DAY 17 (Community Quarantine)

     FORTIFIED-Seventeen days of community quarantine and fifteen days of enhanced community quarantine. People please behave, stay inside, let's flatten the curve, or else the quarantine will be upped another notch to the Fortified Enhanced Community Quarantine or "FEC-Q".

      TAKIP-SUSO- It's an herb (not lady's breast) that looks like the cover of a snail. When we were young we used it  to cover bleeding impetigos (mamaso)to prevent flies from landing on the open sore, usually on the legs. We lick or  spit on a leaf and then put in on top of the affected area.     

     On reading about this plant, I found out that farmers in the US, where takip-suso is a weed called pennywort,  believe that when their cows eat the weed it damage the cows' liver killing them. But studies found that the culprit were the parasites, worm larva, that live on pennywort's leaves.

    There, we were licking the leaves with without washing them. Thank heavens we still have functioning liver and are still alive.

    There used to be a lot of these plant in our neighborhood. It is found on wet and damp area, under the the batalan, lababo, on the moist and damp base of hollow block walls, and under banana trees.       

     But now, since there are no batalans and almost every surface is cemented, takip suso is extinct here.  

    I got mine from Baguio, from my mothers garden. 

    I have two varieties here one is the Gotu Kola (or Asian pennywort), it has tuber or rhizomes, and the other one is dollarweed (pennywort) which has creeper roots. The leaves are also different. Dollarweed is round; gotu is kidney shaped, like a half of a clover. They are related to the carrots and celery, the umbelifera family. 

    Both are edible. The leaves can be eaten raw or mixed with vegetable salads and other recipes. Of the two, the Gotu Kola is preferred by asians, obviously because it's the native variety. 

   Eating three leaves a day is supposed to boost brain power, slow down aging plus gazzilion other health benefits. But there is always a caveat, some medicinal plants have side effects and some can cause allergy and upset stomach.

     I haven't tried it, but I will do so once I have propagated them, and I have grown enough for a sustainable supply.

     NARRA- I passed by my grade school alma mater. Had a look around. My heart is yearning for the old school, the Marcos type building, the open ground, wooden desk, nothing is the same anymore. The old is gone, everything has changed.

     I think that is why old school or university buildings in the western countries evoke a deep sense of loyalty from the alumni because their building and the campus stand unchanged for hundred of years, upgraded and retrofitted but still the same.  Alumni can walk around and still see the same landmarks, trees, bricks, and relive all the memories. Here it's different. When I visited my alma mater, it's not the same school anymore. 

     Anyway, I am looking for a memory anchor. I was looking for the old narra tree that stands at the center of the school. It shaded us on countless flag ceremonies. It should be bigger and taller than how I remember it to be, but all the tree I see look young and where the old tree should be stood a twin-trunked young narra.

    Maybe the old tree was cut down during construction.

    But on closer examination, there it is. The old, gnarled trunk is buried under two meters of landfill and concrete. 

   The twin trunks are it's main branches, reaching for the sun.

DAY 16 (Community Quarantine)

     WHITE COFFEE- I go through the motions automatically like what I do every morning. I put the perculator (coffeemaker) on the gas stove and wait, then after a few minutes, pour the hot liquid in my mug.

     It's hot water, no coffee! I have forgotten to put a scoop.

    Thinking too much.

    ANXIETY-  I have asthma and chronic rhinitis and every cough, every itch in the throat, every sneeze, which in normal time I just shrugged of as nothing,  start off a chain of bad thoughts from getting sick, to being hospitalized, to infecting my two girls, to dying a painful drowning death from collapsed lungs. 

    Thoughts that could leave me catatonic with fear if I don't fight it off every seconds. 

    Though I try to not to, I just can't help it especially after hearing that the mayor and the municipality's health chief are also covid positive.

    They have been mingling with barangay leaders, the captains are on the ground with the sitio chairpersons, down to the relief processing and the distribution. 

    I mean...the infection probability meter is off the scale.

    MAYOR- Though a lot can be said against our mayor for his absence (on vacation in the US), lack of urgency during the first few days of the crisis and his ill thought of "mangutang muna" advise to his constituents, he doesn't deserve the bashing he is getting.  

     I too have a lot to say about how things should be done, but it's nothing personal.

