In early March, there were only a few COVID-19 positive cases in Shanghai. But it rapidly turned into mass outbreaks in mid-March, which was supposed to be one of the most unforgettable moments in the lives of many Shanghai residents. In the past, many of them could only find out about disasters happening in other places through newspapers and TV programs, which made it difficult to empathize. However, this pandemic surge has forced many Shanghai citizens to experience what it was like to be hungry, right here in Shanghai, the most developed economy in China, right now in the Twenty-first Century of 2022.
Between the end of March and the beginning of April, with the extension of the community lockdown period, many Shanghai residents had almost or already run out of food supplies at home. There were fewer and fewer edible things at mine. The refrigerator compartment had been completely emptied, and the freezer compartment that was originally full had a bigger half available. To put it bluntly, vegetables and fruits had been long gone, and only some meat was in the freezer. As a father of two children, I always stocked up on some meat, fruits, and snacks at home. Rice, flour, cooking oil, etc. would also last for a while. However, it was not the case for many Shanghai residents. Many young people who were not used to cooking at all usually relied on ordering takeaways to survive. Unfortunately, during the epidemic-related lockdown, there were almost no delivery services, and as a result, these young people had to find ways to feed themselves.
"Lockdown" meant no more express delivery services, trading, or people travelling in and out of this city, the impact of which was unbelievable for a megacity like Shanghai. The most direct impact was that residents had nothing to eat or were about to. Those who had run out of food cried for help in the community WeChat group. Neighbors who still had food and also a charitable heart would often share some food with them for free. I had even given and also received food from such residents, e.g., a kind person gave me two large boxes of milk when my child finished all the milk powder and fresh milk we had, which helped the little one pass extremely difficult days. However, gradually, even the "landlords" (referring to the residents who had food) didn’t have much food left. There are more than 2,000 people in my residential compound who needed to consume a great deal of food every day. Finding food sources posed an urgent and serious issue for all residents.
In reality, no one was able to acquire vegetables, meat, rice, flour or other necessities of life, let alone fruits and milk which were already considered "luxury goods". First of all, we had to find a way to survive.
Finally, a resident of the compound got in touch with a supplier who could deliver vegetables to us. Someone volunteered to be the leader of the grocery group buying. As a result, the hot battle to fight for acquiring vegetables began immediately. In the end, more than 200 households in the entire compound placed orders for nearly 300 boxes of vegetables.
A few days later, the truck loaded with the vegetables from other provinces finally arrived at the entrance of our compound after another transit inside Shanghai after 10 pm, which was not too convenient since many residents were elders who went to bed very early at night and had already slept. So, a problem arose: how were nearly 300 boxes of vegetables supposed to be unloaded, and then delivered to every household? During that time, the atmosphere in my compound was very tense because from late March to early April, there were 5 or 6 people infected with COVID-19 in the compound. Meanwhile, the overall epidemic situation in Shanghai also began to become very serious. More than 10,000 people were diagnosed with coronavirus every day. The resident population of the entire Shanghai was about 25 million. Therefore, residents were forbidden to walk around freely in the compound, consequently people who had ordered vegetables were not allowed to pick them up at the gate of the compound by themselves, but had to wait for volunteers to help.
To be honest, I struggled inside: I wanted to go and help unload the vegetables, but I was very hesitant.
The reason for going was very simple. Many people had already run out of food, forcing them to rummage through all corners of the house for anything edible. They ate whatever they could find without caring if it was expired food. Some hadn’t even seen a vegetable leaf for several days, for they had eaten up all vegetables.
The reason for not going was also very simple that I was afraid of infection. I wouldn’t be afraid of myself being infected, but there were three other people in the family, especially two children, one of whom hadn’t been vaccinated because he was just over three years old. If the children were infected, they would be taken to a mobile cabin hospital for treatment. At that time, more than 10,000 daily new cases implied that the cumulative cases would exceed 100,000 in total. Therefore, the conditions of the mobile cabin hospitals would not be ideal. Besides, there was news that infected babies were taken away without companion parents, which would be beyond our ability to deal with.
In addition, as a volunteer, adequate self-protection was important. Since I wouldn’t be a volunteer recruited by an official organization, but rather a resident volunteering to help, I had almost no protective equipment such as protective clothing and disinfectants, except for the masks that every household prepared. The vegetables had been transported all the way from other provinces. No one knew what had happened along the way, including whether they had been touched by coronavirus carriers.
