Post-Lockdown Balikbayan

/

After three years of staying put, we ventured across the ocean again for our first balikbayan visit to our Motherland. It is still quite a health risk -- breathing the same air with hundreds at the airports and on the plane for hours is not a good thing for anyone. A small consolation: we took an Asian airline and most of the passengers were masked all throughout, with few exceptions.

Manila traffic is back to being horrendous after two years of relative ease. It's too early to say how the pandemic has changed lives, scenes and attitudes but let me say this: unlike California, almost everyone including those walking down the streets, are masked. I tried entering a building and was stopped because I had no mask on (left in the car, masking being already less routine for me). I had to walk back to retrieve it.

Almost two years of lockdown and restrictions were life-changing for many and not in a good way. Those who earned daily wages are still trying to rise from the devastation of lost income. But there is always a good side, especially for those who didn't go hungry. They were able to reconnect with their neighbors, clean up their surroundings and realized how good it was to eat less, move more and yes, do their part in beating the virus by masking and distancing. Like anywhere else, many creative, home-produced products proliferated, changing the landscape of small business in the country.

Unlike typhoons, fires and other natural disasters that affect specific areas, the pandemic affected everyone regardless of class and status. It is quite the great equalizer.

                                                        - Gemma, writing from Manila

/ /
, , , ,

Gemma Nemenzo

Editor, Positively Filipino