    He doesn't deserve to be sick, no one does.       

    PLATFORM- I saw The Platform on Netflix. It's a about a prison where a platform comes down with food. The top floor occupants get to eat first, after they have eaten, it goes down to the next level, etc.

     I was hooked on the first few minutes. The conversations between Goring and Trimagasi was slow but it builds up the character and tension, the symbolism is also subtle and literary. 

    It's an attempt at social commentary about the trickle economy and social class struggle but after Trimagasi was killed and new characters are introduced, the allegory stops being allegorical and it became an in your face caricature which does not require that much of an imagination to interpret. 

     And when the blood and gore started, it lost me. It became a blood porn with most of the character getting killed off in brutal ways.    

    The story line is psychedelic and jumps up and down (how the hell did they get transferred from floor to floor?), the characters quirky like in Snowpiercer, which I suspect was the stock where this film was marcotted from, and the blood and gore, too much for a preachy movie.

    Is it a bad movie? From the start this is not an ordinary movie of the verse-chorus-verse kind and to expect coherence is not to be expected. But despite it, I am expecting a twist a surprise that will leave me staring up the ceiling for a few seconds. 

   I am disappointed. There is none and an attempt at positivity, the little girl survived. A child as a symbol of hope? How obvious and trite?  It is like showing a picture of a hamburger and saying that that is an allegory of a hamburger.  

    For me, Goring and Trimagasi could have pulled it off with their conversations.  It should have ended with Trimagasi eating Goring. At least that leaves a troubling and powerful image that would linger in the head for a while. 

   Is it a bad movie? The fact that I am still thinking about it, ambivalent about it.   

   Should you watch it? Yes.

   Why? Some movies are so bad they are good.

Day 15 (Community Quarantine)

      GARBAGEMAN- Meet our garbage collector, Ka Mado. He goes around the neighborhood pushing an old steel cart collecting sacks of garbage that he brings to a collection point in San Isidro. 

      There are times he rides on his motorcycle, which I think he has two or three of, to collect sacks that he missed. He owns an e-tricycle too. 

    (Amazing, here I am a decade into the teaching service and all I gotta show is a 14 year old hand me down Suzuki. Life is unfair.)

      Anyway, what amazes me most is how he maneuvers his e-trike in our narrow eskenitas which has no standard width. Ours is wide, about two and a half meters plus, but at the entrance and in the sharp corners it can get to a little more than a meter add the portruding external shelves of sari sari stores and it gets narrower still. It puzzles me how, but he does it all the time.

       Ka Mado is an interesting character, a big guy, a former soldier, and obviously financially well enough not to work. From what I heard, he has a daughter who works "abroad" that supports him.

       He is the bogey man that mothers use to scare their children. He indulges them, puts out his complete set of dentures that makes him look like the Joker, pops his eyes, open his arms wide, and ran after children. I often see one or two of girls petrified with fear, but he always stops when he knew they have had enough. He smiles and stroke their hair, to comfort them, that he meant no harm, it was for fun.

      He sings Tom Jones hits using a broken microphone from the trash. Sometimes he dance to a music only he can hear, converses with himself, does traffic enforcing when he sees the need.  

     My wife is afraid of him.

     I have had a few conversations with him and he is quite a talker. He tells stories of events, people, some I know of, some I don't, and some I think didn't happen and didn't exist at all.

    I like him. I always have this kindred spirits with weird people. People who do things not caring what other people think about them, do not care about the opinions of others. 

   Some may call him crazy (some say its warshock), but to me, he is a hard working, kind man who entertains a lot of people with his antics. A gentle grandfather to his grand daughter.

      He is nice and respectful towards me, smiles and greets me no matter what and where his mental state is.

    Of course no one dares tease him because with his built, he could knock any one down with a straight jab.

     ARITHMITIC- I am buying vegetable and giving them to the vendor. She is quoting how each item cost for a kilo, puts them on the scale, throw out numbers at me which she then adds up mentally. It's amazing how they do that. Hmmmm...I am so poor at math that  didn't check the numbers though. Too lazy for that. 

     EARLY COFFEE- I went to bed at 9. Read a chapter or two of Steinbeck's "Cannery Row". I am re reading the classic because it is one of the funniest novels I have read and each chapter could stand alone, like a short story (Anyway, not doing a book review here.)

