Isolation Breeds Creativity: From DPRK to COVID-19

COVID-19 has altered most of our plans. Entire cities are on lock-down, and whole countries have closed their borders. Those who can are working from home. Schools have transitioned to online instruction, and children are expected to stay home. All large gatherings, church services, and special events have all been cancelled or postponed.

How we continue to respond to this outbreak, though, will be critical. Self-quarantines and stay-at-home orders may feel inconvenient for today, but one day we will look back on our times of being cooped up in our house and see it as a blessing. We may be worried about the economy, facing unprecedented financial struggles, but if we are not wise about containing the spread of this virus, we may be stricken by an even greater, unsurmountable grief.

As numerous number of health professionals have told us, if we do social distancing correctly, then it may feel as if it were all for nothing. Simply stated our goal is for nothing more to happen. No more loss. No more pain. No more feelings of being overwhelmed and out of control. No more cases, and no more deaths.

Someday we may look back upon this time of self-isolation and realize that it was one of the greatest treasures in our lifetime. In today’s society when our lives are typically fast-paced, always working and moving, without much time to rest or reflect, now is a precious time to learn the joy of being still at home even though the world is spinning around us.

With too much time on our hands and few people to distract us, we just might discover the blessings we have already been given. It is in times like this that we have to stop to be thankful for the small gifts in life. Presents such as family, health, fun, and fellowship can be taken for granted if we do not stop to appreciate them. We just might find that the secret to happiness is not money or success or busyness but the gift of gratitude.

The COVID-19 quarantine reminds me of our family’s five years in Pyongyang. Daily life in North Korea became a test of endurance. Laundry had to be done by hand. Most of the time there was no hot water. At times, there was no running water at all. In the beginning, all we had were mini- refrigerators to store our food. This would have been sufficient if it were not for the fact that we only had the opportunity to go to the market once a week. All our groceries for ten to eighteen people had to be bought one week at a time. The only market open to foreigners was about a half-hour drive away and was only open certain hours during the week. We bought everything in bulk, hoping that the produce would stay fresh until next week’s market run. Eggs had to be checked to see if they were rotten. Rice had to be sifted every day to remove rocks. Meat had to be skinned, gutted, and cut once we got home. It was a full-time job.

On top of this was our children’s boredom and loneliness. Homeschooling had been our only option at the time for schooling. Because our children had no reason to go to the hospital where we worked, there was little opportunity for them to leave the compound in which we lived. With no neighbors within reach, there were no other children within the compound, and so there were no children for our kids to play with. Homeschooling usually ended around three or four in the afternoon. Main subjects were studied in the morning and extra-curricular activities took up the afternoon. We practiced instruments, went outside and sketched nature, explored the abundant variety of birds and insects within our garden, and even studied foreign languages. But still, there was too much time in the day! Since the kids only got out of the house about once a week, we did our best to plan fun activities on the weekends. But with no friends to play with, social isolation became a huge deficit for our children.

But in the midst of all of these restrictions, our children learned how to be creative. We did not have access to the internet, and as a result, our children could not video conference or FaceTime their friends. There was no Netflix to rely upon to entertain our kids. Any movies or T.V. shows had to be downloaded and saved on a flash drive before entering North Korea, as well as video games. We watched each of the few movies we had numerous times.

Consequently, we quickly learned how to entertain ourselves. We made make-shift water guns out of water bottles by stabbing a hole in the container’s cap. Filling the bottle with tap water and squirting it at your target made long, wet hours of fun. At the peak of our boredom, our Chinese co-worker, who was in his late-twenties, began to torture the ants along our driveway. He discovered that if he flooded two different anthills in just the right way, the ant colonies would start a civil war of their own. This, he found, to be great entertainment!

Our Driveway in Pyongyang with Numerous Ant Hills Along the Curb

However, there was one particular week that was especially difficult. That weekend we decided to give our North Korean counterpart a break. Although the weekdays were long and boring, going out at least on the weekends for the children meant that our counterpart could not go home to see his own children, so we sacrificed one weekend for him to spend time with his family. This meant that our family was cooped up in the house for two weeks or 14 days.

It was on this particular weekend that our children’s creativity blossomed. Paper and stationary supplies were a precious commodity, so instead of wasting precious paper that was needed for homework and official business, our children decided to paint their faces. We had no face paint or special supplies. They simply used water paints to create exotic designs on each other’s faces. Oh, the hours they spent not only designing and painting one another but also taking a variety of pictures to commemorate their creativity. On Monday when our North Korean counterpart returned for work, our children proudly shared with him their artistic outlet over the weekend.

Our Son’s Face Art

But these things taught our family the value of gratitude. Simple things made us thankful and happy. We appreciated the small things in life like indoor plumbing, hot water, and running electricity. Life in North Korea also drew us closer together as a family. We worked, played, and ate together. We creatively celebrated Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas in North Korea, sharing the holidays with each other and our North Korean friends.

And I am confident, that through your own times of being secluded and isolated with your families, you will discover similar blessings. Life is precious, even more so when we acknowledge our daily privileges and God-given gifts. In the end, we will be grateful for this time at home during COVID-19, if for no other reason than for the very fact that we are still healthy and alive.