to go outside, you need a mask, and at the bank, the security guard gives you a number and you sit outside in the hot sun until it's your turn... only 4 people at a time inside the bank. They clean your hands on entering by spraying your hands with alcohol, and the guard inside checks your temperture by pointing a thermometer scanner at your forehead.
Then you you wait your tuwn to do your business.
I still can't get my US check cashed because there is no courier service to Manila office to process it, but wire transfers are being done.
What would we do without the internet and cellphones? They do help.
I live here free in my husband's house (I cannot own property in the Philippines, since I am not a citizen), but I help with household expenses by supplying food for everyone who works here.
The cook buys food every day, except of course our rice, which we grow and sell so always have plenty of it here. I am not sure how she does this, since we were told they are being strict about only letting people shop two days a week, but I was told that this doesn't cover necessities, such as local fish, meat, fruit, carabao milk, local pandesal, and veggies that would otherwise spoil... but only only stuff you buy inside grocery stores... like coffee, cheese, soap, etc.
I sent the maid to the grocery store for "extras" e.g. bread, coffee (3 in one by sachet i.e. single serving small packs), soap and bleach for cleaning clothes and floors and doggy accidents, was for the hardwood floors of the bedroos, etc.
I also gave her money to buy special formula for her nieces' babies: The niece had twins, and one is sickly and is on a special formula that costs 800 pesos for a week supply. Luckily she is much better, and starting to eat food.
Child mortality is low, but we still hear of children who die from fevers (dengue, diarrhea, pneumonia, RSV) and now every death is blamed on the virus. But I worry: Because in the hot season, those with diabetes, asthma, and high blood pressure are at risk. And with the shutdown and job loss, many can't afford their medicines.
Sigh.
More people were on the street today than last time I ventured out, maybe because everyone in our "barangay" is shopping today. A lot of farm/agri/animal feed stores seemed to be busy. The "wet market" i.e. palenke to buy meat and fish, was stinking today: I could smell it from the street, which is unusual this early in the morning even in hot season. I hope we don't have food poisoning: But the cook tends to over cook our food, meaning a lot of it ends up being given to the cats. And cats won't eat rotten food, so we figure if the cat is willing to eat it, it is fresh enough for us.
Right now, our business compound is quiet: The workers are busy at the farm, but in other times they are busy repairing farm machinery here (the expensive tools are kept here in our garage, because things tend to "walk away" or get borrowed in the Philippines).
Tag-Init is here, meaning the hot season before the rainy season/monsoon begins.
Brownouts should start soon, but so far we have not had problems with electricity, water, cable tv or internet.
In the evening, we have started watching TV in my bedroom, which has the large screen TV.
With the "google home" attachment, I can stream Youtube videos to our TV from my tablet instead of streaming from the computer or from a downloaded copy on a thumb drive. When Lolo was still alive, we used to watch a lot of DVD on our old tv, that I would rip and burn so Lolo could watch nature shows after his hearing got too bad to follow films without subtitles.
Right now, we are watching K dramas or old movies, including Agatha Christie movies that a guy in Lebanon is posting with Arab subtitles (until the internet cops find it and remove them again). Reading comments on his site is interesting, since he reports a lot of people there are hurting from the virus and many of comments thank him for posting something to watch while stuck at home and add comments on how their countries are doing.
In other words, the "virus" horror and lock down is world wide, and the problems it is causing outside the US is not usually recognized by the MSM there, to my frustration. However, the internet is around, and one can find information by checking in on overseas news sources.
For example, the BBC finally had an article about the danger of hunger in the near future in Africa: not just the lockdown and collapse of the supply chain, but locusts..., and AlJ has a lot of articles about various countries.
South America is affected too...My son reported his brother in Colombia said only a few cases had been treated in their small mountain city, but said that the government officials supposed to give aid to folks in lockdown were stealing the money..., and it's no just his town: I ran across an article that reported the same thing so it's not just his town.
Corruption kills, especially in emergencies.
sigh.
China is using the emergency that they caused to continue their aggression in the West Philippine sea.
And Happy Earth day Greens: They are continuing to dig up the seabeds to extend their artificial islands without you opening your mouth to protest it, in the same way you aren't protesting when they send their factory ships to over fish the seas as far south as Indonesia.
The latest? when one local senator here protested their destruction of the environment, the Chinese embassy pushed back and warned him to shut up. From the Inquirer:
MANILA, Philippines — The Chinese Embassy in Manila slammed as “ridiculously absurd” and “irresponsible” the remarks of a senator that China should pay up for the cost of the Philippines’ COVID-19 response as compensation for damaging the latter’s reef ecosystems. “At this trying time, it is ridiculously absurd and irresponsible to make such remarks for the sole purpose of catching eyeballs and for selfish political gains,” the embassy said in a statement on Wednesday...
“China and the Philippines are friendly neighbors across the sea,” the embassy continued. Reports say that the Asian powerhouse continues its reclamation activities in contested areas in the South China Sea even as the world grapples with the crisis brought about by COVID-19, which first broke out in China’s Wuhan City, Hubei province, late last year.more here about their slow march to take over the West Philippine sea that has been part of VietNam and the Philippines according to both history and international law.
China has also arrested some of the leaders of the Hong Kong democracy protests, and is busy pushing lies about the source of the virus and infiltrating Facebook and the social media to promote social unrest in the USA etc.
in the meanwhile, Trumpieboy called Duterte and promised to send aid.
Duterte stopped the US training here and hates the CIA, who has been trying to push the opposition to him under the guise of human rights problems with the drug war (just ignore that crime is down and ordinary people are safer, so Duterte is popular among the non elites here.).
from CNNPH
The American Embassy in Manila announced Wednesday that the U.S. government has increased its donations to the country to provide for laboratory and specimen-transport systems, and to help health professionals enhance case-finding and disease surveillance.
The funding will also aid Filipino and international technical experts in risk communication, infection prevention and control efforts, hand washing and hygiene promotion, and community-level preparedness response, it added.
Outside of the elite, most Filipinos distrust China, partly because the oligarchy of rich families has Chinese ancestry.
So ignore the propaganda about a rift in the relationship: locals prefer the Americans to the Chinese, and it's common knowledge that China's newspapers have had articles in them insisting that Luzon was once part of China and hinting that it should be part of China in the future.
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