     Sleep early, wake up early. Got up at four, buys the menu for today, brew coffee, blue tooth speaker out playing Tarregas and Bach, waiting for the sun to come out.

     It's the quarantine ritual that I will miss once things get back to what it is.

DAY 14 (Community Quarantine)

     DOGS AND POOP. It's been almost a month of idle time. 

    I am left with observing even the most mundane things like dogs pooping. For a long time I didn't mind dogs sniffing around looking for the ideal spot to defecate  on. It is weird but it is what it is. But when I released the dog this morning,  I began to think about it. There must a logical explanation for this. Dogs don't mark their territory with poop, they mark it with urine. Then why do they do it?

    Then I realized why. It is clever, really, when I think about it.

     1. They spread their poops to better the chances of people especially their owners (or humans) stepping on it.

      2. They don't want to poop on the same spot twice, they don't want fouled earth to squat on.

     3. They are fertilizing plants randomly.

     4. I am losing my marbles.

   SHAVED- I have been planning to let my hair grow long, but after flakes started to appear, due to summer heat and the stress, I guess, I dropped the idea. I am susceptible to dandruffs of the worst kind. It's the kind that sticks on the scalp, a crusty scab that I instinctively scratch with my nails til it bleeds. 

     It is only now that I see the scars.

     With long hair, I can only  imagine the dandruff, the flaking, the scabs, the bleeding, the neurotic uncontrollable scratching, and the sting of irritated, bleeding scalp when taking a bath, the cons far outweighs the pros for me.

     A shaved head on the other hand has lots of pros. 

    1. Economical: Save shampoos

     2. Cool and airy

     3. I like the serene look, reminds me of monks

     4. Most of all, it's dandruff free

     The weird thing about having a shaved head is that when I shower the water splashed down quickly without any resistance, my head is hydrodynamic.

      Secondly, it feels like Velcro, blankets, pillow cases, stick to the head when I get up in the morning. 

     PAN DE SAL- I avoid processed carbs as much as possible to help maintain my weight. It is the culprit for gain weight because it is sugar. Bread is a double whammy because it contains both processed white carbs and processed sugar. They cause insulin resistance. 

     Anyway, I just eat and stopped thinking about this weight management thing for a while. I need all the little enjoyment I could find in this boring time.

DAY 13 (Community Quarantine)

      FOOD-In a time like this it is best to avoid food that whets the appetite and teases the sweet tooth to prevent overeating. The primary consideration should be nutrition. 

     I am paying for eggs when a guy, can't ID his face because he's wearing a surgical mask, tells me that he is concerned about food. "We are eating a lot of preservatives," he said, showing a kilo of hotdogs.

      I am tempted to say that it does not have to be that way but changed my mind and instead nodded in agreement. I don't want to prolong the conversation seeing a lot of people are in line.   

     Looking around, I don't see how he thinks that way. I mean, there's plenty of fresh produce to choose from and there are no signs of the supply drying out due to the quarantine. 

    In fact, I find it more economical to buy vegetables. For a hundred pesos I can buy  a carrot and a cucumber, camote tops, two pieces of eggplants, saluyot, etc. Most of the time we just steam cook them, saves energy and cooking oil, condiments, etc. 

    Of course this works for us since we are all adults, but with children around, this diet plan may prove to be difficult. But then again, it is worth a try. It's a waste to have survived COVID only to end up with liver or kidney problems.

    There is no reason to panic and to stock up on processed food. The best rule to keep is MOVABA moderation, variety, balance and a bit of comfort food here and there to treat ourselves, not the other way around. Anyway, We are all dying and with proper nutrition, we are only delaying the inevitable.

     BACK YARD GARDENING- When the president said explore your house, this is I did. I re-discovered the backyard.

     I am aghast to see that it has become a garbage dump for the neighbors. I am tempted to shout at the neighbors, berate them, but sanity prevented me. There is no use in creating enemies especially in this stressful time. I could be hacked to death by an irate neighbor and the fact that the vacant lot is neglected give them the idea to throw trash in there. I am at fault, too.

