23 May 2020 – Days are tough in the days of the #corona Waiting for ayuda, hearing further disadvantaged people scrambling for relief, but some just waiting to be served, as in ‘ihahain na lang’ [Read more]

23 May 2020 – Days are tough in the days of the #corona

Waiting for ayuda, hearing further disadvantaged people scrambling for relief, but some just waiting to be served, as in ‘ihahain na lang’

Those other frontliners, grocers, delivery persons, guards, essential non-health workers, on duty while the world takes them for granted or demands more from them …

Tough, with intermittent internet, limited physical interaction, voices without faces, while cooped in my aerie
Watching the city wake up, no roosters, a few dogs barking in the distance, a few walkers
Who tells those flying doves who the lead dove is, how could they fly with such precision?
Watching a rubber tree add red leaves one by one, or tomatoes quickly sprout from seeds, and die with too little sun
Am I overwatering my solitary (imported) pepper plant? It is wilting. True, the sun is hot, but the soil is damp from watering everyday …
Was it the change in where the sun shines through the day?
The welcome plants track the sun, the plants turning with the sun.
A Korean couple with their precision dance exercises every other day, or so. And then they get whisked off in a car!
Joggers, walkers, with masks, joggers without, such show or no-show of respect or consideration of others
I can see, there are always vehicles traversing the streets, even during curfew; all types, trucks, buses, jeepneys, tricycles, motorcycles, bikes, but no roller blades or skateboards
Watching a colorful colony of homeless build day by day, and poof! suddenly disappear, one morning
Mixed feelings having to go downstairs for delivery, twice a week; dreading the trip through the corridors, elevators, lobby
Having to disinfect plastic bags, boxes, grocery, goods, then ‘quarantining’ merchandise in the washing space
Spraying the corridor fronting my door, and then locks, doorknobs, countertops, everything touched, and then direct to the bath …
Early on, my Lazada order for face masks placed, processed and … cancelled, but thankfully reimbursed,
as my Taal volcano hoard of masks dwindle though time
Sometime entrepreneurs taking advantage, maximizing opportunity; price-gouging of ‘essential’ items or ‘desired’ goods or services …
Aimlessly shuffling through Netflix, Apple TV, cable, with so much violence, horror, and rare treats with redeeming social value
Getting tired of all those raised voices, shouting, on Asian dramas, but rediscovering favorite movies …
A daily battle with the guards to keep the door closed
Cooking food, tuyo, corned beef, sardines, from neighbors, wafting through the door and ‘window’
While getting news of positive #coronavirus cases in the compound only through the rumor mill
A lot of incompetence, a lack of common sense, indifference, arrogance, lies, even when caught in flagrante delicto
Those arrogant posturing without service delivery …
Avoiding neighbors like the plague, isn’t #coronavirus a plague?
Hankering for my Jollibee hamburger, and dreading how the Jollibee stock price teeters …
Monitoring complaints and service for upended workers and OFWs …
Appreciating others’ appreciation of the need for organizations and unions to get things moving and done in these times …
Wahl hair clipper arriving, and home haircut done, after three months of watching sparse hair starting to tangle …
The city looks so peaceful, so ‘visible’, clear skies, multi-shaped clouds, multi-colored curls. I now can see things, billboards, towers, hitherto obscured by pollution.
Sudden thunderstorms, blanketing the world, the heavy curtain of water, the cool air, as ephemeral as early morning dew.
Wishing the #coronavirus were as fleeting …