Day 7 was my first down day. I spent most of it tackling the refund requests for cancelled bookings; consulting with accountant, lawyer, union representative, bank director; reading statistics and graphics about the pandemic.
14 hours in the same room, at the same table, on the same chair, with the same concerns and worries: my family livelihood relies 100% on guests from other countries, 70% of which from North America.
The financial picture is gloomy, no doubt.

Then the day eventually ends as all down days have the decency to do.
I have one of those a year. So that’s out of the way, like paying car insurance or going for a mammography.

Cant wait for tomorrow!

Here are my favorite quotes for the day, and a song I adore:

“In an individual, selfishness uglifies the soul; for the human species, selfishness is extinction.”

“Many years ago, a student asked anthropologist Margaret Mead what she considered to be the first sign of civilization in a culture.
The student expected Mead to talk about hooks, clay pots or whetstones. But not.
Mead said the first sign of civilization in an ancient culture was a broken and healed femur (thigh bone).
Mead explained that in the animal kingdom, if you break your leg, you die. You cannot run from danger, go to the river to drink water or hunt for food. You are fresh meat for predators.
No animal survives a broken leg long enough for the bone to heal.
A broken femur that healed is evidence that someone had time to stay with the one who fell, treated the wound, took the person to safety and cared for him until he recovered.

“Helping someone through the difficulty is where civilization begins,” said Mead.