Enora Borgnon is a journalism student from the University of Brest in France, currently working as an intern with the Bega District News.
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She has been reaching out to friends and fellow students who are also interning in various locations around the world, and all caught up in the COVID-19 pandemic. This is one of their stories.
Life as we know it changed a lot in the last few months all around the world.
Life can be different depending on the country and the different rules.
Eléonore Dehaye, 22, and Nolwenn Drapeau, 20, are currently in Cuzco, Peru, doing their internship there. Students at the University in Brest, France, they are in their third year of a degree of Applied Foreign Languages.
The country has been in lockdown since March 16. The lockdown happened when the country had only a few cases. School and borders were asked to be closed a week before.
From then only a few shops stayed open - supermarkets, markets, banks, pharmacy and hospital.
Following the first week of lockdown everyone tried to go back home.
As interns in an organisation in Cuzco, Eléonore and Nolwenn relied on locals to let them know the situation. The difficulty is that not all of them are speaking Spanish, so it is hard to communicate easily, and they do not have access to the information.
In the country since January for Eléonore and the end of February for Nolwenn, they said they have been victims of racism, as they are constantly asked where they are from and why are they in Peru. As the same time, more solidarity is being seen between foreigners, with groups on social media sharing information and increasing solidarity among the community.
On the second week of lockdown, a curfew was announced at 6pm to avoid gatherings and parties.
The country imposed tough measures to avoid contamination, and they were fast to respond to the situation.
Everyone is afraid of what can come next, Eléonore said.
"What is going to happen when the healthcare system will be saturated? And how people are gonna feed themselves if the lockdown goes further? I am really worried about that."
"This is a country where almost half of the population is living under the poverty limit. Unfortunately they are a lot of people that are starving." she said.
They are getting worried for everyone around them.
"The situation is getting really complicated, this is getting critical around us. Families are calling the organisation [I am an intern at] for help, as they don't have any economy left," Nolwenn said.
To help during this time, they are exercising, cooking (do not forget to eat!), they are staying in touch with their loved ones back in France and they are binge watching their favourite movies and series.
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