Izturība — it is the Latvian word for “endurance.”
In the eyes of ASU hockey players and Latvian natives Filips Buncis and Gvido Jansons, it’s something they believe is critical to rely on, especially with the world at a standstill due to the rise of the Novel Coronavirus.
It started with the news that the NCAA was canceling all remaining sports to help prevent the spread of the virus. It continues, now, with a considerable amount of boredom.
“It’s definitely not easy, to stay in your house, and I guess you need some izturība in that matter,” Buncis said with a chuckle. “We just have to get through it.”
Despite having so much more free time on his hands stuck in his apartment in lieu of playing hockey, Buncis has continued to keep in touch with friends and family back home.
“As of now, it’s been the same as it’s been all year long, I just FaceTime,” Buncis said. “Nothing really changes for me in that perspective.”
As Buncis does his best to continue to stay engaged with people and stay active from his apartment in Tempe, Jansons, his roommate, is halfway around the world, back in Latvia.
Latvia has taken similar precautions to that of the United States and other countries around the world in their efforts to help contain the virus; gyms have closed, restaurants have temporarily ceased business and the government has taken active roles in stopping the spread of the disease.
“As of now there are only around (a few hundred) cases of the coronavirus (in Latvia), but I think like 95% of them are traceable,” Buncis said. “So the government knows where they got it, who they got it from, so they can draw a circle around all the people who got it and find out the reasons what’s going wrong with that.”
Since Buncis spoke to The State Press, Latvia's number of cases of coronavirus has risen to over 500.
Less than two days after the NCAA had suspended all athletic activity, Jansons was on a plane to Riga International Airport, to reunite with his wife, Madara, and family before the Latvian government shut its border.
“I know Gvido’s wife misses him a lot,” Buncis said. “She really misses him, and when the coronavirus was starting to spread and it was starting to get big, his family really wanted him to get home.”
Jansons' return to his native country was less than ideal, though. After landing in Riga, Jansons had to rent a car and drive two and a half hours to Liepāja—where he lives—and spend 14 days in self-isolation away from his family.
Madara set up one of the two apartments they have in the city for Gvido to stay in so that he could properly self-quarantine.
"My wife set up the apartment for me," Jansons said. "We have an extra apartment in our city, so she set up everything over there, left all the food there. So I drove there and for 14 days didn’t see anyone."
Gvido’s return to Latvia was premature; ASU had hopes of making the NCAA national tournament that could've gone all the way through April 11 had the Sun Devils made it to the Frozen Four before the cancellation.
Instead, he and his spouse take a positive opportunity out of what could be considered a negative overall experience by being able to spend more time together, when usually they are over 5,500 miles apart from each other during the season.
“I didn’t know what to think,” Madara said of finding out the season was canceled. “I just knew he needed to come home. It means a lot for me, I am really happy that he is home here. We will spend four or five months together.”
While Jansons cherishes the extra time with his wife that he didn’t expect to have, he is also spending time with other members of his close family to keep busy and pass the time.
“Everything is shut down, so I can’t really work out or skate,” Jansons said. “I have to find something to keep me busy, so I asked my mom if I could work for her. She owns a meat processing company… so that’s how we spend time together. We can basically work together and hang out at the same time.”
In this time of uncertainty, Filips, Gvido and Madara join the rest of the world in doing what they can to have izturība, all while being in the midst of a global crisis that is drastically affecting the way people live their lives, everywhere from Tempe, Arizona to Liepāja, Latvia.
"We all have to wait it out and see how things develop," Gvido said. "I think that’s a part of it because we don’t really know how long it’s going to take for everything to be back to normal. We just have to stay strong and do what we can on our side to make things better and get through this."
Reach the reporter at aklatsky@asu.edu and follow @averyklatsky on Twitter.
Like The State Press on Facebook and follow @statepress on Twitter.
