- Life in Bohol During Quarantine

No matter where we are in the world and no matter what major events occur that will shape and mold the history of the world, life goes on here in Tagbilaran. Life is calm, some would say boring, but I don’t want that to define our life here now. This is time we will never get to experience again, and I don’t want it to be wasted.

Sunset view from our apartment 
in Tagbilaran

First a word about the Quarantine. There are currently three levels here in the Philippines:

Enhanced Community Quarantine (EQC)

All but essential businesses are closed. Only one person from each household can leave the house to buy food, and that person must have a government issued pass. During the two months that we experienced this level, I did not even put on my shoes one time.

General Community Quarantine (GCQ)

Some businesses can open including restaurants for takeout only. People over 65 (me) can leave the house on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays, but cannot go into most stores. The National Guard is still setting up roadblocks preventing most people from leaving or entering cities and towns. This was the level we were under for about four months.

Modified General Community Quarantine (MGCQ)

Under this level they will allow some travel within the province and most businesses to open. However many businesses remain closed. Tourism is very slowly restarting—currently only for local residents. Stores and malls require hand sanitizing and mandatory temperature checks, and many require a questionnaire to be filled out and signed for contact tracing before entering. There are new laws with penalties of up to 5000php ($100) and jail up to a year for not wearing a mask.

Bohol has had over 400 cases including about 70 currently active and 8 deaths.

DepEd (the national public school system) officially declared that no schools will reopen until there is a vaccine available, which probably means that they will not open until next year.

Some colleges are offering on-line courses, but that doesn’t help most students because most don’t have home computers. Lyn’s aunt, a college professor, has two on-line classes, one class has two students and the other one has three.

We are doing fine here, and we are eating very well. Lyn has more time for cooking, and she is trying some new recipes including some from YouTube. I love her cooking.

We have enjoyed getting houseplants during the pandemic

Here are some of the things I have been doing:

Spending more time with Lyn. I am thankful for this extra time. I have also enjoyed riding around the countryside with Lyn.

Reading, especially on Kindle. I have over 600 books on Kindle and have read over 200 of them since we have lived in the Philippines.

Studying, including new programming languages.

Helping less fortunate people with food (rice, canned goods, etc.)

Watching TV, Netflix and YouTube.

Playing family board games (Scrabble, Monopoly, Risk, Battleship, Clue, chess, checkers, Uno, Dos, Snakes and Ladders, etc.)

Playing Scrabble

Flying drones.

Picture taken from drone
showing our apartment