Filipinos #CopingWithCovid — New Zealand: Jay Montilla & Monika Tawngdee

Jay Mon­til­la

On June 7, 2020, New Zealand declared it had elim­i­nat­ed Coro­n­avirus. Its last new case was in May and New Zealand hos­pi­tals have no Covid-19 cas­es (as of June 9, 2020).  Lead by Prime Min­is­ter Jacin­da Arden, the coun­try imple­ment­ed strict quar­an­tine, trav­el restric­tions and wide­spread test­ing. Here are the inter­views of two Fil­ipinos (my nephew and niece, in fact) who live in New Zealand, Jay Mon­til­la and Moni­ka Tawngdee. The inter­views were done on May 29, 2020.  ~ Cecil­ia Brainard 

JAY MONTILLA

I live in Welling­ton, New Zealand where we are cur­rent­ly at Alert Lev­el 2. I live alone but do see oth­er peo­ple on a dai­ly basis, and as pre­scribed by the gov­ern­ment guide­lines. We all have to prac­tice social dis­tanc­ing: 2 meters in pub­lic and in retail stores, like super­mar­kets and clothes shops; 1 meter in most oth­er places such as work­places, cafes, restau­rants, and gyms.

Due to trav­el restric­tions under Alert Lev­els 4 and 3, move­ment between sub­urbs was restrict­ed, thus lim­it­ing any addi­tion­al income. How­ev­er peo­ple who were receiv­ing unem­ploy­ment, dis­abil­i­ty, and retire­ment ben­e­fits were grant­ed a win­ter heat­ing allowance as well as an increase on all ben­e­fits.

I go out on a dai­ly basis for exer­cise as well as to see friends. Even under Alert Lev­els 4 and 3, the gov­ern­ment encour­age every­one to go out and get exer­cise as long as they observe the 2‑meter rule. I wear a face mask when I have to go to places where there are crowds in con­fined areas. I do my own gro­cery shop­ping and to lim­it my expo­sure to peo­ple, I make it a point to go to the super­mar­ket short­ly after it opens in the morn­ing. I do not order take-out food, nor do I do online shop­ping as it is eas­i­er to walk to the super­mar­ket or dairy.

My nor­mal is rou­tine is this: After break­fast, I feel the dogs and wild birds and answer emails and mes­sage. I catch up with the news both local and inter­na­tion­al. I chat with friends and fam­i­ly from oth­er time zones. I check the neigh­bor­hood and com­mu­ni­ty news groups to see if any­one needs help or assis­tance. I then take a 2 to 3 hour walk with the dogs and catch up with neigh­bors. Around 12:30 pm, I have a light lunch, fol­lowed by 2 plus hours doing on-line cours­es. I also check up on friends and fam­i­ly in oth­er time zones espe­cial­ly those in coun­tries which are under stricter con­di­tions than those over here. I spend some time prac­tic­ing gui­tar before feed­ing my dogs their din­ner. I cook din­ner, watch some TV and movies, then I read and sleep.

I don’t wor­ry about the future; I don’t believe in wor­ry­ing about things I can’t change nor pre­dict. I do not have anx­i­ety, night­mares, nor bad dreams.

I miss vis­it­ing friends who live out­side of Welling­ton and look for­ward to being able to dri­ve to some of the small­er towns around New Zealand.

To sur­vive this pan­dem­ic, don’t pan­ic, have faith that the peo­ple in gov­ern­ment are doing the best they can and are giv­ing advice based on knowl­edge avail­able. Most impor­tant­ly, we are all part of a team of 5 mil­lion and we all need to work togeth­er.

Okay, the above is prob­a­bly only applic­a­ble to New Zealand. We’re prob­a­bly the only coun­try in the world where our heroes are the Prime Min­is­ter and the Direc­tor Gen­er­al of Health!

The dai­ly updates from Prime Min­is­ter Jacin­da Ardern and Direc­tor Gen­er­al of Health Dr Ash­ley Bloom­field have kept the nation up to date on progress as well remind­ing every­one what needs to be done and how we all have to work as a team. It is impor­tant that the cit­i­zens of any nation have faith in their lead­ers, and those lead­ers be as hon­est and forth­com­ing as pos­si­ble.

MONIKA TAWNGDEE

I live in Welling­ton, New Zealand, with my hus­band and two chil­dren. We are in par­tial lock­down called Lev­el 2 in New Zealand, mean­ing: No inter­na­tion­al trav­el. All busi­ness­es can open to cus­tomers if they can do it safe­ly. Ter­tiary edu­ca­tion facil­i­ties, schools, and ear­ly learn­ing cen­tres will be open for all ages. We can trav­el between regions. Ini­tial­ly, gath­er­ings like wed­dings, reli­gious cer­e­monies, and social gath­er­ings can have up to 10 peo­ple. You can safe­ly con­nect and social­ize with close friends and fam­i­ly, in groups of no more than 100. You can vis­it local cafes, restau­rants, bars, and pubs to have a meal.

So, yes, I see oth­er peo­ple as long as we fol­low the gov­ern­ment guide­lines: small con­trolled gath­er­ings, phys­i­cal dis­tanc­ing, strict hygiene stan­dards.

The pan­dem­ic did not affect me finan­cial­ly.

I go out for reg­u­lar walks and can now see our friends and rel­a­tives. Sun­day was the first time we were able to trav­el to see my moth­er-in-law. We hadn’t seen her since the full lock­down end of March.

At Lev­el 2 we can work from the office, although many of my col­leagues con­tin­ue to work from home for the time being. I work from home from Mon­day through Fri­day,  9 to 6. If the weath­er is good, I take a walk dur­ing my lunch­break. I do not wear a mask as we main­tain social dis­tanc­ing. My hus­band and son both enjoy doing the gro­cery shop­ping. Dur­ing full lock­down, we used “Hel­lo Fresh” to deliv­er our week­ly meals.

As my job secu­ri­ty has not been affect­ed, I have not been stressed, although at the begin­ning of the lock­down, we were all in a state of flux. I try not to wor­ry too much about the future. It’s very dif­fi­cult to pre­dict what is going to hap­pen.

I miss plan­ning ahead my over­seas trips. Who knows when it will be safe to trav­el to the Philip­pines? I also miss my water­col­or class­es. They are still on hold. My Zum­ba class­es are still not back to their nor­mal sched­ule with only two class­es avail­able per week. It will be nice to have my rou­tine back to nor­mal.

My tips for sur­viv­ing this pan­dem­ic are to be kind to oth­ers and your­self. Be pre­pared, not scared. Be pre­pared by build­ing pos­i­tive reserves, like your health (men­tal and phys­i­cal) and also finan­cial reserves.

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)

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.

tags: #coro­n­avirus #covid19 #covid #Fil­ipinos #cop­ing­with­covid #Welling­ton #NewZealand #Fil­ipinoAmer­i­can #Fil­ipinoCana­di­an