'The police can fine you for leaving your home'

 

A Trim woman living in Spain has spoken of the tough restrictions in place as the country enters its third week in lockdown.

Language assistant Karen Mekitarian (38) lives in a village called Pioz in Guadalajara, a city located 60km northeast of Madrid with husband Carlos and 20 month old son Sean.

Although her rural locality is not seeing the dramatic affects of lockdown in the same way as the nearby Spanish capital, it’s clear that authorities are committed to enforcing these strict rules.

Spain’s tally of infections reached 85,195 on Monday. Today ( Wednesday ) it was announced that 849 people had died from Covid-19 in a 24 hour perioid, bringing the overall number of fatalities to 8,189 accounting for more than a third of all deaths from the infectious virus worldwide.

The mum of one has been living in Spain for the past eleven years describes life in Spain during this national crisis.

“We have been on lockdown about for over two weeks now and the earliest it will be lifted is April 11th.

“The healthcare system is fantastic in Spain but has been hit badly because so many people have been infected.

“They have a conference centre similar to the RDS and they have converted it into a hospital with 5000 beds.

“The army has been dispatched to set up beds and they are looking for volunteers.

“You are not technically allowed go further than your nearest supermarket.

“The police can stop you and they can fine you for leaving your village.

“There was a guy in another part of Spain who was fined for taking a toy dog for a walk because you are allowed to go out to bring your dog for short walks so he was trying to use that clause!’

“We are lucky that we live in a village with a population of about 3000 people and where we live is quite remote anyway so it’s kind of like home and it hasn’t been as stressful to us as it is to people living in the city. 

“Yesterday I went to the only supermarket in the village and although it’s only a four-minute drive to get there I was there for three hours. It took an hour and a half to get in because of the queues.”

“I work in a school in Torrejon about 20 km from Madrid. The schools were the first to close so I am teaching online classes from home now.

 

 

After a number of years travelling, Karen who attended Scoil Mhuire in Trim and was involved in the musical society in Trim for many years returned to college as a mature student to become a secondary school teacher. 

"I studied Arts (English and Spanish) and as part of our degree we were given the opportunity to spend a year in Spain. I did one year as a language assistant, then stayed for a second to do Erasmus. In the end I went back to do my final year but came back to Spain once I'd finished and have been here since 2012. 

 

"A lot of my family are still in Trim, immediate family, aunt and uncle and lots of cousins so we go home at least once a year especially at Christmas. 

 

There is a strong police presence even in rural areas as Karen explains:

 “We live in a housing estate outside the village and I was surprised to see the civil police out patrolling the area. In Spain there are two types of police, the Guardia Civil and the Policia Nacional.  The Guardia Civilpolice rural areas and towns.

“One of the first nights on lockdown they were driving around with a loud speaker saying everybody this is state of alarm stay in your houses and that was completely surreal.

“I’m so glad that we have the space that we do because the last few days we have been able to be outside and when I think of friends of mine who have kids in the apartments in city it must be very tough.”