Life in the Midst of COVID-19 (Published by Ukiyoto Publishing)

August 2020

The start of the month of August was a little bit challenging. I was not feeling well. My stomach was inexplicably in pain. It was really painful and to the point I was fainted! I couldn't feel the environment and for me it was blurry. I couldn't eat my breakfast well. So I had no choice but to ask help from my younger brother.

I really felt pity to my brother because he had a big wound on his little finger but I left no choice. I asked him to prepare hot water for me. Later, I asked him to get young guava leaves for we run out of commercial medicine. I was lying as I waited my brother. My father was furious because I wasn't able to cook vegetable soup for him. He's also sick and was starving but I had nothing to do. I was sick and in pain too. Minutes passed I was happy because he went back carrying the young leaves and went back safely. After I chewed the young leaves, I was alright and I fall asleep. One hour later, I woke up and regained my strength.

August 03. I received a message from a private school in Barili which informed me the schedule of my teaching demonstration. I couldn't forget that I was writing my novel but suddenly a message popped up on my phone. I felt very happy at the same time I was sweating and I felt so nervous. My parents were very happy, too. My younger brother and I immediately went to a sari-sari store to buy load so that I could reply the message and told my two brothers about that. It was fun walking how many kilometer with my brother. I really missed and loved that feeling. Walking on a country road while breathing the fresh air. At the same time time, sightseeing to the trees and green mountains.

However when night came, my parents were arguing about something. They were saying bad things to each other loudly. I was just continue writing my novel and ignored them. I believe it is part of marriage life. So why bother?

Next morning, I noticed that they were ignoring each other. My mother was silent when she left our home to go to our town. Usually, she would bid goodbye to us but that time she didn't say anything.

It was almost dark when the motorcycle came to our house. However, my mother didn't ride that motorcycle. My mother wasn't around anymore. We wondered where she went. My father and my brother kept on searching but she's nowhere to be found. I kept on communicating our relatives because we thought that she went there. I was scared that maybe she ran away because they were fighting with my father. I was so angry so I scolded my father about that. I kept on praying that I hope she won't. Praise God! She wasn't. She just went to other people's home to get herbal medicine and documents for my father and for me. We were so happy about that and they are okay once again.

August 07. I prepared the papers and documents to travel when suddenly my brother had an accident! He accidentally slipped on the floor. Still he was blessed for his head wasn't hit on the floor but his chin instead. His chin had a big wound. We just used some herbal plants as his medicine but the blood kept on dripping. We decided that we should go to town to see a doctor.

Another challenging thing there was we had no electricity for the wire from the post was broken due to the strong winds. It was very hard. The battery of my cellphone was only less than 15% and my parent's cellphone was completely empty. I texted the CEBECO management about our problem. Praise God! They replied immediately. Sad to say, my phone's battery was critically low. So I decided to go to my neighbor's home so that I could charge my phone there. The weather was not good that time for it was raining very hard. I went to my neighbor's home and asked if I could charged our phones. We were blessed for our neighbor permitted us to charge our phones for free.

After we ate lunch, I got my phone even if it was just 25%. We walked the road and really prayed that we could ride a motorcycle but hours passed, there's no motorcycle. We really prayed and praise God! God granted our prayer.

The weather turned nice suddenly. We went to town successfully and the doctor immediately did the stitching to the wound of my brother. I really felt pity to my brother but it was for the best. Later he handed me the medicine that needed to be bought. I didn't mind first in buying those medicines for I process the papers for me to travel. Unfortunately, there's no office that day. I was sad but they told me to go to the authority's house so that I could get a permit. I got it though the fare was so expensive but it's okay. As I processed the papers, I was so glad thto all the staffs were very friendly and approachable. Praise God! Everything's done after.