I struggled for a while before I decided to go and help after praying. I easily justified my decision that someone had to do it. Even non-believers went to help, then as a Christian, I should go too. They said love with no concrete actions would be mostly cheap or even dead. After having made the decision, I told my wife, who was also understanding and supportive. I asked her to sleep with the two children. Then, with no protective clothing, I just put on a mask and wore the clothes as tight as possible before leaving home.
Arriving at the gate of the compound, we several residents who volunteered simply allocated the work and started unloading. For epidemic prevention and control reasons, the trucks couldn’t enter the compound but parked at the entrance. Therefore, we must quickly unload these nearly 300 vegetable bags from it and move them to the inside of the gate. Sadly, when unloading the goods, we had a fight with the property management staff who at first forbade unloading the vegetables on the grounds that the hygienic safety of these vegetables could not be guaranteed. If these vegetables carried the coronavirus, then almost everyone in the compound had a risk of being infected. After contacting the Neighborhood Committee which convinced the property staff, the goods were finally unloaded smoothly around 11 o'clock in the evening.
After unloading, distributing these vegetables was an even more onerous task. There were 5 or 6 volunteers in total, but only one flatbed trolley which was temporarily lent to us by a neighbor. We could only separate vegetables by orders from each building, then put them onto the trolley and drag it back and forth to deliver the vegetables to the entrance of each building, and then notify all those who placed orders in that building through the WeChat group, asking them to come downstairs to pick up their vegetables. Instead of delivery to door, we could only follow the epidemic prevention guidance applied in our compound which was that all residents were not allowed to enter other buildings except the one in which they lived.
In the end, it took us more than two hours to finish distributing all vegetables at past one o'clock in the morning. Probably because the householders were too short of vegetables, even though it was already midnight, they came to collect right after we put the vegetables downstairs. Many residents even waited there in advance in the middle of the night, in order to get their orders sooner. After receiving the vegetables, many residents were so happy and thrilled that they kept saying "thank you" to us as volunteers.
But my work was far from done at finishing the deliveries. My worries had never been greater.
When I returned home under the starlight, the children had already fallen asleep. I woke up my wife by opening the door. Then I hurried to the next disinfection procedure – I threw away the mask, took off all my clothes including underwear, then put all of them into the washing machine, and added a few bottles of disinfectant. I rushed into the shower and washed carefully for more than 20 minutes till I made sure that I had rubbed every part of my body as carefully as possible. After putting on my clothes, I did another antigen test and waited until the test result showed negative that it was still one bar. Still feeling some anxiety in my heart, I prayed for a while before going to sleep.
For the next three days, I did an antigen test every day. After three days, both my antigen test and PCR test results were negative, only when I felt relieved. God blessed me for suffering so that my family and my children are not infected.
