On Thursday, 16 April 2020, about 40 scholars and some OeAD staff members met for a warm and extremely positive exchange. After a short welcome by the OeAD team and some brief information about the current measures of the Austrian government, several scholarship holders described their current situation and shared thoughts, feelings and ideas.
Ana Babić from Croatia has returned to her home country and continues to work on her dissertation. She uses isolation time for helping her son with online school classes. Distance learning in Croatia works quite well, as the university is well prepared and has good equipment. The situation in her country is under control for now.
Myagmarsuren Purevdorj from Mongolia follows social distancing and tries to be patient. She could not fly home bin April as planned, so she finishes further research papers in Austria and participates in e-learning classes. In Mongolia no local outbreak of Covid-19 was reported so far, nevertheless there are strong restrictions. She stays calm as her family is safe and she hopes that the situation will remain stable.
Sara Kaweesa from Uganda currently studies at BOKU in the field of development research, while her family is in Uganda. Sara described her strategies of coping with this situation: being thankful and grateful for being safe and healthy, being humble and keep hoping. Her faith and the Easter celebration she could take part online helped her a lot.
Ismali Gbadamosi from Nigeria is in Vienna and can actually continue his laboratory work at Medical University Vienna. He works on his dissertation to be submitted in Nigeria. He has started to follow online cooking classes and now learns how to prepare Austrian specialities.
Saptarshi Mallick from India is currently in Graz for his post doc research stay and tries to go ahead with his work. As a result of the first online meeting Saparshi is now learning German with Laura Lukasova from Czech Republic, another scholarship holder. He already has had 3 online classes; Laura is his German “Gurjii” as it is called in India. Saptarshi sticks to strict physical distancing even if he would love to go out. Sometimes he stands silently in the backyard of his student hostel and enjoys the sun and listens to the twittering of the birds. He is looking forward to seeing his family in India.
Filippo Luigi Giambrone from Italy is doing his research about federalism in the EU. Filippo had already had several virtual meetings. On some days he is getting bored as he usually enjoys going out and he would really like to pass by at the OeAD Office to say hello. Even if the situation in Austria is much better than in Italy, he hopes it will improve soon.
Ana Vrkaevic from Croatia has arrived in Austria in March. At the beginning everything was perfect in Austria: good learning experiences, nice people… and then the lockdown started. After the recent earthquake in Zagreb, she now also worries about friends and family at home. Ana spends most of the time studying and has started a healthy lifestyle: running, cooking and eating healthy food. She opened a FB Group for OeAD scholars https://www.facebook.com/groups/726377201230520/ and offers her help to others: She would be happy to be there for others, especially for everyone who feels alone. Everyone can contact her for talking, walking, having a (distanced) coffee.
Celine Priscilla from Indonesia studies in Taiwan and is currently on an exchange semester in Innsbruck. She talked about the danger of comparing different situations. When the restrictions in Austria started, she tended to compare herself with her friends in Taiwan, where people can meet as long as they wear masks. In Austria she now cannot meet others; therefore, at the beginning she had a lot of thoughts in her mind: whether it is right and good for her to be in Austria now. Her parents told her to be patient, and to not be afraid of changes, like adapting to the life in Austria in isolation. Now she has decided to be more positive and to accept that everything happens for a reason. Her motto: “If you want to do something, you just have to count 1, 2, and 3 - go! Just do it!”
Muhammad Saleh´s (Indonesia) philosophy is accepting the situation as it is, as we cannot change it. He has started to make the best out of it, to accept things as they are and now he feels that in his mind things are clearer: he knows what he wants and what he needs to do. Every Friday he and his colleagues have to present some paper, review, progress or problem related to their scientific project to their supervisor. He feels that with this strategy his working progress is much better than usually. He also started to cook and tries to follow Austrian recipes.
As in the first online meeting every speaker tried to help others to make the best out of this situation and to encourage each other to also see some positive aspects in this crisis. After the meeting there was time for some informal chat and exchange among each other. The virtual platform opened by the OeAD will continue: The next online meeting will take place on April 30th 2020. Please check the OeAD website in order to find the respective announcement. We are looking forward to meeting you there!