Waiting........

Today is April 9, 2021. We are still waiting for the rollout of vaccines for senior citizens. Additional one million of sinovac arrived last week in the Philippines, but the department of health just very recently approved the use of sinovac for senior citizens; that is because the AstraZeneca is out of stock. My husband and I are amenable to use the sinovac. 50% protection is better than no protection at all. Infact the neurologist of my husband in Manila, cautioned him not to use AstraZeneca because of his muscle auto immune some kind of an ailment. 

Manila right now is scary because of the upsurge of new cases. It has been under lockdown for more than a week now but the cases are still going up. My cousin Henry Go Lim died from the covid. All his family members went through trying and traumatic experiences because other members got infected as well. We know of other people and their families in Metro Manila who tested positive too. Some had to be hospitalized, others went through isolations from family members at home. We heard of one person, the brother of an employee, who died in the hospital sitting on a monobloc plastic chair, although accordingly it was not covid related death but he had pneumonia. O God, we need help! Please help our country the Philippines!!! But the rollout of the sinovac vaccine is going too slow. As of present only 1% of the Philippine population has been vaccinated. O God, how and when are you going to help us out?!

Dear Lord, it is the Easter already. You have risen and is seated at the right hand of the Father, together with the Holy Spirit, One God forever and ever. Please come to us, please reign over us and encompass us with your saving grace and healing power. Help us Lord, rescue us and save us all. O God, my Lord Jesus Christ, in you we trust. Come Lord Jesus come!!!

A Little Bit of Love

 I am 69 years old. I am a retired teacher, and has been confined at home since the pandemic. My husband is 80 years old. He goes to the store everyday. After work, he also stays at home. After a year, things did not get better. There are more new cases and more variants. The roll out of vaccines here in the Philippines has been sparse and slow. We are at our wit ends already. Things are not getting any better. I cried out with tears to the Lord for mercy during my prayers the other day. The count went down a little bit yesterday, but rises again today. Yet in my prayers, I reflected......the Lord has allowed this pandemic to happen, he must have a purpose........

What have I learned and gained from this pandemic?......I learn that the kingdom of God is with us and among us. It is with our families, our neighbors, our communities and the people around us. We love and suffer together, henceforth, we should care and love each other. 

What have I done to help others? In my own small ways, despite being cooped up at home, I try to give a little bit of love.....

1. I pray fervently everyday for my love ones as well as for others. I pray for those who are sick, also for those who have passed away from the covid 19 and from other diseases. It grieves me when I feel somebody is in deep grief.

2. I pray for all the people around me: our employers, employees, workers, co-workers, runners, drivers, housemates, household helps, neighbors and their families and love ones. We are all interconnected to each other. This dark time has made us realized that we need each other to survive this crisis.

3. I try keeping in touch with all my children, siblings and some friends through text, calls and online messages. I am forgetting and forgiving all petty squabbles.

4. I hate to broadcast any good deeds, but I try to help by contributing small amount through online donation to typhoon victims. Although I really get so stressed doing these online things because I am so not really a techie person.

5. I share food with my in-laws. I have since become closer with my sister-in-law Rosita. We communicate by phone.

6. My sister Jeannette and I have become closer too. We exchange food and other commodities frequently.

7. Even though I have not attended mass for a year now, yet I try to help in my own small ways, two of the churches here in Cotabato City. 

8. I try to control myself from getting mad as much as I can at my new (relatively) new house help. I am trying to appreciate her, because sometimes she is really trying her best.

9. I share food and snacks with my household and my in-laws helps like cakes, coffee, milk, biscuits, crackers etc, in appreciation of their chores and help. We also get to attend online mass together on Sunday and pray the rosary together on Wednesday evening.

10. During this pandemic, I have avoided calling friends to gossip about others. 

11. I try my best to be more patient with my husband. We are both growing old.

12. In my heart, I have forgiven everybody who has hurt me. We are all suffering, we need forgiveness to heal. May God forgive us all and end this pandemic.

On the other hand......I am a recipient of every bit of love from my family, my love ones and all the people around me. 

1. My husband has been most patient and understanding with all my outbursts and anxieties during this pandemic. He calms me down often and he prays for me.

