Everyone is dealing with the national lockdown in their own way, although admittedly some are doing better than others.

I can’t believe we still have to say this, but please stay inside. This is not the time to host a braai or go jogging.

As for the rest of the world, how is the average joe handling things?

Well, panic buying is now the thing that South Africans have in common with most countries affected by the coronavirus.

However, for a select few, this wasn’t necessary. They’ve been playing the long game for a while now, stocking up on gloves, masks, and other supplies while we all went about our daily lives.

Now, their moment has come.

Take it away, Courier Journal:

[Doomsday prepper] Josh Sutton saw this coming months ago. He already had a year’s worth of food, tomatoes and beans picked from his garden and canned in Mason jars, along with MREs made for combat troops.

He already owned a box of surgical masks and gloves.

“It’s something you pick up for a few bucks,” he said of those now-coveted supplies. “You toss it in your garage or attic and you don’t think about it, and when times like this happen you think, ‘I already have a box.”

Sutton and others like him had stocked up on supplies long before the rest of us caught on to the reality of the COVID-19 outbreak. To their credit, they’re not being smug about it.

Instead, they see this pandemic as their chance to help their neighbors and teach the larger community about ways they can prepare for the next time.

“A prepper is like a Boy Scout,” said Dan Brown, founder of the preppers Facebook group and owner of This Old Prepper supply shop in Richmond, Kentucky, about 30 miles south of Lexington. “They keep to themselves, help others when they can, receive help if they need it, share and teach skills to each other.

“Kind of like the Amish.”

That’s a weird comparison but we’ll run with it for now.

In recent times, the prepping business has taken off as more and more people get ready for some kind of threat that will send them underground, or into the wild.

Preppers, by and large, are somewhat leery of attention, in part because of how they’ve been portrayed as fringe members of society in shows such as “Doomsday Preppers” on the National Geographic Channel. (Preppers interviewed for this story say they hate the show but acknowledge it’s not entirely inaccurate either.)

They want everyone to know that they are normal people, preparing for normal survival, with some extra steps.

Preppers have reached out to their communities to offer help in the form of food and supplies during physical distancing in the wake of COVID-19.

One prepper even donated his boxes of masks to healthcare providers who were running out.

So, while most of us won’t be undergoing arms training or stocking up on dried food any time soon, we can all learn a thing or two from the preppers about looking out for each other.

[source:courierjournal]