     I cleaned the backyard .Collected the accumulated trash. Then I planted alugbati, saluyot, papaya, camote, and put all my other bonsai materials there. 

     This is what is keeping me busy these days but I am afraid I may be overdoing it because I am having back pain from squatting down.

     WASH DAY- I do the laundry and my wife does the hanging of our clothes. While eating our lunch, my daughter noticed the number of white shirts hanging outside. "Why are your shirts all white?" She asks.

       "It's comfortable." I replied.

        She sometimes complain that I look the same all the time. 

        Anyway, this another proof that I do change my clothes everyday.

DAY 12 (Community Quarantine)

       CHECK POINT- I wake up at 4:30, wash my face, put  on my rubber shoes. At 5:00, I take off for a walk.

        It's been six days since I have been to down town Taytay, when the first two positive cases are reported and quarantine passes are issued. I have been itching to go there to see what additional precautions have been added by the LGU. 

     There's a check point now. I detour to the San Isidro's interior streets to avoid it because I maybe too early and the curfew may still be on, and also my purpose is really to exercise and just gallivant around the town. I  don't want the hassle of answering questions why I am out of the house. I don't want to lie (not that I am not adept at it).

    But the interior street of San Isidro leading to the poblacion is blockaded. I have no choice but to go through the police stop.I am hesitant because from what I observed with the Cainta side, even pedestrians are thermal scanned and asked for IDs.

     Here, I just walked by without any ado. Maybe I am just too early.

    That is a downer, though, not able to use my quarantine pass.

    BOX OFFICE- Going down from the the old municipal building, I am struck by the long line of people going to the old Taytay market. I estimate maybe 300 meters and building up. What is worrying is that people are not observing social distancing. This has been going on for days, based from posts on soc med, and the authorities have not come up with any concrete ideas to address this. There are a lot of options, top of my head:

      Satelite  store

      Mobile store

      Color code the q-pass for alternate days

      Spread the market, put stalls outside and into the vacant streets to decongest. 

     I am not an expert and I don't want to sound preachy or demanding, etc. But I can't help but look at the other municipalities and see how well they are managing the crisis compared to what is happening here in Taytay. 

      It's a cluster...

     OMEGA MAN- I have tested the water. I can go out for a walk as long as the sun is still not up because social distancing is not a problem then. I own the streets and have to share it with maybe two or three people and vehicles.

     I am reminded of the movie "The  Omega Man", the story of a sole survivor of cold war biological war, the melancholy of solitude.

      Yes, I am old and many of you may not know the Omega Man and Charleston Heston, the actor who starred in it,  but it's a far better movie than the Will Smith version. 

    I saw it when I was in grade school,  on our old Nivico 12 inch portable TV, GMAs "Early, Early Movies, and the impression it left on me was indelible. 

    Gave me nightmares then.

   The nightmares are being repeated, now.

DAY 11 (Community Quarantine)

     

      PANIC- The quarantine is starting to take it's toll on us. My daughter is experiencing an anxiety attack. Fearing the virus going in her throat, she gargled mouthwash too deep in the throat which, unknown to her,  irritated it. A sore throat is a symptom of covid. Thinking that, she also started to have difficulty in breathing. She panicked, paled by fear, wept. I had to talk her out of it. 

     It is psychosomatic, the stress of hearing the death toll both here and abroad, plus the forced confinement is making her feel sick.

     We turned off the TV 

     She is ok now. 

     It is almost a decade since she last slept with us in our room, now she is. There is no social distancing when assurance is needed.

     EARLY BIRD- I wake up at 4:30 to go the Ricarte talipapa to avoid the rush of morning buyers. I have been hearing stories that people from Dolores and Cainta, where social distancing is strictly enforced and the lines to the market could go for kilometers, are pouring in to buy food stuffs. 

     This is a nightmare since the informal market is not monitored by the barangay or the Cainta LGU. People literally rub shoulders here and with the shoppers pouring in from different places with reported positive cases, the infection probability meter goes up by tenfold. 

      I think I may have overdone it because when I arrive, the stalls are still closed and the deliveries are just coming in. 

     Not a waste since I take the time to exercise my feet and walk. Ricarte has talipapa from both ends, one near Bonifacio avenue which is near us and the other end at Ortigas Extension, twenty minutes walk from the other end. 

