A strange new world

The 2020 COVID-19 pandemic has seen great changes to everyday life, as regular activities involving groups of people — where viruses might spread — have been shutdown. Church has not been meeting for a while, our TSO Chorus concert was performed to an empty hall and we are now rehearsing online from home, the University is shifting to online delivery of its courses and we’ve been encouraged to work at home, and although schools remained open for a while (an odd exception. given how difficult it is for young people to maintain social distancing) they are about to push those students who can stay at home to do so, and shift to other ways of teaching.

Scouts has not been immune to this. Although regatta went ahead, I think there was awareness that things were about to change, and then came the first cancellations of major events. We had a regular troop night last week, after an extended debate about whether or not to do so, but not long after this all face-to-face meetings were suspended.

So, what do we do? We embrace online technology. Tonight we all dressed in our uniforms at home, logged in to Zoom (as this platform started to become the communication conduit de jour for meetings in these strange times), and met online. I sat on the balcony — it is still daylight saving time, it was a nice evening, and I was trying to maintain some pretence of being outdoors — and it was actually heartwarming to see all the kids.

We had a fun night, working on an astronomy badge, and trying to adapt things to our new situation. We also gave the kids a chance just to socialise with each other, as they come to grips with the new circumstances.