As we move toward a new normal, locally and globally, strict lockdowns are being modified, masks have become a fashion trend, and the Outer Cape enters the season that once brought visitors from around the world. As summer beckons, the Independent checks in once more with friends from afar.

Black River, Jamaica

Carla Henry describes herself as a “self-motivated and ambitious woman.” A chef by profession, she lives in the town of Black River, Jamaica, with her father and 14-year-old son, Rahiem. For the past four years, Henry has been employed by Mac’s Seafood on the Outer Cape during the season. Though she intended to start work in April, her plans are now indefinitely on hold.

“The Covid-19 pandemic has impacted me gravely, as I am unable to generate the income that helps me to provide for my family,” Henry says. “I wish I had understood better what a toll this virus would take on our society, our everyday lives, and our economy.”

Rahiem’s school has switched to online classes, and Henry now spends most of her time at home, obeying curfews and social distancing rules. “The persons in my household are trying our best to stay calm, keep a clear mind, and think positive thoughts in these stressful times,” she says. “We catch up on family time while staying safe in our home.”

Henry feels that the people of Black River are holding together well as a community. “Wearing a mask when going to the grocery store or running errands is mandatory,” she says. “People are following the measures put in place by the government and are taking health precautions seriously.” On Sundays, neighbors play music and sing from their homes “to remind us of church services, because churches are closed due to social distancing. Their positivity and vibrance give me hope that we can overcome this crisis and create a brighter future moving forward.”

Blekinge County, Sweden

Annika Hogg Johnsson was born on Cape Cod to a Swedish mother and local father, Herb Hogg, who ran a bakery famous for its Swedish coffee cake on Massasoit Road in Eastham. Johnsson attended Nauset Regional High School and met her Swedish husband of 42 years, Peter, in Provincetown. “He was a sailor on a Swedish ship anchored in P’town,” she says. “My father and mother were members of a Swedish-American Vasa lodge, and we welcomed the boys on the ship.”

The couple now live in the tiny village of Åryd in Blekinge County in southern Sweden. During the Covid-19 crisis, “Our situation hasn’t changed that much,” Johnsson says. The Swedish government chose not to impose a full lockdown, she explains, though high schools are closed and homes for the elderly do not allow visitors. Those who can, work from home. Music festivals and large gatherings have been canceled. Yet elementary and middle schools have remained open, as have stores, with hours set aside for those at risk.

Although Sweden has seen higher rates of Covid-19 infection and deaths than neighboring Scandinavian countries where stricter measures were imposed, Johnsson doesn’t feel that Swedes are worried. “I think our country has done a pretty good job,” she says. “I have asthma, so I’m staying at home for the most part, except for walks in the woods.”

Johnsson was hoping to make her usual trip to Cape Cod this September but expects that won’t be possible. To her friends and family here, she says: “Take care, be respectful of one another. And why, for goodness’ sake, is toilet paper more important than food? As long as you have soap and water to wash yourself with, toilet paper is obsolete!”

Viersen, Germany

Rüdiger and Susanne Schmitz live in the town of Viersen in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. While in high school, Rüdiger was an exchange student in Staten Island, N.Y., and has remained in contact with his host family. In 2002, a joint vacation brought the Schmitzes to Wellfleet for the first time.

“We were smitten and knew that this is where we wanted a second home,” Susanne says. Nine years ago, they realized their dream and built a house in Wellfleet. The Schmitzes left the Cape in February and hoped to return for the spring and summer. “We had no idea how long it would be before we could come back,” Susanne says.

Germany is gradually reopening this week, after sheltering in place since March. Though Susanne says that some in her community did not seem to take the situation seriously enough at first, most have been following guidelines. “Lifting the lockdown will inevitably bring us all closer together again, so now it is time for everyone to act responsibly and understand the risks.”

Susanne’s elderly parents live in Bonn, where she was born, and her mother recently had two small strokes. “It’s very hard not to be able to visit,” Susanne says, “but I know that she is doing well, and I trust we won’t have to stay apart for much longer. I have gained a lot of trust over the past weeks. I try not to watch the news too often. What feels important is to stay positive, hopeful, and patient,” she adds.

Dunholme, England

Elizabeth “Whiz” Collis, 78, lost her partner three years ago and lives alone. She moved to the small village of Dunholme, near Lincoln, England, not long before the current crisis, to be closer to her daughter Catrin Rodda and grandchildren. Collis’s eldest daughter, Sian Robertson, is an artist in Truro (and office assistant at the Independent), and her son, Dave Rees, lives in Australia. “We are far-flung!” she says, laughing.

Collis’s life has changed considerably. Before Covid-19, “I helped out with reading in the local primary school, and I joined the fortnightly Scrabble club, the Dunholme Ladies Group for the monthly lectures, a local art class, and, in Lincoln, a film society,” she says. While she feels fortunate to be healthy, being isolated has been challenging, even though “I was born during World War II and was brought up with restrictions and rationing,” she says. “I see my daughter doing two jobs from home, overseeing one child in homeschool, and trying to keep the teenager happy. I realize how lucky I am that my daughter visits my garden and we can talk as long as we keep meters apart. She recently got a puppy, which she brought ’round. The puppy came up to me and, hugging her, I promptly broke into tears, as this was the first living body I had held in five weeks. The lack of touch from family and friends is hard.”

Being a retired psychotherapist helps Collis cope. “I find the fears and anxiety perplexing,” she says. “Sometimes I feel fine, then suddenly I go into weepy, ‘poor little me!’ mode. I think I eat more comfort food, as I know I am putting on weight. Porridge with cream on! I know this cannot last forever, and with luck, I will see it out.”