Since then, I have also participated in volunteer services in some communities. Through this epidemic, I have gained a lot and gotten to know many neighbors with whom I had no contact at all previously. I also believe that what the epidemic has brought to people is not only suffering, but all things work together for the benefit of those who love God.
- Translated by Shuya Wang
相信上海这轮三月初开始漏出苗头然后三月中旬开始爆发的新冠肺炎疫情会成为很多上海居民人生中最难忘的时刻之一。以前，许多上海居民只能在报纸上、新闻里、电视中看到一些其他地方遭受灾难的消息，很难做到感同身受，然而这次疫情，让很多上海居民体验到了饥饿是什么滋味，在21世纪的2022年，在中国经济最发达的上海。
3月末4月初，随着小区封控时间的延长，很多上海居民家里已经将要断炊甚至已经断炊了。我家里能够吃的东西越来越少，冰箱冷藏室已经彻底清空，原本鼓鼓囊囊的冷冻室也已经减少了大半，也就是说，青菜早就已经吃完了，水果也没有了，只有一些肉类还在冰箱冷冻室里面。因为有两个小孩子，所以家里总会囤一些肉类和水果以及零食，大米、面粉、食用油什么的也能够支撑一段时间。而很多上海居民的情况却不是如此，甚至很多年轻人根本就没有做饭的习惯，平时基本都是靠着叫外卖来解决吃饭问题，可是疫情封控期间，外卖几乎全部停止，于是也只好想方设法“自力更生”了。
“封控”意味着快递停止，买卖停止，人员进出也全部停止，对于上海这样的特大城市而言，封控的影响是非常大的，其中最直接的影响就是，居民已经没有吃的或者即将没有吃的了。已经断炊的人家只要在小区群里面求助，然后一些富有爱心的暂时还有食物的居民会帮助这些人家，分一些食物给他们，而且这样的行为往往还是免费的。我也曾经给一些小区居民提供过一些帮助，也曾经受到过帮助——家里孩子没有奶粉了，牛奶也喝完了，于是有一个好心人分给我两大盒牛奶，帮助我家孩子度过了对他而言最艰难的几天时间。可是，即便是“地主”家也没有多少余粮了，我小区2000多人，每一天都需要消耗很多的食物，食物从哪里来就成为了摆在小区居民眼前又紧急又重要的问题。
现实是大家都买不到菜、肉、大米、面粉这些生活必需品，什么水果、牛奶这些已经可以说是奢侈品了，这些就更不用考虑了，首先得想办法活下来。
好不容易，有一个小区居民联系上了一个能够给我们小区送菜的老板，买菜团团长也找到了。于是，热火朝天的抢菜大作战马上就开始了。最终，整个小区有200多户人家下了订单，订购了接近300箱蔬菜。
几天以后，蔬菜从外省发到了上海，然后又从上海中转了一次之后终于到了小区门口。不过到的时间不太巧或者说太巧了——货车到达小区门口的时候已经晚上10点多了。这个时间很多人家已经睡了，本来小区老人就多，老年人普遍晚上睡的很早。于是，一个突出的问题就出现了：怎么把这接近300箱蔬菜卸下来，又怎么把这些蔬菜送到每家每户？那段时间我小区这边的气氛非常紧张，从3月下旬到4月初，小区先后出现了5,6名感染者。而那时候上海整体的疫情也开始变得非常严重，每天都有1万多人确诊，而整个上海的常住人口，大概也就2500万人。因此，小区内禁止随意走动，不能让买了蔬菜的人家自己过来小区门口拿，必须由志愿者来帮助。
实事求是的说，那时候我的心态是非常矛盾的：想去，又不想去。
想去，原因很简单，很多人家已经到了揭不开锅的程度，很多人家把家里所有角落都翻遍了，找到点什么那就揍合着吃什么，至于过期与否，那个已经完全不重要了，很多人已经几天时间没有见过一点绿色了——青菜早就已经吃完了。
不想去，原因也很简单，害怕感染。但是并不是我害怕自己被感染，而是家里除了我以外，还有三口人，尤其是其中有两个孩子，一个小孩因为刚过三岁还没有来得及打疫苗。如果孩子们被感染了，要被拉走带到方舱医院治疗。在当时上海每天都有一万多人被感染，累计已经有10多万人被感染的情况下，方舱医院的条件估计不会好到哪里去。而且当时还有婴儿被感染然后独自被带走的消息流出来，这样的情况发生在我们身上是我们不愿意承受的。
此外，如果做志愿者的话，防护也是很大的问题，由于不是官方组织的志愿者，而是居民自发组织的，因此几乎可以说没有任何防护装备，除了每家每户都有的口罩以外，防护服、消毒物品一概没有。而蔬菜是从外省千里迢迢过来的，一路上经历了什么，有没有被病毒携带者接触过，一概不知。
我当时挣扎了好一会时间，最终祷告以后，还是觉得要去。我给自己的理由非常简单：总得有人去，连那些不信仰的人都去，我作为一名基督徒，没有不去的理由。有爱心却没有真实的行为的话，那么这样的爱心多半也是廉价的甚至是死的。决定以后，就给妻子说了，妻子也很理解和支持。让妻子带着两个孩子睡觉，然后我这边简单的准备一下——口罩戴好，没有防护服因此只能把衣服尽可能穿的严实一些——就这样出去了。
到达小区门口，几个人简单的分工一下，就开始卸货。由于疫情防控的原因，货车不能够进入小区，只能够停在小区门口，因此，我们必须赶快把这接近300个蔬菜包从货车上卸下来，搬到大门内侧。卸货的时候还跟物业人员起了冲突，刚开始物业人员以无法保证这些蔬菜包的安全性为由不让卸货，万一这批蔬菜包有问题携带病毒的话，那么小区内几乎所有人都会中招。经过和居委会联系，然后居委又跟物业联系，最终得以顺利卸货。这时候，已经是晚上11点多了。
卸货以后，分发这些蔬菜是一个更加繁重的任务。志愿者一共有5,6名，可是平板车却只有一辆，还是临时跟小区内一居民借的。只能以楼栋为单位，把蔬菜包装到平板车上，然后拉着平板车一趟一趟的往返，把蔬菜送到每一栋楼下面，然后再在群里通知那栋楼所有订购蔬菜的人家，让他们下来领菜。之所以这样做，而不是送货上门，是因为小区为了防疫而规定除了自己家所在楼栋以外，不允许进入其他楼栋。
最终，花了两个多小时的时间，我们才把这接近300箱蔬菜送完，等到送完，才发现已经凌晨一点多了。可能是由于小区居民太缺菜了，虽然已经半夜了，我却发现常常我们刚刚把菜送到楼下，居民们就下楼来拿蔬菜了，甚至不少居民大半夜的提前等在楼下，就为了能够更快的拿到蔬菜。收到蔬菜以后，许多居民非常高兴，也非常激动的对志愿者们说“谢谢”。
菜终于送完了，但是我的工作却远未完成，我心中的担忧也从来没有如此严重。
一路伴随着星光回家，回家以后孩子们早就已经睡着了，妻子被我开门的声音弄醒了。然后我赶紧进行接下来的工作——口罩扔掉，所有的衣服包括内衣全部脱掉，然后一股脑的扔进洗衣机，再加上几瓶盖消毒液。赶紧的去洗澡，洗了二十多分钟，把全身上下每一部分都尽可能仔细的洗干净，然后穿好衣服，再做一遍抗原检测，直到检测结果显示还是一条杠。然后心里还是有一些不安，就又祷告了一会才去睡觉。
接下来的三天，每天都做一遍抗原检测，三天下来，依然显示抗原为阴性，核酸检测也是阴性，这时候才算放下心来。神眷顾了我的苦情，没有让我和家人、孩子被感染。
此后，也参与了一些小区的志愿服务，借着这次疫情认识了许多平时完全没有什么联系的邻居，收获良多。我也相信，疫情带给人们的，不仅仅只有苦难，万事都互相效力，叫爱神的人得益处。
我在上海做团购志愿者
In early March, there were only a few COVID-19 positive cases in Shanghai. But it rapidly turned into mass outbreaks in mid-March, which was supposed to be one of the most unforgettable moments in the lives of many Shanghai residents. In the past, many of them could only find out about disasters happening in other places through newspapers and TV programs, which made it difficult to empathize. However, this pandemic surge has forced many Shanghai citizens to experience what it was like to be hungry, right here in Shanghai, the most developed economy in China, right now in the Twenty-first Century of 2022.
