Former Benonian coping in China
Keegan said he celebrated his 24th birthday recently and it was still a special one.
With the recent coronavirus outbreak, the City Times caught up with former Rynfield resident Keegan Johnston who is teaching in China.
“I have been here for about two years and five months and I currently stay in Ningbo, Zhejiang province,” the 24-year-old said.
“I have only good things to say about China as the experience has been amazing; people are so friendly and the lifestyle is very easy to get used to.
“On January 21, I travelled with a friend to his hometown in Guizhou, a mountainous province in southwest, for the Chinese New Year.
“During this time, I was aware of the virus but didn’t feel threatened at all as we stopped at multiple petrol stations because it was a 30-hour trip by car.
“I didn’t see any masks being used during this period while crossing through three different provinces.
“I arrived on the night of January 22 and during this period I slowly learnt that the virus was getting serious.”
Keegan said by January 28, both entrances to Guizhou were closed off by large tree trunks, and being a mountainous area it was impossible to leave by any other route.
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“Guizhou province has only had just over 100 confirmed cases, where as Zhejiang province, where I am normally located, has over 1 000 confirmed cases.
“My daily life has been fairly easy and simple, but I have a great amount of freedom as the family I am with has family members close by, within walking distance, and everyone has been so amazing to me during this period.
“The friend I am with can only go into the city itself every three or four days to get food with a mask on, but I can’t leave as I don’t have a residential pass, but I can stay within the barricaded area.
“The only prevention of avoiding it is that the area I am in won’t let people in, but people can go out with masks on to get supplies. While they go out and in their temperature is taken.
“During my stay, I have had my temperature taken once by police officers to confirm that I am located here.
“The virus itself has only affected me by means of travelling back to my own city and I have to work online with my cellphone, conducting phone calls to students to teach online, which has not yet been confirmed as when we will start teaching. Otherwise I feel very safe.”
“I would like to ask everyone to keep ground zero, Wuhan, and China in their thoughts and prayers.”
