Editor’s note: We would like to thank Anathi Sohuma, Language and Writing Consultant at the Teaching and Learning Centre at the University of Fort Hare, South Africa for providing this collection of responses. To contact the author, please email TLC. If you would like to share your writing center’s experience during COVID-19, please submit via WLN.

This reflection aims to provide an insight on how I am affected by the changes that came with the pandemic whether negative or positive. I am a master’s student who was supposed to graduate in May 2019 but due to unforeseen circumstances, that could not happen. I am planning to graduate in September 2019. On the other side I assist students as a LWC in the Language and Writing Advancement Program (LWAP) at Teaching and Learning Centre (TLC). I will highlight duties of the language and writing consultant (LWC), give brief description of the covid-19 and dwell on its effect on my master’s work and job as LWC.

The language and writing consultant work with students on weekdays from eight in the morning to five in the afternoon. I assist mostly undergraduate students with assignment reviews, one on one and group consultations and conduct workshops for students on assignment writing. The workshops and one on one consultants are conducted face to face where students physically interact with me. On the other hand, assignments are submitted and collected directly by students to the PASS venue or via email. The covid-19 made it very impossible for me to keep up with my work.

Covid-19 is a pandemic that requires people to distance themselves from each other. It is a virus that has almost all the symptoms of a fever but it is very strong than normal fever. The difference is that it does not have cure and it kills. It spread through close contact with the infected persons. However, there are reported cases of recoveries which are observed to take place after fourteen days of being quarantined when tested positive on the virus. The pandemic shook the world earlier in 2020, which made the government to make a decision on how to prevent the spread. It has made the South African government to lock the country down for 21 days and later extended the lock down. The lockdown meant that schools, businesses and other activities be closed to avoid physical contact and minimise the spread of the virus.

The pandemic has caused delays on my submission to my supervisor and the communication is very poor. Studying while at home in this pandemic is complicated because most of my family members are sitting at home and have nothing to do. Student life around elders who frequently want food and other things to be done is the most difficult limitation to study. Having kids around the house the whole day makes studying almost impossible and very stressful to focus. I have noticed that chances of making mistakes and errors are very high because it is difficult for me to work well without getting disturbed during the day. Nonetheless, working during the night is also problematic due to draining house chores I perform during the day. Meeting deadlines is another problem I encountered due to poor network services and delays that occur while working on particular task given. Accessing emails using a cell phone and transfer work to a laptop and then back to the cell phone for it to be sent via email again is challenging for me. The covid-19 has a massive impact on how I conduct work as a LWC.

The effect of the pandemic is mostly negative in such a way that I cannot do work as per usual. The work I received from students lowered because majority are living in rural areas, have no internet access and laptops to do their assignments. The lack of network and data have contributed to me not doing the work that is expected from me. The connection between me and students does not exist due to working at home and online. One on one consultations is impossible because it needs a lot of data and network as it can work on video calls, Skype and other online applications that can be used to conduct meetings. I have to make sure that there is data for WhatsApp so that communication of updates from the superior can be seen.

The covid-19 has a negative impact on the time I take to do my research work. It also derail the plans I had for the academic year. The visions I had as a LWC for this year will not come to reality. I am terrified to go back to the campus.