Between the end of March and the beginning of April, with the extension of the community lockdown period, many Shanghai residents had almost or already run out of food supplies at home. There were fewer and fewer edible things at mine. The refrigerator compartment had been completely emptied, and the freezer compartment that was originally full had a bigger half available. To put it bluntly, vegetables and fruits had been long gone, and only some meat was in the freezer. As a father of two children, I always stocked up on some meat, fruits, and snacks at home. Rice, flour, cooking oil, etc. would also last for a while. However, it was not the case for many Shanghai residents. Many young people who were not used to cooking at all usually relied on ordering takeaways to survive. Unfortunately, during the epidemic-related lockdown, there were almost no delivery services, and as a result, these young people had to find ways to feed themselves.
"Lockdown" meant no more express delivery services, trading, or people travelling in and out of this city, the impact of which was unbelievable for a megacity like Shanghai. The most direct impact was that residents had nothing to eat or were about to. Those who had run out of food cried for help in the community WeChat group. Neighbors who still had food and also a charitable heart would often share some food with them for free. I had even given and also received food from such residents, e.g., a kind person gave me two large boxes of milk when my child finished all the milk powder and fresh milk we had, which helped the little one pass extremely difficult days. However, gradually, even the "landlords" (referring to the residents who had food) didn’t have much food left. There are more than 2,000 people in my residential compound who needed to consume a great deal of food every day. Finding food sources posed an urgent and serious issue for all residents.
In reality, no one was able to acquire vegetables, meat, rice, flour or other necessities of life, let alone fruits and milk which were already considered "luxury goods". First of all, we had to find a way to survive.
Finally, a resident of the compound got in touch with a supplier who could deliver vegetables to us. Someone volunteered to be the leader of the grocery group buying. As a result, the hot battle to fight for acquiring vegetables began immediately. In the end, more than 200 households in the entire compound placed orders for nearly 300 boxes of vegetables.
A few days later, the truck loaded with the vegetables from other provinces finally arrived at the entrance of our compound after another transit inside Shanghai after 10 pm, which was not too convenient since many residents were elders who went to bed very early at night and had already slept. So, a problem arose: how were nearly 300 boxes of vegetables supposed to be unloaded, and then delivered to every household? During that time, the atmosphere in my compound was very tense because from late March to early April, there were 5 or 6 people infected with COVID-19 in the compound. Meanwhile, the overall epidemic situation in Shanghai also began to become very serious. More than 10,000 people were diagnosed with coronavirus every day. The resident population of the entire Shanghai was about 25 million. Therefore, residents were forbidden to walk around freely in the compound, consequently people who had ordered vegetables were not allowed to pick them up at the gate of the compound by themselves, but had to wait for volunteers to help.
