How to survive this lockdown

It’s been weeks since the lockdown began, and how are you faring? I left the Philippines on the day the lockdown began, March 15, and arrived in Malaysia, where I work, a day before their own lock down began. I had no Wifi and until now use my mobile-phone hotspot to communicate with the world.

I had asked my yaya to press my shirts and pants in Manila, and so they went to my luggage, as well as my comfort food for this lockdown: tuyo in bottles, corned beef made in the Philippines, powdered preparations for afritada, caldereta, menudo, palabok, and tocino.

In a famous essay called “Where’s the Patis?”, award-winning writer Carmen Guerrero Nakpil said that you can bring the Filipino to lands faraway and genteel, but you can never separate him from his palate. In short, the Filipino will always hanker for his sawsawan of patis and toyo, will always look for his suka and bawang, will search for condiments so he or she can cook his favorite Filipino food.

Aside from comfort food, what else can we do to survive in this lock down? I went to the Unicef (United Nations Children’s Education Fund) and other sources for tips and techniques so we can stay sane and safe in these most terrible of times.

One is to stick to a routine or start new ones. Get and up and go to sleep at regular hours. Get dressed, exercise, take a shower. Do the dishes and clean your house. This is not difficult for me, but what complicated things is that we have to do online teaching. So I had to learn a new learning platform called Microsoft Teams in a week, as well as upload my lectures in Echo 360 and prepare Powerpoints for my class.

Which reminded me of the next tip: stay connected. Have video chats with friends and family. Open up about your feelings, which at this time includes boredom and loneliness. Check up on colleagues, especially those who live alone. This goes for expatriates like myself and other overseas Filipino workers (OFWs).

Moreover, we should engage in hobbies and do things that we enjoy. I have finally arranged my things in my new condo: the kitchen, the sala, the toilets, the bedrooms. I have also chosen the books I will read. I found an empty, green wine bottle left by the former occupant, and turned it into a lovely flower vase for my three bouquets made from linen. Next is I will start a small home garden of herbs in my balcony, to grow green things that I can use for my cooking and hopefully have flowers that will add a rainbow of colors to my house.

Unicef also recommends that we set up a worry window. Write down your worries and thoughts about the day just past. Think of them at a specific time of the day. My first novel, Riverrun, was supposed to be published by Penguin Random House this April 14 but it has to be moved to another unknown date, due to supply-chain issues. Penguin said it wants a “big bang” to accompany my launching, which cannot simply be done because how to bring the books to the stores and the readers’ hands?

Yes, those hands. Keep them gloved when you go the grocery, with a face mask on. Wear long-sleeved shirts and pants. Focus on your well-being practices. Use meditation and mindfulness apps. Exercise, which for me means walking up and down the condo building every day. Think of happy things that you are grateful for.

And speaking of food, I hark back to memories of the stories that my grandmother and my parents told me, on how they survived World War II. Their families had fled to the forests, to escape the wrath of the Japanese Imperial Army. They had the clothes on their back, pots and pans, five chickens and two pigs. When the provisions ran out, they had to forage for food in the forest.

My eyes widened at the things that can be eaten in the forest. Aside from tubers and their leaves (taro and sweet potatoes), they also cooked and ate the pith of banana trunks as well as the leaves of cassava, which we kids later turned into impromptu necklaces. If they found a young jackfruit it was cooked in coconut milk, with the small shrimps that used to cluster near river banks, when the rivers were still clear and flowing. Later the seeds could be boiled and eaten, and when ripe, jackfruit is of course an excellent and healthy dessert, eaten as it is.

Young bananas they turned into linupak, and overripe bananas were baked in charcoal ovens and turned into bread. Dried fish was a premium and it could be paired with taro as carbo extender when the supply of rice was low. Taro could be later dipped in sugar and serve as dessert.  I was born in Basa Air Base, Pampanga, and love fermented food, so today, we can also ferment fish and shrimps, with less salt. Rice broth with sugar is a healthy drink called am, and tea bags were used twice.

And now, I have learnt to recycle food. Leftover corned beef can be used for sinigang. Frozen bamboo clams can be cooked in various ways. And leftover fish can be mashed with bread plus onion, ground pepper, and two eggs, and voila! You have a wonderful set of fish cakes.

The Filipino is a survivor of wars, dictatorships, earthquakes, floods and volcanic eruptions. All is not lost. There is still music (I listen to original Pilipino Music, or OPM). I write my second novel, laugh at the inanities in social media, and revel at the sight and sound of the ones I love, even if glimpsed only through Messenger. Now that is a perfect name for an app.

(Danton Remoto is the Head of School and Professor of Creative Writing at the University of Nottingham Malaysia. His email is [email protected])

Comments can be sent to [email protected]