      When I arrive at the Ortigas end, same thing, still closed and just opening. So, I walk back to where I began and is finally able to buy what I need .

      I am surprised to see that Ricarte is empty of people especially the youth. This is a densely populated street and people congregate on the sidewalk 24 hours a day. I guess the daily routine of doing nothing must have exhausted them to the max.    

     HERE COMES THE SUN- Like everybody else, the uncertainty is unsettling me. When will the the contagion be controlled ? I have been reading bad news from Europe and how covid has locked down these highly developed countries. Their health frontliners stretched to the limits.

     I am comparing it to what is happening to the Philippines, a developing third world country (I have been hearing "developing country" since my grade school days and we have not left that designation) where almost a third of the citizens live in abject poverty. Ironically,  I can't see the urgency in many people, it is as if this is another prolonged holiday for them. 

     When I see them sitting on the sidewalk,  blank look in their eyes, how they seem not to care,  I sometimes imagine that they are just waiting for it to come. 

     I try to stop thinking but that's almost impossible. 

     Sitting, waiting for the sun to come, listening to guitar music, drinking coffee, these used to be relaxing.

Day 10 (Community Quarantine)

   OCD- I am starting to defoliate (remove the leaves) of my bonsais. It is one of the most tedious but also enjoyable part of the hobby.   It requires focus and a lot of patience. I have to be careful not to break any branch because it takes along time to grow them, they are very precious. Breaking a major branch, especially the first one could reset the whole development of the tree.

    Its akin to doing surgery. In fact there is a doctor hobbyist I know in FB who use surgery tools to operate on his bonsais, part of his practice to steady his hands, I suppose.  

     With the right background music, working  on a bonsai could produce a state of zen like trance (I really don't know what that is). It is meditative and a good therapy for people suffering from OCD 

   SWEATY NIPPLES- Walking on Ricarte Street, on my way to Primark for groceries, the sun at it's peak, I expect an empty street. But judging from the density of people outside, it seems that the denizens are ignoring the quarantine. A barangay patrol even passed by and just went on its way oblivious to the people who are violating the social distancing rule.

    On closer look, I realized that many of them have no choice but to go outside,  chair on the street, shirts off, sweat trickling down their hairy nipples, smoking, eating, chatting tete a tete.

    When the house is a small room and the door opens immediately to the street, the street is the living room, the kitchen, sometimes even the bathroom.  

    LINE- I am afraid of going to the grocery stores in Dolores, Taytay because of the reported positive cases from the area. So,  I went to Primark Ortigas to buy groceries thinking that the line there would be shorter since it was way off both down town Taytay and Cainta. It was around 1:00 in the afternoon, off the peak hour for shipping too. What are the chances?

    To my surprise (not really that surprise) the line wormed its way far, far back of the building. I am an impatient person. If there are other places I could go to to avoid lines, I would go, rather than wait. Also, the shoppers were buying in bulk while my purchases would be a basket full, at best.

    Maybe there was panic buying because of a Malacanang memo about locking down markets and groceries for two weeks. It turned out to be fake news, yet. Who knows, fake news have a habit of becoming real news in this uncertain time.

    So,  I ended up where I began, at SRS Ricarte. Why did I go to Primark then?

    SRS caters to the sari sari store owners. Their items are mostly in sachets and small packages and that's not good if you're thinking of saving and at the same time cutting down the number of trip back to the grocery.

        At least, I had the chance to look around Ricarte Street.

Day 9 (Community Quarantine)

    PREVIEW- I am used to waking up around 4 in the morning, brew coffee, do a 20 minute stretching routine while listening to classical guitar music after which I take a shower. At 5, I wake up my daughter for her work, then I bring her to the UV station and I proceed to the school where I work.

    Now this routine is unsettled. I wake up an hour or two later though I sleep the same time as before. The thing is, I wake up blank. Nothing...

   I have this inner struggle to do something and not to do something. Anyway, though I still have a decade to go, I guess this is a preview of retirement. 

     DOG AND FASTING- Jaya was sick for two weeks, lethargic,  loss of appetite, mucus build up on the eyes and in the nose, black excrement, difficulty in breathing, etc. 

