US teacher’s lessons for surviving isolation

Megan Monroe, a teacher from the United States, had been in Wuhan, Hubei province, for barely a month when she decided to stay on in the Chinese city hit hardest by the novel coronavirus outbreak.

The 21-year-old said that with 11 million people, the population of Wuhan dwarfed her hometown in Sonoma county, California, which numbered about 300,000.

For Monroe, an art adviser, China was to be her first experience of a foreign culture after having traveled in Canada and the US.

But on Jan 24, when the Wuhan lockdown was announced and people were told to self-quarantine, Monroe had a serious decision to make. She contacted US embassy officials in Beijing who called her back a few days later, offering her assistance to get out of Wuhan.

However, the US was charging its citizens $1,100 to fly out of Wuhan, followed by two weeks of quarantine. Morgan said she was wary about “wasting” her money.

Morgan has been in isolation for more than 60 days and has used her time to send a positive message and be a good role model for her students.

She started making TikTok videos while in isolation because she wanted to show what was happening and inform people about the best of the worst situation. “Nothing on there is a lie,” Megan said. “Everything is pretty honest because I just want to spread that positivity to people all around the world who are dealing with the same thing.”

Her popular TikTok videos have attracted many positive comments along with some negative ones. A lot of people are telling her that she is a hero, but others say they wished she would die and that the government is paying her to make propaganda videos.

The videos focus on day-to-day issues such as how to get groceries home delivered and being prevented from leaving her residential building due to safety and protection measures. “No, I’m not being paid by the government. It’s not propaganda and I’m not going to die because I’m stronger than this virus. And you are too,” Morgan said.