Let’s be honest, we never expected COVID-19 to have such an extreme impact on the world. Once spring break ended, we knew that meant leaving our beach bums at home and hopping back on the college grind. So when schools extended spring break for a week, we may have been fine with it. But a week soon turned into two, three, four and eventually we found ourselves finishing the semester at home, completely isolated, confused and perhaps, frightened for what was to come.
It was around the end of May when I decided that, even with the pandemic, I was going to push through with my travels. By this time, I was ahead of my film class by one semester, I had enough time to film my thesis, and I had the support from the film department, my peers and my family. Although doubtful and slightly scared, I was booked to leave for the Philippines on the 20th of June. At this point, the Philippines had a growing number of 32,000 COVID-19 cases in the capital city of Metro Manila alone, and 1,204 deaths thus far. The country was on extreme lockdown wherein no foreign national could enter and no local could exit the country either. Flights leaving the United States also began to decrease so my parents and I had to drive up to New York so I could catch one of the few flights on its way to the Philippines.
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Passing through Times Square, everything started to sink in. The streets of New York were empty, silent and unsettling, which made me realize how much bigger and stronger this virus really was and still is. What was once one of the busiest airports in the world, looked like an abandoned building with barely a handful of people checking in, only three planes on the tarmac and nothing but pure silence. The 14-hour plane ride was even more disturbing. The plane was packed, everyone had face masks, face shields and gloves on, while the flight crew all had personal protective equipment on, covering their entire body and only revealing their eyes. My anxiety was off the roof and it felt like I had developed extreme germophobia the minute I sat down. Every cough or sneeze I heard made me shiver, I couldn’t eat a proper meal, nor could I sleep.
Upon landing in Manila, I was required to declare all my personal belongings, provide personal information for contact tracing, report any symptoms, undergo a swab test, and proceed to a quarantine facility where I would be isolated in a room until I receive my test results. Everything was troubling, but I’m not going to lie, being isolated in a hotel room did sound peaceful to me. After five days of pure isolation, I was picked up by a private vehicle appointed by the local government and I was sent home where I was required to say in isolation for two more weeks.
Now, three months into my stay in the Philippines, I can say that things could be better. The Philippines currently has the highest number of COVID-19 cases in Southeast Asia, recording over 300,000 COVID-19 cases to date, and still has one of the longest pandemic lockdowns in the world, now in its seventh month. Recently, lockdown restrictions in the country have loosened up, but medical frontliners have continuously pleaded with the government to tighten lockdowns once again as the number of cases spikes up and the availability of hospital beds and medical supplies plummet.
Throughout my stay, I realized that during these trying times, one thing is for sure, people need people ― we need each other. After seeing how the people of my motherland have been immensely struggling during the pandemic, I have activated a part of me that has always been there, a part of me that has always opened myself up to vulnerability in order to help others in need. I have witnessed how powerful a conversation can be and how change is literally in our hands, and I have never been more grounded in my life, or grateful for everything I have received.
In a time when unemployment rates around the world are skyrocketing, poverty and hunger increasingly impede on people’s abilities, lack of proper online education resources continue to keep students from learning and millions of lives have been lost, we must rid our eyes of single-colored lenses and look closely at who have been impacted by this pandemic. People need our help more than ever and it is on us to help those in need in any way we can.