Day Eleven:

Day Eleven:

I awoke this morning to a sound I hadn’t heard for a long time: the hum of traffic on the distant motorway.  

The main road near my home is also buzzing with vehicles. 

When I say ‘buzzing’, I mean one every couple of seconds, not the nose to tail convoys usually experienced on the busy West Coast Road.

 Residents and visitors to our small road often sit at the junction, unable to get out and sighing with impatience at the constant stream of cars, trucks, buses and bikes.

The more forceful ones, usually courier drivers in their brightly coloured vans,  edge out inch by inch until an oncoming motorist gets the hint and lets them into the stream.  Otherwise they’d spend precious time-is-money, waiting for what seems like hours.  

So obviously, despite the fact we’re still at Level 4 Lockdown here, many people are on the move.   

Perhaps they’re volunteer workers, stepping in to relieve exhausted medical and support staff?    

Perhaps they’re shoppers, still feeding their addiction for yet more beans, spaghetti and cleaning fluid?

Or maybe just stir-crazy rebels, desperate for pastures new.

Who knows?

I’m still stuck here, a non-driver and dependent upon people who, at the moment, are not allowed to have any contact with me.

This includes my normal home-support workers who, in better times, would be here on Mondays and Fridays to help me buy essential food.

The agency who employs them has decided,  despite the fact I am in the 'elderly and vulnerable' category,  to withold this care, including buying vegetables and essential supplies.  

They know I cannot do this for myself.    I phoned them; they didn't seem to care.

It's fortunate then that for a number of years, I've been a member of a Maori social group and in the Maori world, elders (Kaumatua and Kuia) are regarded with respect - and their wellbeing prioritised.

So while my world,  the world of the Pakeha (non Maori) has decided I am not worth helping,  I will be supported by a Maori organisation who will bring me a box of vegetables, groceries and hygiene products (gloves, anti-bacterial wipes, toilet rolls etc).

God bless them.