Philippine Quarantine Day 9: Peace

philippine quarantine day 9

Last Updated on May 28, 2023 by Ellen

We are healthy. We are safe. We are at peace.

It’s hard to believe nine days of quarantine have gone by already. So much has happened in the world (we keep abreast online and via cable TV).

Yet here, in the area around our restricted Philippine beach resort, it seems like hardly anything is changed or amiss.

Philippine Quarantine Day 9

Peaceful neighborhood

From our second and third floor perches we watch the daily lives of the local Philippine people. They appear little different than what we’ve seen in other places in this country over the past four months.

Moms care for toddlers, laundry hang dries, home improvements and construction is done, kids play basketball, men smoke cigarettes and talk.

neighbor's laundry, neighbors digging, kids playing basketball on philippine quarantine day 9

Scenes of ravaged stores and hospital chaos and mourning for the dead  remain, thankfully, a world away from this peaceful place. Although here too residents are out of work, have little money, and are frightened and unsure.

Moreover, there will be no multi-trillion dollar aid package for these people. Many won’t have their regular jobs until tourists return to these beautiful beaches. The future is as uncertain as anywhere else. 

Peaceful, but paused

Like everywhere, life is on pause. But one gets the sense that it’s not that different from other pauses – other problems.

The Philippine people are well used to disruptions and disasters; typhoons, floods, earthquakes, landslides, volcanoes. Our seaside compound is still repairing damage caused by Typhoon Ursula on this past Christmas Day.

One could argue this situation is ‘easier’. Nothing has been destroyed.  There are no known cases of COVID-19 in this province. Fish are still pulled from the sea, fruits and vegetables harvested, rice is plentiful. Even to an outsider, it feels like it’s always been this way.

There is a cadence to life here. Like waves on the seashore. The nets are cast. The nets drawn in. The nets repaired. We will wait for the world to repair.

fishermen paddle in the sea with nets; men ashore untangle nets

Over the last couple days, I’ve watched a guy carve a boat oar out of a plank of wood. What a lathe could do in 30 seconds took him hours and hours with a machete and whittling knife.

man sits at table with newly finished, hand-made boat oar on philippine quarantine day 9

A small Pepsi truck made a delivery to the nearby corner store today. Full cases were unloaded — swapped for a big stack of reusable glass bottles which were then carted away.

man delivers cases of soda from a pepsi truck at a neighborhood store

A pickup truck with rice milling machine came to the neighborhood. Huge bags of recently harvested, dried rice were carried from different homes to be processed. The machine vibrates the husk and bran off – leaving edible rice kernels.

men take rice to mill truck in neighborhood on day 9 of our philippine quarantine

Vendors regularly putt through the neighborhood on motor scooters, hawking their wares: bread rolls, duck embryos (balut), peanuts, pudding parfaits, etc.

mobile vendors sell things in the neighborhood on philippine quarantine day 9

Manna from heaven

It all feels simple, natural, nostalgic in some way. And it gives me confidence that we are in a good place – the right place – to ride out whatever is yet to come from this global pandemic.

In fact, I have a new ‘all-natural’ pastime: feeding pigs. From our rooftop, it’s easy and fun to toss our organic refuse — pineapple and melon rinds, vegetable skins, etc. — down into a pen that houses two medium-sized pigs in the next yard.

The pigs are so happy; tails wagging and squealing with delight. Food is falling from the heavens!

Life is now!

tedly gets ready to throw organic food waste to pigs in the next yard
Thanks for reading Philippine Quarantine Day 9: Peace.

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4 thoughts on “Philippine Quarantine Day 9: Peace”

    1. Haha! That’s a great video! Thanks for the smiles. Had to turn the volume way up to hear the announcer over the rooster squawks this morning 😉

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