I wake up at 7am feeling refreshed. This night was one of the best I have had since I got stranded here in Nigeria three months ago.
Having started my day unusually early yesterday, the earliest I have begun my day in weeks and having had a long tedious day, the fatigue and need for sleep were overwhelming and I slept through the night. In a way, this is a small victory for me and I savour it.
A few minutes later, I get a phone call from one of the repatriation WhatsApp group members.
He is looking for an alternative testing centre. The one he had bet on has disappointed him.
He and two others were denied tests due to bureaucratic issues.
I guide him through my experience at the centre where I got my test and we agree that the three of them should go there and plead their case in the hope that the man collecting information will be as sympathetic as he was to me yesterday.
Having no plans for the day, I go online to catch up on what happened while I was asleep. Getting a Covid-19 test has been a huge challenge for people in other states here in Nigeria.
At least we in Lagos have managed to get a facility that is offering one.
The rest have not been as lucky. Unfortunately, today, Tuesday 9, is the last possible day to get a test since it takes two days to get the results – our flight is scheduled for Friday 12.
I get anxious for their sake, and hope that Kenya Airways will be understanding and allow them to board and get the test at home should they fail to get one in time.
After catching up with the news and going through social media, I take a look at the list of about 32 quarantine facilities in Kenya listed on the Kenya Airways website.
Each of us will have to choose one, yet they are quite expensive, ranging between Sh2,000 and Sh15,000 per day. The place that looks familiar and which I feel I would be comfortable staying at, is charging about Sh7,000 per day. I definitely will not be able to pay that amount, bearing in mind that I will be staying there for at least 14 days and up to 28 days in the worst-case scenario.
Having spent so much money on accommodation already in the past three months, it will be hard to raise the money I need to stay at a decent facility. I hope that when I get to Kenya, I can apply for and be granted self-isolation at home.
To keep myself busy, I decide to write down a list of supplies I will need to survive the 14 days indoors, trusting that my family will shop and drop them off at my doorstep. It is now 9am. Time seems to be moving at an excruciatingly slow pace as my travel date approaches. Once again, I go back online to watch some videos to while away the hours.
As you have probably realised from what I have written in the past few weeks, I don’t take breakfast. That is a routine I developed a year ago as a way to manage my health and weight.
Since I came here, I only have one meal a day and that is usually in the evening. Today, however, I feel unusually hungry, but I decide to wait out my hunger pangs until 1pm to have my meal of the day. The unusual hunger, I suspect, is because my brain remembers that I have some leftover steak and fries from yesterday's comfort meal, the one I finally bought at Shoprite. By 12.30pm, however, I am unable to hold out any longer and I go down to the kitchen to warm my meal. After eating every bit of it, I decide to take an afternoon nap and wake up in the late afternoon. I take a shower and then call my family back at home.
We talk about my test and pending results, how I will be picked up from the airport should we be informed that we have to arrange our own means of transport, as well as what I will need to sit out my 14 days of isolation if I am lucky enough to be allowed to self-isolate.
I spend the rest of the evening on the balcony catching up on the news back home and, a few hours later, I go to bed looking forward to tomorrow as I count down hours until I travel back home.
Ms Ndinda is Research Manager, Transform Research Africa Ltd. She is stranded in Nigeria, where she has been since March 21.
TOMORROW: The waiting game continues. Lagos has since stirred back to life. Life has to go on, coronavirus or not.
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