To be honest, I struggled inside: I wanted to go and help unload the vegetables, but I was very hesitant.
The reason for going was very simple. Many people had already run out of food, forcing them to rummage through all corners of the house for anything edible. They ate whatever they could find without caring if it was expired food. Some hadn’t even seen a vegetable leaf for several days, for they had eaten up all vegetables.
The reason for not going was also very simple that I was afraid of infection. I wouldn’t be afraid of myself being infected, but there were three other people in the family, especially two children, one of whom hadn’t been vaccinated because he was just over three years old. If the children were infected, they would be taken to a mobile cabin hospital for treatment. At that time, more than 10,000 daily new cases implied that the cumulative cases would exceed 100,000 in total. Therefore, the conditions of the mobile cabin hospitals would not be ideal. Besides, there was news that infected babies were taken away without companion parents, which would be beyond our ability to deal with.
In addition, as a volunteer, adequate self-protection was important. Since I wouldn’t be a volunteer recruited by an official organization, but rather a resident volunteering to help, I had almost no protective equipment such as protective clothing and disinfectants, except for the masks that every household prepared. The vegetables had been transported all the way from other provinces. No one knew what had happened along the way, including whether they had been touched by coronavirus carriers.
I struggled for a while before I decided to go and help after praying. I easily justified my decision that someone had to do it. Even non-believers went to help, then as a Christian, I should go too. They said love with no concrete actions would be mostly cheap or even dead. After having made the decision, I told my wife, who was also understanding and supportive. I asked her to sleep with the two children. Then, with no protective clothing, I just put on a mask and wore the clothes as tight as possible before leaving home.
Arriving at the gate of the compound, we several residents who volunteered simply allocated the work and started unloading. For epidemic prevention and control reasons, the trucks couldn’t enter the compound but parked at the entrance. Therefore, we must quickly unload these nearly 300 vegetable bags from it and move them to the inside of the gate. Sadly, when unloading the goods, we had a fight with the property management staff who at first forbade unloading the vegetables on the grounds that the hygienic safety of these vegetables could not be guaranteed. If these vegetables carried the coronavirus, then almost everyone in the compound had a risk of being infected. After contacting the Neighborhood Committee which convinced the property staff, the goods were finally unloaded smoothly around 11 o'clock in the evening.
After unloading, distributing these vegetables was an even more onerous task. There were 5 or 6 volunteers in total, but only one flatbed trolley which was temporarily lent to us by a neighbor. We could only separate vegetables by orders from each building, then put them onto the trolley and drag it back and forth to deliver the vegetables to the entrance of each building, and then notify all those who placed orders in that building through the WeChat group, asking them to come downstairs to pick up their vegetables. Instead of delivery to door, we could only follow the epidemic prevention guidance applied in our compound which was that all residents were not allowed to enter other buildings except the one in which they lived.
In the end, it took us more than two hours to finish distributing all vegetables at past one o'clock in the morning. Probably because the householders were too short of vegetables, even though it was already midnight, they came to collect right after we put the vegetables downstairs. Many residents even waited there in advance in the middle of the night, in order to get their orders sooner. After receiving the vegetables, many residents were so happy and thrilled that they kept saying "thank you" to us as volunteers.
But my work was far from done at finishing the deliveries. My worries had never been greater.
When I returned home under the starlight, the children had already fallen asleep. I woke up my wife by opening the door. Then I hurried to the next disinfection procedure – I threw away the mask, took off all my clothes including underwear, then put all of them into the washing machine, and added a few bottles of disinfectant. I rushed into the shower and washed carefully for more than 20 minutes till I made sure that I had rubbed every part of my body as carefully as possible. After putting on my clothes, I did another antigen test and waited until the test result showed negative that it was still one bar. Still feeling some anxiety in my heart, I prayed for a while before going to sleep.
For the next three days, I did an antigen test every day. After three days, both my antigen test and PCR test results were negative, only when I felt relieved. God blessed me for suffering so that my family and my children are not infected.
Since then, I have also participated in volunteer services in some communities. Through this epidemic, I have gained a lot and gotten to know many neighbors with whom I had no contact at all previously. I also believe that what the epidemic has brought to people is not only suffering, but all things work together for the benefit of those who love God.
- Translated by Shuya Wang
A Shanghai Christian Volunteered in Group Buying
