Spain and COVID-19: Masks Aren’t Even a Question

In late September 2020 we arrived in Spain, where we plan to live for the next couple years. It’s something we’d been planning for a while and a move that looked less likely earlier in 2020 given the COVID pandemic. People have a lot of questions about the move, what it’s like given COVID, so this blog aims to answer some of those queries.

Who in their right mind would move to another country in the middle of a pandemic?

We did, but no one ever said we were in our right minds. So why did we do it? Because John Lennon was right: life is what happens while you are busy making other plans. The pandemic helped us see that life is uncertain, potentially fleeting, and best lived to the fullest. Once Spain got far enough out of their lockdown that it didn’t seem like a dire situation, we didn’t see it as any riskier than staying in the USA, assuming we were careful and conscientious in many of the same ways we had been there.

COVID-19 Restrictions: Masks Aren’t Something You March in the Streets Over

When we first got here, we realized right away that wearing a mask (and a lot of other public COVID protocols) aren’t taken lightly. You do it and that’s how it is - compliance is high. The first time we went to walk our dog, we put masks on because we saw other people wearing them out on the street.

We live in a little neighborhood near the beach, not in a metro area or near any shops. When we lived in Portland, we often walked our dog without masks because we generally didn’t come across many people. Plus, we could easily cross the street to distance if needed. While all of that is true here, you wear a mask here in public unless you are jogging or cycling. At first we just thought “Wow, people seem to take it seriously here!” We were living here for over a month before I found out it’s the law to wear masks in public spaces unless you are exercising.

Going to stores is interesting. The bigger supermarkets have some rigorous practices. When you enter the supermarket (with your mask on, really on, not half-assed on) you are required to sanitize your hands. It’s not a hand sanitizer station off to the side somewhere like at Safeway, it’s right when you enter with a large sign that states you have to do so.

You are required to use gloves to handle the produce. The carts at many stores have little tags on them (you pull it off when you take one) so you know you are using a sanitized one. A lot of the other things like “distancing marks” near the deli or cashiers are pretty similar to stores in the US.

The restaurants that have weathered the storm are mostly open. Many of them already had outdoor seating because it’s Spain, and that’s kind of a thing anyway. Some now have takeaway options which is probably a new thing for lots of people here where the typical meal is a 2-3 hour social gathering and only somewhat about the food.

Wait, don’t you guys work onsite, in public schools? How does that work with COVID?

Ah yes, school is an interesting situation... At my school there are different entrances assigned to kids based on what class they are in. All the kids go through a staff-led, “hand sanitize, wipe your feet” protocol on the way in at the different doors. Masks are required for all the kids in Grades 1-6, but not for the little kids in pre-school (ages 3-5). We work with kids in both levels. 

During recess, the different grades are assigned their own areas of the playground. After recess, everyone goes through another round of hand sanitizing before they can re-enter their classrooms. 

Sure there is a lot of emphasis on the COVID protocols but that doesn’t mean some 5-year-old won’t jam his finger up his nose for half your class period. They are still kids, after all.

We are lucky to be work in a warmer climate at schools where you can open the windows easily for plenty of cross ventilation. During the winter, I suspect we will just keep the windows open and sometimes run the heat (much to the consternation of many since heat is a luxury item here – much like ice used to be when we lived in England in the late 90s).

N95-equivalent masks are our go-to mask for school. In each of our schools, at least one class has been out of school for a week or more in "quarantina" due to a student infection. It is always a little unnerving when this arises but as English language assistants we only spend about 45 min with our classes in a given day so this decreases our contact time.

We are onsite 16 hours a week and do our best not to hang around outside of those hours. It was a tough decision (and remains so some days) to go into the classroom during a pandemic. But working with the kids and teachers is super interesting and overall the kids are fun and often delightful. It’s easy to see that the kid’s are mostly happy to be back in school and their routines. There are tradeoffs that occur for safety reasons that affect curriculum for sure. For our kids, remote learning for many of them would be very limited at best so the rhythm and structure of "doing the best we can" is better than no school at all. 

In summary, yes, we took a risk by coming to Spain and working onsite in schools but it also feels like we are being of service in an important way. There was a major lockdown during the first wave, and we’re fighting a second wave right now. But it’s reassuring that people here take COVID precautions seriously. We’re all doing our best to stay safe.

Didn’t Spain have a big lockdown in the spring? What’s daily life like now?

Yes, they did and the lockdown was pretty severe. During that time, only essential workers could leave their houses and that was to go to work. Most everyone else had to stay home except to make one trip to the grocery store per day, or to attend a medical appointment, or walk your dog. If the USA had done something similar, I highly doubt we would have people whining so much about wearing a mask now. Being able to move about freely in a mask is a big step forward from what life was like in a 3-month actual lockdown with police and military patrolling the streets.

There is no lockdown where we live now. Most of the restrictions discussed above are pretty similar to what many places in the US do now: you have flexibility to go places as long as you wear a mask. Yes, there are curfews currently designed to make sure the bars shut by midnight and people don’t stay out partying. Other than that many services are open at reduced capacity: gyms, hairdressers, stores, and even movie theaters. We got to the store, we go to outdoor restaurants 1-2 times a month, and we have each gotten one quick haircut since arriving. We don't go to gyms or movie theaters and I don't see that happening for us until we have the vaccine.