Hello, my name is John Barker, I have been living in the Czech Republic for the last 20 years. I am previously from “The Key” near Te Anau, in good old Fiordland, where I was farming with my Dad.

I am a part time shearer here in Czech. This is my 9th season of shearing and I have seen a lot all around the country in my travels, many things that you would not believe is possible in Southland, is quite normal here. But today I will talk to you about the effects of the Corona virus on us all here in Czech.

Today marks two months since the whole of the 10.5 million inhabitants went into lockdown, and today also begins the start of slowly returning to how things used to be. I think the biggest thing today is that the hairdressers opened. 

Two months and one day ago, I was teaching in the secondary school that I started teaching at in October. I am there as a native English speaker and share lessons of music, craft, art and PE with three classes of 3rd year students – nine and ten-year-olds. This day started as usual but then began to get crazy as notes started flying around the school that the school would close from the next day for an indefinite period. Well, I thought, that’s just great, no school work for me then. 

Luckily, the shearing season had just started so I knew I would have plenty to do. My wife quickly decided that if we were going to go into lock down, we’d better make some plans so we could do something. Plan one was to build new fences around the garden, plan two was to paint the inside of the house. So that meant a trip to the hardware store and an order for wood from the local timber yard. We just made it to the hardware shop as the next day the government announced that everything that wasn’t an essential shop would close. Before this everybody was doing their panic buying and the toilet paper and flour and yeast was disappearing quick. 

With the introduction of the lockdown also began the mandatory wearing of protective face masks. The only thing was that someone forgot to tell the government that there were not 10 million of them in storage and quickly available for everybody. So began the great “sew your own facemask” time. It was amazing, the whole country got in behind it and people were making facemasks from morning to evening, videos on YouTube were popping up on all the different ways you could make them. People were making them for the essential workers, for people in homes, people working in the open shops, it just took off. Later the Prime Minister admitted he got that one wrong with the timing announcement. 

Czech, I think, is the only country in the world that wearing facemasks was made mandatory. 

So, the lockdown began, wearing masks in public when you needed to go out began, working from home each day if you could, began. The normal world as we knew it stopped overnight. But it wasn’t all that bad. We live in a very small village of about 50 people, it’s a wonderfully quiet spot with lovely scenery all around us, a bit like Te Anau you could say. And for us we just carried on with our everyday life. The horses still needed checked and fed, the dogs still needed their daily exercises, the garden still needed attending to, the only thing was I didn’t need to do was go to school. 

This actually solved a big problem I was worried about, which was… when the shearing got busier how was I going to combine it together with my teaching. I had mentioned in the beginning to the school director that I still had my shearing and I might need to take a bit of time off to get around some of the 150 farms I have. So, this solved itself. Whether it was classed as essential work I am not sure, but pretty much anything connecting with agriculture was deemed essential. Wearing a mask while shearing that was another thing – luckily the farmers, or hobby farmers as most of them are, were all pretty relaxed. There has only been only one farm so far where I have had to wear a mask. His workers had masks so he asked if I could wear mine, but with wearing glasses the combination doesn’t really fit and after the glasses started fogging up I ended up shearing the sheep without my glasses. It was good training for my one day goal of shearing a sheep blindfolded. 

In the village people started wearing masks when they were out. It lasted about a week and then people didn’t really bother with it. We are not often frequented by the police so chances were pretty slim you would get a fine. Of course a visit to the shop was different. My first trip to the local shop went like this: A big sign said only one person at a time in the shop, you must wear a face mask, the door handle was wrapped in cloth that was soaked in disinfection salvo. My hands smelled terrible for the rest of the day, I made my order with a muffled voice and fogged glasses, luckily, she knew me or she might have thought I was trying to rob the place. After this I really only went to the shop if it was necessary. 

The news was full of only COVID-19 news. Luckily, we didn’t watch the news or get a paper, but we had the radio going. Then there was the talk that the virus had actually been in the country much, much longer than was thought – most likely brought back form people on skiing holidays around Europe. 

In January and February there were a lot of school kids that were ill, they actually closed some of the schools because there weren’t enough fit students. A lot of people were saying that they had been sick but in a way they didn’t know that for a few days they were really bad. So, the virus was probably doing the rounds much earlier.

In my honest opinion it seems a bit of an over-reaction to stop the world as we know it, to completely cripple the economical situation in each country, to take the steps that have been taken. At the end of the day it is only a flu virus. I know it can affect the people who have underlying problems, and I agree these people need to take extra care. But honestly, for us, we have been enjoying the time that Zofie our 13-year-old daughter hasn’t been in school to do family projects around the house and the farm. We are probably some of the lucky ones. For people who have been stuck in flats or stuck in the city, that must have been difficult.

On Saturday I was up north shearing in a beautiful sandstone area. I had never seen so many people out at once. The restrictions had been lifted that you could go out walking and biking but needed to keep social distancing. But honestly there were thousands and thousands of people out and about. It was a lovely day so people were finally going to enjoy it. 

And today, as I mentioned, the hairdressers are open, the shopping centres are open, the outdoor seating at the restaurants are open. Today was a cold wet day so not sure too many people were sitting outside. The zoos and the theatres are all open from today, so it is a big step. All the news now is how those countries that relaxed the restriction are having new outbreaks. Well, we will see what happens here. 

We have had a total of 281 deaths from 8157 infections, of which well over half have recovered. It’s definitely much better than the UK or USA and this, they say, was due to the quick response of the government.

I have been following what’s been happening in New Zealand and, yes, it seems tough but you’ve done well to have so few deaths. I think what will be the hardest is for those people used to travelling, or travel to see family. Honestly, I wonder what this will look like when it is given the all clear to travel again. My Aunty was planning a trip here from the UK in September. I’m not sure she will be coming this year. 

Our daughter will not return to school this school year, some classes will return on the 25th of May, but with a maximum of 15 in the class, and they should have strict hygiene regulations in place. Some schools will just decide not to reopen because of the complications. Face masks will most likely be mandatory till mid-June.

My thoughts to all my friends and family who have been affected in all sorts of ways, from cancelled family holidays, not being able to see their family members, having lost their jobs. The government offered all self-employed workers a NZ1600 dollar one off payment, a six-month interruption from paying health and social payments, low interest loans and a number of other things. One thing Czechs are good at is finding ways in tough situations to carry on, and that we could see with friends in the food industry. 

And one of the main things that I think has come from all this is that we need to take care of ourselves, we can’t rely on the outside help, we have to sit on our throne and be the king… 

Stay safe and good luck out there.

• If you're a Southlander living (or forced to return home) from living abroad, we'd love to hear your story. Please contact us at [email protected] Likewise, if you know a Southlander living abroad, please encourage them to get in touch with us to we can all learn more about how this coronavirus is changing life for Southlanders everywhere.