       This is bad. This is the symptoms that killed "Alden the dog" (yes, that is his full name). Since I don't have money for a vet and from my experience with Alden, I know any medicine is almost useless since this is a virus (I forgot the name) that is picked up from eating dirty stuff. The best thing to do is just let her be, to let her fight it off by herself.

     I didn't force feed her but I did clean her eyes and nose of mucus build up, gave her food, then waited.

      A couple of days ago, she started to smell her food, took a nip, drank water. 

      When she started to bark at anything that moves, I knew she got over it. I gave her a bath and she is well now. I learned my lesson, I keep her on a leash and never take my eyes off of her to prevent her from eating dirt. 

    I practice short fasting. I did research on it and one of the weird thing about fasting is that it helps in healing the body. According to literature (and/or videos), fasting helps the body heal through autophagy, stronger cells attacking and consuming weaker cells and along with it any pathogen and cancerous cells. The body is cannibalizing itself, to put it bluntly.

    Loss of appetite is a normal reaction of the body when sick and it is part of the healing process. Counter intuitive from what people are used to, but judging from Jaya's experience, it could be true.

  Of course I am not recommending fasting, always see a doctor. Self healing is good for minor sickness but for acute or chronic diseases , seek medical intervention.   

      SWEEPING EGGPLANTS- Usually I sweep the yard in the afternoon, after my classes. But since the lockdown, I have been doing this in the morning and in the afternoon. Like walking, it is engrossing and at the same time pumps blood to jumpstart the brain.

     There is a "wild" eggplant that grew out under one of my bonsai trees stand. My neighbor has been telling about it's fruits, "you got a long eggplant there" she said. 

    I smiled and replied, "not that long".

Day 8 (Community Quarantine)

      EXTREME-Taytay is now under extreme enhance community quarantine (the government has to stop using multiple adjectives, use color or number for intensity instead) since one death and one positive cases have been reported by DOH yesterday. 

      One of them have died and was cremated 4 days ago while the other one was confined to the hospital fighting the disease. The victims have had social contacts with many people, unrestricted. Do the algebra.

      For days, the Taytayeno behaved as if the contagion have not crossed the border. The enforcement of the quarantine was lax and I have observed a few days ago that PUVs operate despite the Luzon wide lockdown.  BUT  IT IS UP TO THE PUBLIC TO ASSUME THAT EVERYONE IS INFECTED.

     Of course, this does not mean that the LGU lied, It's just that confirmation was late in the coming.    

      BUZZING-There are mosquitoes in the house. They are starting to get on our nerves.    

      Being confined in a small space plus the incessant news both on TV and soc med of the rising statistics on new covid cases especailly near us are adding up to the stress, already a notch below panic. The mosquitoes are making it worse.

     My girls complain. 

     I spray insecticides making sure that every nook and cranny of the house is treated. We have to take our breakfast outside for thirty minutes to wait for the chemical to dissipate. We return inside only to find that there are still survivors.

    What are mosquitoes for anyway? Do they serve any purpose? 

    Malaria, dengue, chinkungunya, zika and hosts of other  mosquito borne viruses have killed more people than any diseases. 

    Thinking about COVID and mosquitoes, I realized that this insect plays a very important role: to control the population of the Earth's parasite under control. 

     I'm going nuts.

Day 7 (Community Quarantine)

      NO WALK-My two girls are concerned that my daily walk to the market raises the probability of me contracting COVID. I am tempted to argue, but I held back. Argument is bad especially when we are trapped together in an enclosed space for many more days to come. To allay their fears, I opted to stay at home and go out less.

     I enjoy my daily walk. It is my favorite exercise because it does not feel like an exercise at all, it is effortless. We are bipods and our body is designed for it. 

     One of the benefits of walking for me is that it makes me think. During walks, I have this discussion with myself with topic that ranges from movies to bonsai, fish to theology, an eclectic accumulation of loose thoughts and ideas.  

     It is only during walking that my brain goes into gear to process them. I read that this is a form of intellectual masturbation but that should not mean it is bad. The mind needs stimulation and release too. Unless processed, these thoughts will linger in the head and pester for days, a cause for insomnia

     I believe this is normal and all experience this. People just have different ways of dealing with this, processed internally (introspection),  externally (talking to people), or  drowning it out, which I think is unhealthy. 

