How to
Survive this Lockdown
It’s been weeks since the lockdown
began, and how are you faring? I left the Philippines on the day the lockdown
began, March 15, and arrived in Malaysia, where I work, a day before their own
lock down began. I had no Wifi and until now use my mobile-phone hotspot to communicate
with the world.
I had asked my yaya to press my
shirts and pants in Manila, and so they went to my luggage, as well as my
comfort food for this lockdown: tuyo in bottles, corned beef made in the
Philippines, powdered preparations for afritada, caldereta, menudo, palabok,
and tocino.
In a famous essay called “Where’s
the Patis?”, award-winning writer Carmen Guerrero Nakpil said that you can
bring the Filipino to lands faraway and genteel, but you can never separate him
from his palate. In short, the Filipino will always hanker for his sawsawan of
patis and toyo, will always look for his suka and bawang, will search for
condiments so he or she can cook his favorite Filipino food.
Aside from comfort food, what else
can we do to survive in this lock down? I went to the Unicef (United Nations
Children’s Education Fund) and other sources for tips and techniques so we can
stay sane and safe in these most terrible of times.
One is to stick to a routine or
start new ones. Get and up and go to sleep at regular hours. Get dressed,
exercise, take a shower. Do the dishes and clean your house. This is not
difficult for me, but what complicated things is that we have to do online
teaching. So I had to learn a new learning platform called Microsoft Teams in a
week, as well as upload my lectures in Echo 360 and prepare PowerPoints for my
class.
Which reminded me of the next tip:
stay connected. Have video chats with friends and family. Open up about your
feelings, which at this time includes boredom and loneliness. Check up on colleagues,
especially those who live alone. This goes for expatriates like myself and
other overseas Filipino workers (OFWs).
Moreover, we should engage in
hobbies and do things that we enjoy. I have finally arranged my things in my new
condo: the kitchen, the sala, the toilets, the bedrooms. I have also chosen the
books I will read. I found an empty, green wine bottle left by the former
occupant, and turned it into a lovely flower vase for my three bouquets made
from linen. Next is I will start a small home garden of herbs in my balcony, to
grow green things that I can use for my cooking and hopefully have flowers that
will add a rainbow of colors to my house.
Unicef also recommends that we set
up a worry window. Write down your worries and thoughts about the day just past.
Think of them at a specific time of the day. My first novel, Riverrun, was
supposed to be published by Penguin Random House this April 14 but it has to be
moved to another unknown date, due to supply-chain issues. Penguin said it
wants a “big bang” to accompany my launching, which cannot simply be done
because how to bring the books to the stores and the readers’ hands?
Yes,
those hands. Keep them gloved when you go the grocery, with a face mask on.
Wear long-sleeved shirts and pants. Focus on your well-being practices. Use
meditation and mindfulness apps. Exercise, which for me means walking up and
down the condo building every day. Think of happy things that you are grateful for.
And speaking of food, I hark back
to memories of the stories that my grandmother and my parents told me, on how
they survived World War II. Their families had fled to the forests, to escape
the wrath of the Japanese Imperial Army. They had the clothes on their back,
pots and pans, five chickens and two pigs. When the provisions ran out, they
had to forage for food in the forest.
My eyes widened at the things that
can be eaten in the forest. Aside from tubers and their leaves (taro and sweet
potatoes) , they also cooked and ate the pith of banana trunks as well as the
leaves of cassava, which we kids later turned into impromptu necklaces. If they
found a young jackfruit it was cooked in coconut milk, with the small shrimps
that used to cluster near river banks, when
the rivers were still clear and flowing. Later the seeds could be boiled
and eaten, and when ripe, jackfruit is of course an excellent and healthy
dessert, eaten as it is.
Young bananas they turned into
linupak, and overripe bananas were baked in charcoal ovens and turned into
bread. Dried fish was a premium and it could be paired with taro as carbo
extender when the supply of rice was low. Taro could be later dipped in sugar
and serve as dessert. I was born in Basa
Air Base, Pampanga, and love fermented food, so today, we can also ferment fish
and shrimps, with less salt. Rice broth with sugar is a healthy drink called am,
and tea bags were used twice.
And now, I have learnt to recycle
food. Leftover corned beef can be used for sinigang. Frozen bamboo clams can be
cooked in various ways. And leftover fish can be mashed with bread plus onion,
ground pepper, and two eggs, and voila! You have a wonderful set of fish cakes.
The Filipino is a survivor of
wars, dictatorships, earthquakes, floods and volcanic eruptions. All is not
lost. There is still music (I listen to original Pilipino Music, or OPM). I
write my second novel, laugh at the inanities in social media, and revel at the
sight and sound of the ones I love, even if glimpsed only through Messenger.
Now that is a perfect name for an app.
Published in the Philippine STAR
April 18, 2020
Published in the Philippine STAR
April 18, 2020
(Danton
Remoto is the Head of School and Professor of Creative Writing at the
University of Nottingham Malaysia. His email is
danton.remoto@nottingham.edu.my)
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