead to all sorts of emotions.

For him, he felt guilty, sick and sad.
For us we felt scared, guilty and questioning?
So in the interest of being proactive we all went to be tested. 10/11 of us were NEGATIVE.

We felt relief, the fear of responsibility lifted and now we have a base line. We know our reality and statistics stand against us… but together, with good communication, love, friendship, care and responsibility we will face this.

To our little friend in our ISO room. WE LOVE YOU TO THE MOON AND BACK.
YOU’VE GOT THIS!

To each other, with kindness and family we will get through this. It’s scary, it’s bleak but in so many ways, we can stop running now.

To our followers, if you have symptoms
ANY symptoms please GET TESTED and stay in ISO to protect the ones you love.

Gonna take more than this to bring
The Sands Clan DOWN! We got this!
With love to all….

The Sand Clan.

We are here !!! With all cards on the table - the fam has agreed to share our experiences with you! ✅ We are ready to take you on board with us through locked - in! Let's get crackin! 🤪