      Anyway, I am not a psych major hmmmm more of a psycho.

     WATER- Almost half of the water we consume goes to watering the plants. I have a lot of plants and it is costing me. So, I dug a hole in the backyard where water seeps in. I get enough to water house plants except for the developed bonsai and the edible plants.

     QUARANTINE- I will be at home for two to three days and though I enjoy solitude more than company, I think I'll go crazy physically trapped in a confined space all the time.

Day 6 (Community Quarantine)

    PLASTIC- I withdraw cash from my daughter's account (she is chipping in with the expenses) and the idea of touching the keypad of the atm gives me nightmare. Shall I spray the buttons with alcohol and run the risk of short circuiting the machine and may be even igniting it? So the best solution is to wear disposable gloves, but since I do not have any, a small plastic bag will do. 

     I laugh when I see memes of a Chinese wearing plastic bag over her heads while doing grocery. Now that the virus is rampaging in the country (and  China has flattened the curve), I don't see the humor in it anymore.

     Paranoia and hypochondria is a bad combination.

     RELATIVISM- I overhear two vendors talking about the strict quarantine enforced in Cainta and Pasig. They are asked to present IDs, business permit, etc. before they can pass through the border.  Then one of the vendors boasts that he has a nephew in Ricarte, Cainta and that he and his crew are just shooed in every time his relative is on duty. He can be just bragging for all I know. The check point is manned by people from the different services making his story implausible. 

     But it is good that Pasig is enforcing its own check point becuase those who pass unchecked in Cainta are double checked in Pasig. Pinoys will always favor family. It is both a strength and a weakness in our culture.

     The virus does not exempt relatives. 

    FINALLY- The Taytay LGU is now moving. I see municipal personnels strategically positioned in the down town area. Their mere presence is reassuring, at least to me.

    The habal-habal riders that have established a station at the front of the Taytay Doctors Hospital are warned and then dispersed by the traffic group people.

    TRASH- Since Cainta has enforced a strict check point, the trash that is disposed of in the Cainta side of the border is now collecting in the Taytay side. Taytay has no check point to control the people going and out so any body can just throw their garbage where they see a pile of it.

    PRAYING- People stop to pray at the chapel. I guess in times like this, faith overcomes.

Day 5 (Community Quarantine)

     I see that Sitio Victoria is now blocked to prevent motorists from detouring to and fro. This is not in place yesterday.

     Vehicle built up is less than yesterday's. I think few riders are attempting to get through now and only those who are exempted are entering the check point.

     There are riders in front of Taytay Doctors Hospital. I hear them discreetly offering rides for a fee going to Taytay and down south, motorcycle taxis or habal-habal. I cannot blame them becuase everyone has to earn a living and the lockdown offers an opportunity for it.  But again, this shows how lax the enforcement of the quarantine in Taytay is. Motorcycle taxis are not allowed during the Luzon wide quarantine. (No picture since I do not want to get in trouble)

      I think I am becoming a hypochondriac.  I now bring an alcohol spray and everytime I touch surface or things outside the home, I instinctively spray my hands with it.

Day 4 ( Community Quarantine )

      I do not see any PUJs this morning and the column of stopped vehicles at the Ricarte check point is low compared to yesterday, about 300 meters deep.           

     Motorcycle riders have piled up at the Ricarte check point most of them coming from Ortigas Extension to avoid the blockade there since Ricarte street connects Ortigas Extension with Bonifacio Avenue going to Cainta and up north to Metro Manila.

      I think "total lock down" (fault in government semantics) has not sink in to them . I cannot blame the riders because we all have to earn a living, but when the threat of the decimation of the Filipino people from the virus is at stake, difficult measures have to be taken and there will be collateral damages.

      Again, panic buying is unwarranted from our area. The old Taytay public market, groceries, stores, sidewalk vendors etc. are open and though it is not swarming with people like in the pre-CoVID days, it is business as usual with the movement of goods coming and going unhampered. 

     I buy vegetables and bananas (no it is not a cure for Covid). Agri-produce is cheaper and healthier compared to processed food. The quarantine forces us to be  physically inactive. It is best to eat feesh foods and to exercise as often as we can to avoid health problems resulting from our forced "hibernation". 

