Bobbie | how to put down roots in a ‘new’ city during the pandemic?
Bobbie and I attended DePaul together —sharing classes and friends for four fun Chicago years. She’s always been such an inspiration. Kind, adventurous, and super strong (running marathons, what?!)— it was a thrill to catch up over Zoom and a very large time difference to hear about her pandemic experience in her hometown of Manila in the Philippines. Recorded December 7th 2020. Enjoy!
I think it’s been an interesting transition because, I am originally from here, but I haven’t been living in Manila since I was four years old, although I’ve visited in holidays.
I was so bored at one point during our lockdown I joined the #MusuemChallenge. This was the (sad), rough result.
“My transition here has been difficult, especially with the pandemic. When you’re new in a different place you’re always looking for a sense of community, looking to explore new places within the country you move to, getting to know people, especially starting my new job too. But again, with the pandemic three months in, all of that kind of stopped. It was doubly isolating in some senses.
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“Hard to re-root myself in my culture and new community, or feel rooted in anything. It’s been a hard tension place to be in, but aso find creative outlets. Like, meeting new people during a pandemic— how does that happen? I don’t know the answer to that still!”
“In the Philippines it’s been different then some places because we had a harsher lock down. So, it happened in end of February/early March. And the lock down was a bit stricter mid March because it was only allowed that one person per household was allowed to leave and only to get groceries or in case of medical emergency. That was supposed to last for a month and was extended until May. And then, after may it slowly loosened up, and then back in that again. ”
During Enhanced Community Quarantine (ECQ) here (basically lockdown), only one person per household was allowed out and only to get groceries / in case of a medical emergency. The one designated person had to get this government-issued pass to allow them to leave their house. This lasted about 3 months.
“How do you find the rhythms of a new place when even the pandemic has made it hard to find your own rhythm. So creative ways to experience a new place or new community
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“I didn’t realize this, but I hadn’t sat down and seen someone face to face and talked to them between March to late August or September. So that was a bit of a shock to me. And I was... really nervous! Makes you realize how normalized a very uncomfortable situation has become, in some senses. ”
“I’m working from home since March...the work that I do is actually with a development humanitarian organization called Save the Children. So I think being able to work in that setting has been also fascinating because you see— sort of my own privilege and the discrepancies. We were actually hit with some typhoons— since it’s typhoon season— and one of them was a super typhoon. And so, you see places already hit economically, people losing their livelihoods— also be hit by a natural disaster. Which makes it a lot harder for them to have basic access to water or food.
We created a covid 19 response of our own. It’s been difficult because we had programs prior that also needed funding. So that’s where the difficulty is, because we are looking to fund raise and get donations, but given everything that’s happened it’s a bit tough to do that. There’s a lot of need, but not enough people to help fill that need financially. Difficult to reach those who need it. ”
As I mentioned during our conversation, prior to COVID-19, areas of the Philippines were still recovering from destruction caused by a volcanic eruption, which were followed by earthquakes. Then we also had additional recent disasters like Supertyphoon Rolly which caused major devastation and flooding. This picture is a snapshot from the organization I work with, which captures children and families affected by these disasters, whose lives are even moreso upended and impacted due to COVID-19.
“A lot of crying. I say that jokingly but also serious. The first couple weeks of the lockdown I was like, ‘oh this won’t last long I can handle this.’ So I went gung-ho like ‘this is time for self improvement.’ I’m not someone who likes to sit still so I did everything. I started writing letters to people, I started cooking— curries, I learned how to play poker, I read a lot of books. I really went insane I think! I was just tying to find all these different things to not— I knew I felt isolated but I didn’t want to feel that way.
Once I realized it would be extended longer— just taking the time to just do nothing. Not having to “self improve” and quieting the noise.
Kind of coming to terms with the isolation and how heavy that can feel, and not needing to hide from it.”
“Even though we are in different places there are a lot of connecting themes...it’s been— I don’t want to say great—but I’ve really appreciated being able to hear people’s honesty about what people have hated or liked about this experience and the extremes that they’ve been feeling.
If we normalize the situation so much, then we don’t really hear how people are doing...Makes you feel less alone in your experiences.”
Photos: Bobbie
