Rocio Magnani
08/15/2021 1:01 AM
Clarín.com
Society
Updated 08/15/2021 1:01 AM
The brothers Lolo and Ciro went out to capture Pokémon with their cell phones.
Fran and Juli took zoom singing classes.
At Helena's house, Felipe and Libertad adopted a cat, while friends Mateo and Mía chatted only for Zoom.
You had to entertain yourself in the middle of the
"longest in the world"
quarantine
.
Seen from a distance, the number of presidential DNUs leaves a blurry memory, but there are more than 500 days of Covid-19 in Argentina and for the youngest - the anonymous heroes of the pandemic -
the hardest part has just begun to loosen in the last few weeks
.
It is still not the same as in 2019. The sleepovers did not return or you meet them in the ballroom nor the chinstraps left, but at least this year, Children's Day - or Children's Day, as it was said before -
will have a little more of color
, with face-to-face classes, the possibility of social encounters and the peace of mind of being able to celebrate as a family, thanks to the progress of the vaccination campaign among adults and children with comorbidities.
For them, describing it is simpler.
Although everything has not returned to the way it was before,
"it is a super nice feeling to be able to play and not be locked in your house all day
.
"
When your dad is a doctor
The
preventive and compulsory social isolation (ASPO)
began around March 20, 2020 in Argentina, with almost absolute confinement for the youngest.
As far as possible,
they
were asked
not to go out or accompany the parents to make a purchase
.
It was going to be 15 days but it ended up being two months in.
In Avellaneda, Ciro (6) and de Mateo (5)
hardly saw their father
, who for about four months went to live with his mother for fear of transmitting the virus to the family, every time he returned from the sanatorium or the hospital.
A surgeon by profession, in the early days of the pandemic he was reassigned and received Covid patients.
The family only met at night for dinner, always with social distancing.
Lolo and Ciro's grandparents sent them stuffed animals down the elevator during quarantine.
Photo: Juano Tesone
At the end of May, the recreational outings for the under 16s began. It was one hour a week no more than 500 meters from the house.
With the sidewalks empty, the boys went out with their mother, Carolina Macchioli, and the Pokémon Go application on their cell phones,
to go around the block to hunt down the characters of the animated series
.
The grandparents, meanwhile,
sent them gifts through the elevator
.
They rang the bell, greeted them from the sidewalk by the electric doorman and sent some shiny packaging.
“It was almost always a pokémon stuffed animal,” says Mateo - he prefers to be called Lolo - and shows Charizard, his favorite.
Ciro's favorite is Charmender, says the boy and shows a pile of drawings from the series painted with colored pencils.
What amused me the most in a pandemic: "Painting and playing hide and seek with my mother."
What I missed the most: "Seeing my cousins."
The children's room was the only place in the apartment where the sun was shining.
Photo: Juano Tesone
The brothers pose with a skull skull and say that they always understood what the virus was.
They have already returned to school, although the double schooling has not yet returned.
Has normality returned already?
"Yes, a bit, but there are still things we can't do like
hugging with friends without a chinstrap,
" sums up Ciro.
Sing and dance together again
“I was very excited when I had the first face-to-face class
,
” says
7-year-old Francesca Ferrara Lucino at the “Kari Kogan” dance studio, in the Buenos Aires neighborhood of Almagro.
2020 was going to be the year in which the girl began singing and dancing classes, but the pandemic - as happened with school - led to all activities moving to virtuality.
Her friend Julieta Ardemagni (10) was already doing these activities before.
“It wasn't the same for Zoom.
Sometimes the call would get stuck.
I didn't like it that much.
Now, we are beginning to have face-to-face and it is better because it is more fun for me.
Besides, I missed the teacher Noe (Noelia Vera) and my friends ”, she says.
Friends Fran (7) and Juli (10) in the studio where they sing, in Almagro.
Photo: Germán García Adrasti
Just in June, the first meetings of up to 10 people were enabled in the open air and the boys resumed meetings in public squares or parks.
“Last year's Children's Day I had a great time, but I felt a bit bored because even though I was with my family, I didn't have the chance to spend it with my friends, because it wasn't possible,” Julieta recalls.
They also had no school, beyond the first two weeks of class.
Francesca, who is in first grade, likes the presence more, for the same reason.
"You
learn more and you see your friends
, although what we do now do not have so much recess time and I miss that," she laughs under her bangs.
"I was surprised that in 2021 the quarantine continued," adds Julieta.
"
It is a super nice feeling to be able to play
and not be locked up in your house all day, but we still wear the chinstraps, they don't let us do sleepovers, we have to respect distance and we have to continue taking care of ourselves," he sums up.
Soccer and mascots
Twins Helena and Felipe, 9, and their younger sister, Libertad (6), took turns having the Zoom from school, while playing with Chori, a ragged dog they adopted a few months before the pandemic began.
The cat, “Pelusa”, joined the family in November 2020, the month in which the idol Diego Maradona passed away.
The Norry brothers pose with Chori, the family dog.
Photo: Germán García Adrasti
"I got very bored in the pandemic," says Felipe.
“I had the Play and I could connect all day with my friends, but it was not as fun as seeing each other in person or when we got together to play soccer.
Here I played ball with the dog and my sisters, but it wasn't the same ”.
Helena and Libertad coincide.
Now, the three of them have resumed activities, although they have not yet returned to full-time school.
"I went back to meet my friends in the park,"
says Helena.
Felipe adds that what he likes most about this year is that he was able to go back to football.
Not all the boys were able to resume the activities they did before.
On the other side of General Paz, Mía Feliz (10) has still not opened the pool in which he was swimming, while his friend Mateo del Valle (9) hopes to resume the football classes he did before the arrival pandemic and close the club I went to in Monte Grande.
Mateo and Mia are fanatic friends of the Banfield club and they want to get back on the pitch.
Photo: Juano Tesone
They are both fans of Banfield.
"I went to the field a few years ago and I would have liked to come back, but last year I couldn't because there were no games until like October and then we watched the Maradona Cup on TV", Mía tells of the tournament in which Banfield arrived at the final and was defeated on penalties by Boca, at the San Juan Bicentennial Stadium.
“Now we can go out to some places but not to others.
I, who have my birthday in winter, last year I could not celebrate and this one, but not with all my friends from the course as before ”, explains Mateo.
The main reason, he says, is another: “My mother had Covid and she is ugly.
I stayed with my older brother, but the truth is that I was very scared.
I already want this pandemic to end
”.
ACE
Look also
Children's Day: stories of today, classics of tomorrow
New generations, childhood and trans adolescence in Argentina