    Our good health is our best defense against COVID.

    Fabric face mask is a rising industry in Taytay. A vendor is preparing his display. I take a picture and when he sees me,  asks me if I am would like to order in bulk. Nope, just passing by.

    It may sound insensitive and selfish but I am starting to enjoy the silence and the inactivity of the lock down. It is a long needed break from the noise and pollution from vehicles and human activity. Of course, behind the serenity are people stressed and suffering from economic losses and there is a high probability of starvation unless everybody chipped in to help the most vulnerable members of our community

   Yesterday I saw my neighbors playing bingo. It was humurous becuase they observed the one meter social distancing rule. They were having fun at the arrangement and seeing them laughing and having fun brings a bit of normalcy in this stressful time.

Day 3 (Enhanced Community Quarantine)

      There are still few jeepneys going north to Cainta from the south. I don't know how they are able to pass through Taytay unchecked despite the Luzon wide ban on mass transport. 

     There is a Cainta traffic enforcer deep into Taytay teritory reminding PUJs of the mass transport ban. It is disconcerting because there are Taytay traffic enforcers in the area and it looks like they are unaware or unconcerned about the new pronouncements made by the government.

  

 I guess the Cainta enforcer have taken the initiative to lessen the vehicle pile up at the check point.

    I walk to the old Taytay market to see if there are signs of the tightening of food supply but the old public market, groceries, stores and sidewalk vendors are teeming with activities and there seem to be no sign of any slow down or disruption in the supply chain especially in the agricultural food produce.

     Social distancing is against the Filipino nature. Arriving home from my walk, I see neighbors clumped together talking, laughing, and slapping each other on their way to buy food. The good thing is that they are wearing surgical mask. Or is it?

(Exercise is medicine. Walk to the market and do two things at once.😊)

Day 2 (Cainta Community Quarantine)

      This the first Monday of the quarantine and compared to yesterday's traffic, it is very heavy. The line of vehicles going north stretched, as of this writing, from the Cainta Ricarte checkpoint up to the old Taytay municipal hall and the volume is increasing as motorists from the southern municipalities of Rizal pile up.

    I see a few jeepneys packed with passengers  coming from Taytay to Cainta. Once at the checkpoint, these jeepneys will be checked and the excess passengers disembarked to comply with social distancing. This is the problem when there is no coordinated province wide quarantine like what Metro Manila has done. The virus do not move, people do and when social distancing is observed in one town but not in another,  do the math.

     I see no Taytay PNP- LGU people that enforce social distancing in public utility vehicles, yet. 

     Motorcycle are piling up in a disorderly way. They  should keep themselves in line mindful that the quarantine team are already overwhelmed by the pile up. 

    At  the school, I see the maintenance guys are busy doing their jobs despite the COVID threat. 

    I have been to four groceries looking for tasty bread and disappointed but not surprised to find out that it is out of stock. 

    The old Taytay market is teeming with people and social distancing is not observed. Imagine if one or two of them are infected and the surfaces they touch, or a sneeze here and there... 

     More people are buying bananas. I think it is humorous how people can jump into a band wagon because of a post in social media about bananas and Covid.

    The road going down south is almost empty and is ideal for walking. 

     So, don't forget to exercise, go out for a walk for an hour or less just be mindful of social distancing or do exercises while at home in quarantine. It is medicine.

Day 1 (Community Quarantine)

      The Cainta check point is in place at the Estrella (Ricarte) boundary.  I see policemen, a pair of armed AFP personnels and traffic enforcers. 

     Motorists can help speed up the process by preparing their documents on hand ready to present for checking by the authorities. 

     The community quarantine in MM and Cainta is very porous and a lot of infected people may have passed through the precautions in place. There are cases being reported in the provinces especially in CALABARZON. Other LGUs must not wait for breakouts in their locality to act and must start their own community quarantine sans reported cases because the probability of an unreported case is very high, a certainty.

    To avoid the hassle of being stopped on my motorcycle,  I walk my way to a bank in Taytay to withdraw cash. This is a Sunday and the town proper should be teeming  with people from church goers, shoppers, to promenaders. It is evident from the less number of people in the area that they are mindful of the precautions especially social distancing that are suggested by the authorities.