Mahana Stories

I’ve always been active socially - I
live in the city so there’s always
something going on and I have a
good circle of friends of all ages.
When lockdown hit I set up online
activities so we could still connect. It
was fine - I’m perfectly able to use
the technology and it wasn’t too
strange once we all got used to it.
John
As the weeks went on I found myself
missing people, physical contact. I
was craving real connection. Zoom is
fine, but it didn’t quite do the job.
One day I decided I had to do
something so I went for a drive -
further than I was supposed to but I
really felt I had to. I bumped into
someone I knew and had a bit of a
chat at the supermarket. That made
a big difference for me.
Inner city living doesn’t
encourage connection,
Living in an apartment you have all
the security but you can’t bump into
people. It’s very isolating if you’re not
going out. All the places I would
usually connect with like-minded
people were closed - the theatres, art
galleries etc.
Going back into lockdown was
even harder. We’d just started to
get back to normal and it was a
shock, especially because we were
separated from the rest of the
country so that feels very different.
I wonder about how we can use
those places that became hubs for
us - the ‘essential’ places as a point
of connection. You heard about
people putting postcards into
neighbours’ letterboxes or having
beers at the end of their driveways
but what about those people who
don’t have neighbours? Or
driveways? We’re still going to the
supermarket at least.