2. I know my children are all praying for their father and me. They are all in my prayers too. O Lord, hear our prayers.

3. Thanks to friends and relatives who prayed for my sister Helen when she had the covid.

3. My appreciation to my sister Jeannette who supplies me bread. And she gives me many other things too.

4. My contacts grocery stores and drugstore personnel are very attentive and kind to my requests. Thank you!

5. My house helps are also very patient with me and my outburst of temperament. They try to help me in every way they can. Thank God for them.

6. My nephew in Manila, Benwin Yu, in my wildest dream, I never expected him to buy my Chinese medicinal herbs and sent them to me here in Cotabato City.

7. To the runners that buy my medicines and other needs. Many thanks to them. 

8. Thanks to Jean Valentino for giving me and replacing my old and torn Mother of Perpetual Help novena booklet.

9. And thanks to all who have been kind and attentive to my husband and my needs. Thanks a lot.

Thank you Lord for letting me live and learn about your kingdom here on earth. Yes, we must all love and care for one another. We hope to continue to live through this life lesson we learn from this pandemic and practice love and charity without hindrance, but please put an end to the spread of the covid virus and the pandemic very very soon. Lord have mercy, Christ have mercy, Lord have mercy.

Vaccines in the Philippines

The first vaccine to arrive Philippines was Sinovac, on February 28, 2021, donated by China. About 600 thousands of the vaccine arrived in the evening. The next day though, on Monday, a batch of 400 plus thousands of AstraZeneca vaccines were to come; to be donated by the United Nation Covax facility, but to everybody’s disappointment, it was delayed once more. The Philippines was one of the last countries in Asia to be given the vaccines by the United Nation. But, we so much need it since we are second highest in number of cases in South East Asia. 

Upon arrival, the Sinovac vaccine was distributed to different regions and hospitals in the Philippines. I was very happy that Cotabato City, part of the Muslim autonomous region BARMM was also given allocation but alas, many health care workers who are the first recipients of the vaccine were wary about the Chinese product. Oh, but please we so much need the roll out, the soonest the better, and as many inoculations as possible because of the rising new cases again. People here in our country do not seem to know how to follow safety protocols. After a week, Philippines finally received the so much anticipated 400 thousand plus AstraZeneca. Again after another week, another batch came to make it around 500 thousand plus of AstraZeneca vaccines. Thankfully AstraZeneca was also allocated to the autonomous region. But they are really not enough. Of the 6,0000 vials for Cotabato City, only 3,000 can be given because of the two doses requirement. As of yesterday, March 13, 2021, only 114 thousand healthcare workers were so far vaccinated in the whole country. If you must know, Philippines has more than 110 million people in this islands nation. 

O Lord, how can we weather the surging of the virus? We have been cooped up for almost a year now, and still the numbers are still going up. What is your plan O Divine Master? We are so weak and weary already. Please come to help us O Lord Jesus. O Lord. Please look down upon us with mercy. We need your divine intervention to end the spread of the virus and the pandemic very very soon. Only you can help us and rescue us. Lord, have mercy. Please look down upon us with mercy and love.

Vaccines

I have been following up the roll outs of vaccines. UK was the first country that gave the first Pfizer shot. USA followed suit, then other countries. Here in the Philippines, we still have to wait for until when? And how will it arrive Cotabato?! 

I have known people who got their shots already in other countries and I am happy for them. I am glad that they are protected. The first to get the Pfizer vaccine was nephew Maya, a doctor in Tennessee, USA. Next was my high school friend and classmate Rita and also her daughter who worked as nurses in Canada. My sister-in-law Lolita Lim and her husband, both senior citizens in LA, USA, got their Moderna shots two weeks ago. Roger Yu who had a frontliner daughter got his vaccine too in LA as well. Last week my retired brother in law, Dr. Domingo Tan and his wife Jackie in Virginia, USA got their Pfizer shots; so too with our friends Rev. Ronald Jones and his wife Karen in Yakima, Washington, USA. Ron Jones and Karen in Yakima got Moderna shots. Then Violet, the mother-in-law of my son Emil, who was in Singapore got her Pfizer shot two days ago. I sincerely hope and wait for vaccines to come soon to the Philippines. 

