We live in the Upside Down now. A world turned topsy-turvy and this is our new normal.

Today is the 10th May 2020 and we are going into Week 8 of our lockdown here in the Cayman Islands.

Curfew is part of our everyday and strict social distancing rules are in place.

The police helicopter patrols the sky day and night and the marine patrol boat ploughs up and down the coast checking beaches are clear.

Fixed roadblocks quarter the island and act as checkpoints.

Everyone has to carry photo ID. There are strict penalties for anyone found out in violation to the rules.

Monday to Saturday we are under Soft Curfew from 5:00am to 7:00pm and over night Hard Curfew is in place.

We are allowed out of our homes three days per week, for about two hours to buy essentials and for one hour per day to exercise.

When you are allowed out you have to wear a mask if you cannot maintain the required social distancing gaps.

Hand washing or the use of alcohol gels and sprays are practiced with a rigour that would make OCD sufferers proud.

On Sundays we are under Hard Curfew and cannot leave our homes at all.

Only registered key workers with government passes are an exception to these rules.

All businesses are closed, apart from garages, supermarkets and restaurants (for delivery and collection only).

A number or well known local business have gone bust already and more will follow.

The beaches and swimming pools are closed.

There is no diving!

Schools have been closed for two months and we have two more to go before the summer holidays.

We are likely to be closed to cruise ships for the remainder of the year. In bound flights will be limited for the same time and anyone arriving will have a mandatory two weeks quarantine.

If the virus burns itself out and there is no more local transmission or community transmission we will be able to open up internally but we will remain isolated from the rest of the world.

An island literally and metaphorically cut off.

In the meantime we adapt and learn how to do things differently.

With school closed I have learnt a lot about working from home and running a school remotely.

My office mark one has given way to something more permanent.

The first lesson is that when you work from home during a lockdown, you never leave work. You are literally at work 24/7. You never get to switch off. You never relax. You phone rings and beeps at all hours. You are on call constantly.

The second lesson is that you have to work so much harder and everything you need to do takes longer to achieve. It’s frustrating, simple conversion that would normally take seconds now need a phone call.

The third lesson is that even though you are working your socks off the quality of your output and effectiveness still does not match that of your normal day to day role.

The forth and final lesson is that the solution to providing any form of education is dependent on so many different factors. Ranging from the age of the children, the level of technology at home, how much support their parents can give, the home language, the teacher’s level of confidence with new technology, how many siblings there are in the house, poverty levels, social vulnerability and even the price of data.

Some houses only have a mobile phone and that’s it.

I have said before that WhatsApp and Zoom have been the heroes of the piece enabling frictionless uncomplicated two way access between home and school.

But to try to make remote learning work teachers are literally working seven days a week and long into the evenings.

The challenges are enormous.

Oh and we are being audited by the school inspection service.

Everyone feels guilty because they feel they are letting the students down.

Everyone is exhausted and close to burnout.

Everyone is anxious.

It is mentally and emotionally draining and I think we all have Stockholm Syndrome.

This is our ‘new normal’ in the Upside Down.