Several weeks after U.S. states have gone into lockdown, the Independent continues to follow friends and family across the globe as they cope with the challenges of living through the Covid-19 pandemic.

Florence, Italy

Linu Del Deo, daughter and granddaughter of Provincetown artists Romolo and Salvatore, respectively, is a student at the Studio Arts College International in Florence. “I had a personal tradition of taking walks along the Arno,” Del Deo says of her daily routine in February. “I loved to wander through the narrow streets of Florence bumping shoulders with tourists, vendors, pickpockets, locals.” But the city has since changed drastically. “The piazzas are empty,” Del Deo says. “When I step outside to do only the most essential grocery shopping, I’m not met with a soul.”

Del Deo is confined to the apartment she used to share with other graduate students who have returned home out of fear of the virus. “I handle my anxiety by making as much art as I can,” she says. When, very occasionally, she goes anywhere, “you must carry an official document from the Interior Ministry and have a good reason to be out. Only essential travel is permitted.”

Long lines of people standing one meter apart from one another wind around street corners, waiting to enter a supermarket, Del Deo says. “Only about 10 or so customers are allowed inside at once. Before you enter through the doors, a worker wearing a mask sprays your hands with disinfectant.”

Del Deo feels fortunate to be a witness as Italy deals with the crisis. “Yesterday, on Easter Sunday, my neighbors were blasting music through their homes and singing to each other,” she says. “It was very heartwarming. It is a privilege to find myself in a situation where, amid the fear of a global disaster, one can still hear music.”

Tokyo, Japan

Jemma Gallagher, who grew up in Eastham, moved to Tokyo last July to work on the Olympics. “When I rented this eight-square-meter room in central Tokyo,” she says, “I had not anticipated that I would be spending 20 hours a day in it.”

Gallagher describes how the Covid-19 epidemic gradually began affecting life in Japan: “At work, it was high on our radar as early as the beginning of February, but not in any way that felt like it was coming here. By the end of the month, however, we started implementing a part-time, work-from-home schedule.”

Once the Olympic postponement was announced, Gallagher says, “the numbers of confirmed cases in Tokyo shot up. I sat quietly for several days, plugging away at what work I could manage to get done, feeling insecure about my job, housing, visa, and well-being.”

Since then, she has seen life around her settle into the new normal. “Japan fell very gracefully into a state of emergency,” she says. A stay-at-home advisory, recorded by an elementary school child, is broadcast through Gallagher’s neighborhood three times a day, at 10 a.m., 1 p.m., and 6 p.m. “There is still a shortage of paper products, and masks have been sold out for months, but there is also still food in the grocery stores, and the flowers have all bloomed as they were scheduled to,” she adds.

Ramsgate, England

Eleanor Marriott, a photographer, lives in the small fishing town of Ramsgate in Kent on the coast of England. Having visited her close friend, Wellfleet resident Chris Wisniewski, in the States, Marriott sees Kent and the Outer Cape as having much in common: “Both,” she says, “are beautiful seaside communities filled with creative people.

“Ramsgate has a history of people coming together in times of adversity,” Marriott says. “We’re famous for our tunnels where the townsfolk would shelter during the Second World War. Now, when we do the ‘Clap for Carers’ Thursdays at 8 p.m., the air-raid sirens from the tunnels are sounded. It is powerful and moving.”

Ramsgate’s school was in the national press after pupils made over 20,000 visors for health workers, and when the choir that Marriott and Wisniewski were part of “did a rendition of ‘You’ve Got a Friend,’ with 276 people recording from their homes, to aid domestic abuse victims,” Marriott says. During the crisis, she and her partner, Tony, are focusing on home and health. “I am much more domesticated now — cooking and gardening are the new rock ’n’ roll!”

She prizes the time she can go out for daily exercise. “I make sure I run, cycle, or just go out with my camera every day,” Marriott says. “If I don’t, I feel like I’ve turned down a gift.”

Hôi An, Vietnam

Claire Polders, a native of the Netherlands, and her American husband, Daniel Presley, are both writers. In late 2018, they toured Cape Cod with the novel they co-wrote, A Whale in Paris, and made many friends here.

Polders and Presley were traveling in Asia when the Covid-19 crisis hit. They decided to seek refuge in Hôi An, a coastal town just south of Da Nang. “The number of Covid-19 cases is low in Vietnam — 268, of which 233 have recovered, no deaths,” Polders says. “The government took quarantine measures early, and hospitals were prepared. Everything nonessential was closed, but there has been plenty of food on the shelves, and restaurants deliver. We feel fortunate to have received visa extensions until June.”

Recently, Vietnam has begun to re-open. Polders believes that the country has handled the crisis exceptionally well. “The Vietnamese have a true sense of community,” she says. “They wear masks in public to protect others — not to protect themselves, as is often assumed. They wash their hands before they enter a building. They keep their distance when waiting in line. Places where more than 20 people gather remain closed, but businesses are open again and children will go back to school in May.”

Testing is widespread. “On March 24, Daniel and I were asked to undergo a Covid-19 test,” Polders says, “Not because we had any symptoms, but because it was Vietnam’s policy to test all citizens and foreigners who arrived after March 8.”

Polders remains hopeful, she says, “that we will come out of this stronger and wiser.” She adds that the most valuable lesson she is learning through this crisis “is that life happens in the present. So, I try to spend my moments wisely, without regret.”