THREAD: AP reporters around the world asked kids about living with the coronavirus pandemic and to use art to show us what they believe the future might hold.This is life under lockdown, through the eyes of children.
CHICAGO — These are children of the global pandemic.
Associated Press reporters around the world asked kids about living with the virus and to use art to show us what they believe the future might hold. Some sketched or painted, while others sang, danced ballet, built with LEGOs. A few just wanted to talk. Like many children under lockdown, she misses her friends and her teachers and especially misses playing her favorite game, netball. But she understands why school is closed and why they are being kept at home.
“Since I don’t get to see my friends a lot, they’re kind of my closest friends,” he says. He giggles when Teddy, now 9, snarls. “He sometimes gets really grumpy because he’s an old man. But we still love him a lot.” The world before looks stark and full of pollution in the drawing. In the future, the city is lush with clear skies and more wildlife and trees.Still, he feels uncertain: “I’m worried about just how life will be after this. Like, will life change that much?”Hard times can have a silver lining. Alexandra Kustova has come to understand this during this pandemic.
Ballet has been her passion since she was 8. Now she does classes at home and sends videos of her drills to the trainer, who gives her feedback.Just like the pandemic, Alexandra says, it is “sad in the beginning and then it becomes joyful.”—Yulia AlekseevaNo school. No playing with friends. Soldiers everywhere. That’s life during the coronavirus pandemic for Tresor Ndizihiwe, a 12-year-old boy who lives in Rwanda, one of seven brothers and sisters.
“Here is a mountain with a river,” Jeimmer, 9, says, pointing at each item in his drawing. In his mind, the future doesn’t look so different. “Here I am. Here’s my mommy. Here is my brother. Here is my house. Here is the sun and here is the sky.”with videos showing how to grow and propagate plants that now has more than 420,000 followers. Their first video, introducing the Jeimmer’s mom, older brother and dog, has garnered, by now, more than 1 million views.
But Shikii, as his friends call him, also has bigger things on his mind. He’s a Karuk Indian, a member of California’s second-largest tribe, and has been reading about how the pandemic is rampaging through the Navajo Nation, another tribe hundreds of miles away. Rapping about his worries isn’t new for him. He has a song about how his tribe lost its tradition fishing salmon runs on the Klamath River, pondering in verse why the Karuk “needed permission to go fishin’.”Despite the harshness she has experienced, the quiet, studious girl is brimming with hard-won optimism.
“In Iraq, it’s not going to end,” she continues. “It’s like so hard to end it, the killing and the kidnapping.” That fighting spirit has helped Elena get through more than two months of lockdown. After an initial spell of sleeping late because her teachers hadn’t transitioned to remote learning, Elena now does schoolwork, karate and hip-hop lessons online.
“I have a face mask in my hand,” she says holding up the drawing, “because, well, I’ve just kind of taken it off, and I’m still aware.” Danylo Boichuk envies his cat, Kari, who is able to escape from the family home in a Kyiv suburb and run free. Because of the pandemic, his family had to cancel a summer camp in Bulgaria, and 12-year-old Danylo worries a lot about closed borders.
His parents say he has an analytical mind. Already, he wants to become a businessman in the future and create a start-up to develop online games. He’s been reading books about Steve Jobs, the founder of Apple, and other famous entrepreneurs, during self-isolation.“This is an opportunity one should use,” he says.Her drawing depicts a simple enough dream for a 10-year-old — “Viaje a la Playa,” a trip to the beach.
Ana Laura dreams of becoming a famous drummer. This was her first year at a highly selective institute for students identified early on as musically talented. She is continuing with classes in math, history and Spanish, but not music. Excited at first about school shutting down indefinitely, the brothers missed being able to go outside.
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