Cemetary time

In the USA, they celebrate Haloween, in Mexico the celebrate the day of the dead, but here they have Undas, where the family visits the graves of their loved ones, cleans up and decorates the grave, and then stays awhile and has a picnic.

Not this year, however...Here the mayor explains why the cemeteries are closed for Undas, 

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oh well... after Lolo died, I would visit his grave almost every day the first year and after that about once a week. But since the virus hit, I haven't been there at all. I haven't been at mass either, or gone to the mall for almost a year.

But one problem with the cemeteries being closed is that funerals are also delayed: so the little old lady who lives next door had to remain unburied for 6 days.

No, not Covid: She was 90 years old and was sitting outside in the morning and felt sick and came in the house and died quietly.

She has lots of relatives: so delaying a funeral is not unusual... often the burial is delayed for overseas relatives, but of course, now no body is coming in from overseas because they might have to wait in quarantine for two weeks. (Latest rules are here because they keep changing).

well,l anyway, they held a wake at her home since she died, and there are a lot of neighbors and extended family coming to visit. Usually this means you come and say a quick prayer and then sit around eating snacks and socializing: Often the men play cards outside under an awning....  so it means the street is partly blocked, and we have cars and tricycles parked in front of our garage. No problem: We parked the large truck in the front garden.

Last night they had music to entertain the visitors, with a singer and recorded music. But this morning, they hired a band to play very sad music that makes me want to cry... 

usually the band accompanies the deceased to the church and then to the cemetery. However, churches are still closed, so no Mass. Father will bless the gravesite and say prayers for her there.

No, I am not going with them: to far for me to walk in procession, but the cook is going and I gave her money for a tricycle. She and our secretary will represent our family at the funeral.

The cook goes to all the funerals: She is probably related to half the people in our barangay (neighborhood) and she knows everyone and knows all the news and rumors in our town.

Joy had a rice delivery today and has to drop off some papers, and will try to pick up my renewed retirement visa papers. Due to the virus, they don't expect me to pick it up myself as I had to do in past years.

The young men accompanying the delivery arrived at 3:20 a.m. and kept ringing the bell and got all the dogs upset, so the noise woke me up. The truck and driver arrived at 4 am,.. the traffic to Manila is terrible, and although without traffice it takes 3 hours, sometimes it actually takes 5 hours and more if the inspection line is long. The road is improved from when we first moved here, but with increased prosperity it means more cars and trucks too. 

so anyway I've been up since 3:30 am and will probably go back to sleep after lunch.

Kuya harvested rice at the farm yesterday, and may finish drying it today if the sunshine continues. There is alas another typhoon due to hit the Philippines but this one is aiming at the far north, so unless it is large, we shouldn't be bothered with heavy rain.

They were very worried about Typhoon last week, but luckily for Manila and for us, it changed course south a bit and missed us... it hit a less populated rural area, and it went through quickly (meaning not dumping a lot of rain to flood everywhere).

To put things into perspective, here is a paragraph from the AP report on the typhoon.

About 20 typhoons and storms annually batter the Philippines, and the Southeast Asian archipelago is seismically active, with earthquakes and volcanic eruptions, making it one of the world’s most disaster-prone countries.

 and not just earthquakes, volcanoes and typhoons: Don't forget Dengue fever. There seems to be fewer cases this year, probably because everyone stayed inside due to covid.

A year after the national dengue epidemic was declared, she said reported dengue cases have dropped from 430,282 in 2019 to 59,675 in 2020... dengue deaths have also significantly dropped from 1,612 deaths in 2019 to 231 in 2020.

compare this to covid: 

the ministry said total confirmed cases had increased to 388,137, while deaths had reached 7,367. The Philippines has the second-highest number of COVID-19 cases and deaths in Southeast Asia behind Indonesia.

in the meanwhile, the country is making plans to use a vaccine as soon as it is available: Duterte perfers the Russian Sputnik vaccine or the US Moderna vaccine.  link2

The US moderna vaccine should have been released in September, but has been held up because of Politics, which seems crazier than usual in the USA this year. Yup. let people die because Trump. And of course the anti vaxers would let thousands die rather than risk a dozen deaths from side effects. 

and this doesn't count the deaths from malnutrition and because people aren't getting treatable diseases treated because they are afraid of going to the hospital.

Sigh.