O Lord, when and how will you deliver us from this crisis? We will patiently wait for your rescue and help, but do not delay O Lord. Do not lose us this your family and your people. We hope and trust in you. Keep us always in your love and safe keeping O Lord. Let us feel your presence and your love, O my Lord Jesus Christ.

Happy New Year 2021

Happy New Year!!! I hope and pray that the year 2021 will be a better, safer, more peaceful and happier year for us!!! 

Prepared a spread to celebrate the new year 2021.

Made it festive for happiness and blessings to come this new year.

Tina, Luna, Lucas and Heddy

Getting ready for the online mass. This picture was actually taken during the Feast of the Epiphany. Hahaha.

My household angels. They go through the hardship of time with us. Thank God for them.   

Happy New Year 2021!!! God bless us all!!!

Another Scare

One of our store secretaries tested positive of covid 19. This is the sequence of events.....

On November 16, Monday - Janet S. even when she wasn’t feeling all right, came to report for work. 

On November 17, she worked for half day. She only absent herself on Tuesday afternoon. 

By Thursday, she asked permission to come back to work, but our establishment told her to get tested first. She got herself tested on Saturday. 

On Sunday, she was confirmed positive.

By Monday and the whole week, we voluntarily closed the store for everybody’s safety. That would be from November 23 to 29.

On November 30, the City Health Office disinfecting personnel, through our request, came to disinfect the entire hardware store. 

On December 1st, the store was allowed to reopen. 

The reason of reopening the store was due to our employees. The employees could not go on without working for another week. The consolation that keep us at peace though when we reopened, was that everybody was okay. And also that all family members of Janet S., including her househelps tested negative. 

O Lord spare and protect us from the covid 19 virus and from all sickness and diseases. O Blessed Mother, please come to our rescue. My Guardian Angel, intercede for us. Amen.

Pandemic Weary

Since March 16 this year, when Cotabato City went into lockdown, I had not gone out from my house. I mostly ordered my grocery items from South Seas Trading with delivery. Staying at home most of the time though was wearisome. I get exasperated with my maids too often. I get frightened and anxious at the slightest bad news. I turn to prayers. But although prayers are helping me to calm down specially at night, yet sometimes it also adds up to my anxiety during the day. In my most disturbing time during this pandemic: when my sister Helen and her family caught the covid, when the househelp of my daughter got sick in Manila, and just recently when one of our office secretaries tested positive in Cotabato; I just keep on adding up more rosaries to my daily regiment. In all my desperation, I reach out fervently in prayers to God for help and intervention. Thank you Lord!!! For God in all his glory, hears and answers and helps me in all my distress. But I must have become crazy during all these times of anxiety, for now I begin to fear God, that if I lessen my rosaries or cut short my prayers, lest if I don’t do it right, I might offend him and he will stop helping and loving me. I must be getting crazy in my mind. I know God doesn’t act that way, yet I continue to worry about finishing all my rosaries and prayers in one day. I get frantic when I wake up in the morning. And I can not rest well during siesta because I have to do a couple of rosaries in the mid afternoon. O Lord, please give me tranquility and peace of mind and heart. Don’t ever lose me. 

Sometime in October, I started having ear ache, throat ache, gum pain, toothache, sometimes my jaws hurt too.  I could not pin point the exact location of the pain on the right side of my face. So I called an EENT doctor and she told me to see her in her clinic. I left my house for the first time to see my doctor on November 9. I was scared and stressed. I was such a paranoid that I even wore a shower cap and a hat to cover my hair. Knowing my condition, the doctor was kind enough to treat me as her first patient in line. Yet she did not find anything wrong with my ear. She suspected the ear ache maybe caused by some trigeminal nerve which she said is common when people gets older. Or it maybe due to acid reflux. She gave me a list of food to avoid and pain reliever too. I was just so glad, that it was nothing more. Then I read somewhere that there are maladies caused by pandemic stress. That there are pain manifestation on the face caused by too much tension, including ear ache. I guess tension was the culprit. I guess tension was it. 

Oh help me God to battle this pandemic stress and weariness. Please spare and protect me and my family and my love ones from the covid 19 virus and all sickness and diseases. May the Lord put an end to the spread of this virus and pandemic very soon. O Lord have mercy, Christ have mercy, Lord have mercy.