Filipinos #CopingWithCovid — Barbara Ann Jacala, San Diego, CA, USA

The fol­low­ing is part of my series, Fil­ipinos Cop­ing with Covid.

Respond­ing to my inter­view ques­tions, Bar­bara Ann Velas­co Jacala describes life for her in San Diego, USA, dur­ing the time of coro­n­avirus. She and her hus­band Jack have been quar­an­ti­ning with their youngest daugh­ter and her fam­i­ly. 

This was writ­ten on May 24, 2020.  Update. as of July 10, 2020, the coro­n­avirus cas­es and deaths have soared in the US. Copy­right 2020 by Cecil­ia Brainard ~ Cecil­ia Brainard

Life in San Diego, USA dur­ing Covid 19

By Bar­bara Ann Velas­co

Dear Cecil­ia,

My hus­band Jack and I are quar­an­ti­ning in San Diego with our youngest daugh­ter and her fam­i­ly. We’re tak­ing the lock­down as an oppor­tu­ni­ty to be hands-on with  our three grand­kids (5, 3, and 1).

I am retired and ful­ly help­ing with fam­i­ly at home. My daugh­ter and son-in-law are work­ing remote­ly. The eldest grand­child is now home­school­ing and the younger ones are home from day­care. When my hus­band and I come in from errands, our kiss­es and hugs are held off until we wash up.

We were not affect­ed finan­cial­ly but we received a stim­u­lus check, which we splurged.

In the morn­ing, I exer­cise with my daugh­ter and grand­daugh­ter fol­low­ing online Zum­ba. I also place pick­le­ball with my hus­band at a pri­vate ten­nis court.

We wear face masks which we sewed for every fam­i­ly mem­ber. We also observe 6 feet social dis­tanc­ing.

Dai­ly rou­tine: We care for the baby in the day­time to allow daughter/ son-in-law to work. We also sit with own daugh­ter for school work; par­ents had to learn Google class­room, clever and see­saw to help their kids do online class­es.

We do gro­cery runs but choose mar­kets that have no lines. At one time there was a short­age of rice in the stores. Ven­dor assigned num­bers to cus­tomers and phoned them to pick­up when their num­ber came up.

We shop online (Ama­zon) and go to stores such as Tar­get, Wal­mart, 99 Cents, and gro­cery stores.

We cook in dai­ly or do sand­wich­es.

I do not feel anx­ious. I feel nor­mal.

I miss eat­ing in restau­rants, going to church, gyms, con­certs, and trav­el­ling. 

My tips to sur­viv­ing this pan­dem­ic: Enjoy being a fam­i­ly. Plan on hav­ing a 500‑1000 piece puz­zle to work on and exchange with oth­er fam­i­lies. Change into day clothes and not stay in paja­mas all day. Keep wake up and sleep sched­ule. We have been appre­ci­at­ing spe­cial shows on TV, eg,  Lly­od Web­ber pro­duc­tions.

Oth­er thoughts about the cur­rent sit­u­a­tion:

My daugh­ter Joie in Wash­ing­ton is an East­ern Med­i­cine provider who start­ed a telemed­i­cine ser­vice on top of her clin­ic. She is also at home with three chil­dren under the age of eight. She lets them zoom with their cousins/classmates and occa­sion­al­ly does e‑challenge activ­i­ties with them. Her chil­dren do online mar­tial arts.

My oth­er daugh­ter Gail in Guam, is a uni­ver­si­ty pro­fes­sor who now teach­es her class­es online. Her hus­band is at sea.   He taught the sailors how to make a T‑shirt into a mask Guam style. Her two teenage chil­dren are now home­school­ing. The fam­i­ly go for hikes and surf­ing for recre­ation.

Suki, anoth­er daugh­ter in San Diego, an engi­neer for the city, works three days at home and in the office for two. Her hus­band teach­es online now. Her two boys home­school­ing. She orga­nized a dri­ve by of her son’s friends for his birth­day. They fixed their back­yard gar­den, plant­ed veg­eta­bles and take dai­ly bike rides and runs.

 Recent­ly Jack and I cel­e­brat­ed our 49th anniver­sary with a fam­i­ly hike  at the Black Canyon Water­fall.

Bing (Bar­bara Ann)

Read also:
Coro­n­avirus: The Begin­ning, by Cecil­ia Brainard
How Fil­ipinos Are Cop­ing With Covid, Part One (Cecil­ia Brainard, Pos­i­tive­ly Fil­ipino)
How Fil­ipinos Are Cop­ing With Covid, Part Two (C. Brainard, PF) 
How Fil­ipinos Are Cop­ing With Covid-19, Part Three (C.Brainard, PF)

Covid-19: An Encounter with a Bee Dur­ing Quar­an­tine

Inter­views fol­low:
Lia Fer­aren, Ger­many
Tere­sa Con­cep­cion, Cana­da
 Ofe­lia Gelve­zon Tequi, France
Reine Marie Bon­nie Melvin, France
New Zealand: Jay Mon­til­la & Moni­ka Tawngdee
Lin­da Ty-Casper, Mass­a­chu­setts, USA
Bar­bara Ann Jacala, San Diego, CA, USA
Bri­an Ascalon Roley, Ohio, USA
Eliz­a­beth Ann Besa-Quiri­no, USA
Inter­view of Cecil­ia Brainard by 95.9 Star FM Bacolod (DJ Bil­lie), USA

Inter­views of Fil­ipino Amer­i­cans #Cop­ing­With­Covid

All of the above links are part of the Philip­pine Covid Archive of Fil­ip­inas Her­itage Library.

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