Quarantine 4,000 kilometers from your home

1On March 13, 2020, no one looked up from the television while the Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez, announced the state of alarm. Belletti, a resident of the Madrid neighborhood of Vallecas, was not going to be an exception. But he has his mind elsewhere: Cameroon: his land, his home. The epidemic has also arrived there and the health system is not accessible to everyone. Teresa Palomo

2Belletti arrived in Spain in 2014 after jumping the fence in Melilla with 450 other people. Since then, he has not stopped working in restaurants, pizzerias, supermarkets ... Anything to get his family out of Cameroon. Almost the same day in March, his company announced an ERTE and today, like many other people in his situation, he still has not received anything. Being the only family support, he now has no means to help his family. Teresa Palomo

3A call from home, surely with bad news. At 36, he is the head of the family; not being able to help them causes you great pain. Her uncle is one of 1,160 confirmed cases of covid-19 in Cameroon. At another time, he could have paid for treatment in a hospital, but now, his relative will have to cope with the disease with the means available to him, locked up at home and with traditional medicines. On the other side of the phone, his brothers, his parents, his nephews ... "I can't go to work at the market and we're running out of food," says his brother Gaetan, from Douala, the Cameroonian capital. And he adds: "Don't worry, Belletti, you do what you can". Teresa Palomo

4Now that social distance is mandatory, Belletti is a clear example that not all distances are the same or mean the same to everyone. “For a long time my only relationship with my family is through the phone; It was painful, but it was justified. I had to be here [in Spain], helping, but now I can't do it, it doesn't make sense, ”he laments. Teresa Palomo

5This situation causes insomnia, headache, sadness ... He takes cold showers to ease his load, at least for a moment. It is the only time that you are allowed to leave the phone on the table. Teresa Palomo

6Every day, at eight o'clock in the afternoon, he goes to the door of the house to applaud the health workers for their work and is grateful for having free health care accessible to all, since in Cameroon medical care is paid for and only within the reach of the wealthiest. Teresa Palomo

7Despite everything, we must continue with our daily tasks: taking out the garbage, taking out the dog, trying to be productive ... I am a consolation for a person who has sacrificed everything for the sake of their own. Teresa Palomo

8Belletti suffered a lot to get to Spain. His scar, which runs down his body from the hip to below his right knee, is a permanent witness to this. He almost died after one of his seven attempts to cross the triple fence that separates Morocco from Melilla. Now, when his help is needed more than ever, he wonders if so much suffering was worth it. Teresa Palomo

9The days will continue to pass for everyone, ever closer to the end of the state of alarm and compulsory confinement. Until then, Belletti will remain glued to his phone, his only window to Cameroon. - What is the first thing you will do when this is over? - Travel to my land and embrace mine, feel them. And then come back to continue working. Teresa Palomo