It Won’t Go Away

I was trying to contact my cousin. He was not replying; so I sent a message to my aunt instead. She told me that he was down with the flu. One of my colleagues was not around at work. It turns out she was down with the flu. My immediate superior asked me to submit something and she told me that she came to work even though she was not feeling well; possibly due to a flu. She told me that she may have gotten it from a couple of her friends who coincidentally whom we also work with. One of us asked permission to go home early, because she was going down with the flu. Another one could not make it the next day, not because she had flu, but because her son is. On the weekend, a scheduled meeting was postponed because the person who should preside over it was down with the flu. What’s happening? Everyone seems to be going down with the flu. They don’t have Covid. Do they?

Oh I forgot. That same weekend, my aunt (a different aunt) whom I sat next to at the lunch table, together with my sister and cousin was coming down with colds and cough so hard, that she had to stay home for a couple of days on the following week. Soon enough, I was feeling a sore throat. It must have been the big mug of ice tea with ice cubes that I drank. Maybe after a while, my throat would go back to normal. Two days later, I woke up feeling as if I slept on the solid narra board of a church pew, even if my bed has two layers of cushion on it. Then came the sneezing; then later, the coughing. After a couple of days, my sister was doing a duet of coughs with me.

Classes in public schools in Naga are suspended for this week. So don’t yell at your kid if he’s not finished with his modules yet. He will not have to submit them until next week or whenever the classes resume; and by classes, I mean the submission of modules. I suppose the authorities have started to notice that the local number of Covid cases have been ranging from the nineties to past the hundred mark on a daily basis and the teachers need a break. I am soooo glad that they have come up with a class suspension. I was starting to think we would stick to the 60% skeletal work force until the last day of the month and make another arrangement for the next 14 day period. The local cases have been steeply scaling up about a week after the New Year’s celebration. If this disaster had been a typhoon, we all would have rushed home and hammered fortifications on our roofs and windows even before the skies turn dim and drizzles even start to drop. But apparently, with Covid, we wait for a week long report of around a hundred cases before we run for cover. It seemed like business as usual even if bombs were dropping in different directions, or the winds were threatening to serve as can opener for your rooftop in the form of rising cases. I suppose it was a wait and see attitude, sort of like an optimistic stance. Maybe, tomorrow the cases won’t be that high. Maybe, tomorrow, they will start to decrease. Maybe, tomorrow, it will be okay. Maybe, tomorrow, it will go away. Then, we start making some signs of movement after realizing that this may not go away. As a matter of fact, it could get further worse by each day

This sort of reminds me of former US President Donald Trump’s contingency plan against Covid-19. It went something like, in the summer, it will go away. Summer came and it didn’t go away and the virus sadly was and is here to stay. I guess a continuous march towards a singular direction, that is unmindful of surrounding situations, is quite admirable. But you have to duck. Stray bullets might hit you. Well, there goes the plan for face to face classes. A few weeks ago, when I would be asked about the possibility of such classes, I would respond with uncertainty since Omicron was looming its ugly head. A couple of friends insisted with full confidence without a trace of doubt that in person instruction will push through because of the elections. I wonder what the elections have to do with face to face classes.

“Discretion will protect you, and understanding will guard you.” -Proverbs 2:11