20th March 2020

Katie and I arrange to meet at the Women’s Bakery.  It’s closed as many places are now, so we go to a Syrian café nearby.  We talk about self isolating, and Katie is going to ask VSO if she can move into an apartment next to mine, so we can have each others company.  She later tells me the good news – that the person responsible for housing is going to look into it!

My landlady informs me that her daughter, who is studying at university in US, has been told to go home and back to her own country.  My landlady is understandably upset.  With Rwanda’s airport set to close tomorrow it will be difficult to get a flight, although Rwandan nationals can still come back.  Her daughter wants to stay and is going to appeal, and my landlady thinks it's safer for her to stay put.

My sisters, nieces and I make a decision that no one should visit my mother on Mother’s Day, or any day from now on, and that this will hopefully highlight the need for her and my dad to stay in.

One of my sons sends me a video that someone has taken of a local shop selling overpriced toilet roll.  The girl who's filming it is trying to get a response from the shop keepers and saying she will contact trading standards.  There is no stockpiling here and shops have been warned not to up prices.

Boris Johnson makes a statement that cafes, pubs and restaurants must be closed from tonight, except for take-away food.

The UK now has 3,983 cases and 177 deaths.

The US has 15,219 cases and 201 deaths.

Rwanda has six more cases, bring the total to 17.