March 13th 2020 and the story begins with a pandemic that turned the world upside down – Covid19 creates panic.
An empty calendar. No requests. No guests. No experiences. No reviews. But we are still “hosting a whole lot of happy memories while waiting for the lockdown to end.”
It is evident that in darkness there is still light, if you know where it comes shining through, you have to look for it and you’re sure to find it. So simply.
Here is our story of incidents that are positive reminders bringing us back on our hosting page during this time of crisis. Having uploaded a post on Facebook with photos of “old recipes” of my Mother’s, who is peacefully with the angels in paradise, I was surprised with an unexpected comment from a dear guest who stayed with us almost a year ago. Diana [Surname hidden] from New York requested me to post the second page of the recipe saying, “Now we are extended family Soraya, I get to recreate your beloved mother’s recipes. How beautifully surreal. We are all interconnected indeed.”
Diana was looking at the wonder of Airbnb. We were sharing the same wonder of how hosts/guests were still keeping connections in spite of the distance and the disturbance of this horrible pandemic. I posted the end of the recipe…smiling to myself. Diana had not forgotten us.
Sasan. Sasan had been our guest from Sweden way back 2 years. From Sweden to Mumbai he brought his bright personality and sincere friendship to our home and shared our affections with appreciation. We met unexpectedly again in Laos after I put a post of Facebook of us being in Luang Prabang for New year’s and he mentioned that he was there as well. This week, Sasan nominated me for a “10 day travel image challenge.” This is like a “ray of hope” that we will soon all be travelling and hosting again and that Airbnb will once again become a meeting place for people from all over the world. The doors to our home will be open once again and people will ‘belong anywhere’ like they used to. Sasan, if you’re reading this…hello friend! Please come back to your home in Mumbai!
Gifts are gentle reminders of sweet gestures from guests. Chocolates are a great treat to sweeten these present moments when things are scarce and one is not free to venture out to get oneself’ a little something. Stashed away in the fridge were some awesome Kisses. Apoorva had gifted us a packet of Hershey’s bite sized teardrops. Each tiny titbit brought immense delight! Airbnb has brought friendships of different flavors to our lives and left a taste of sweetness in our hearts that we hope to enjoy soon again. (hosted Apoorva in Feb 2020)
Stefano and Sheela, guests from Bergamo, Italy, spent five days in December 2019 with us. They left us a 5 star review with an invitation to Bergamo in summer. Unfortunately, 2020 has changed plans for everyone and for us too. Fontanella will have to wait. On inquiring how they were doing during this terrible Corona crisis in Italy, we were sad to hear that one of their family members had been hospitalized. They were awaiting better news of him and now so are we. That’s the secret of family bonds, silently created by Airbnb where distance doesn’t matter and strangers become dearer ones in darker times.
The world is now a smaller place. We are all struggling through some very difficult emotional and financial times, but to be able to get through these anxious moments, we must look for little, but big joys like these… Airbnb connections of times gone by that hopefully we can share again.
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