Today, May 14, will be my second month here in Lapu-Lapu City, Cebu.
How did I get here in Cebu?
In March 11 of this year, after more than a month of waiting after the final interview, I was finally and officially hired by my current company where I am working now. My scheduled flight supposedly was on the 16th of March but since President Duterte announced that NCR including the whole Island of Luzon will be under community quarantine starting March 15, our company decided to book my flight on the 14th so I can go here in Cebu.
In the airport, it was very obvious that people were also took the advantage of going out of Metro Manila earlier than the announced community quarantine schedule. It seems that nobody wants to be locked down in NCR.
I captured a 5-minute video during the landing of PAL plane at the Mactan-Cebu International Airport and have uploaded it my YouTube account.
Touchdown Mactan-Cebu International Airport, 2:20pm
The moment that I arrived in our project staff accommodation; I was informed by my immediate superior and shown me a project memorandum signed by the Project Director that all staff coming outside Cebu especially coming from Metro Manila should be under 14-day home quarantine. So, from Day 1 to Day 14, I and one who came from leave were instructed to stay in separate rooms for two weeks. The good thing is our food are given for free for this whole period, and provided with personal hygiene materials – face mask, alcohol, batch soap, hand soap, anti-bacterial spray, etc.
What did I do in this 14-day self-quarantine period?
Read Book. I read Anthony Pangilinan’s Success Plus book which my wife bought during their gathering in their company. We took also the opportunity to have it autographed and of course selfie with the author himself.
Read Bible verses from Genesis onwards. I have this Omega DigiBible app installed in my phone. The good thing of this Bible app, there is a feature where I can set a schedule for “Bible Reading Plan”. Of the many choices of the schedule I selected – Whole Bible in a Year. This means that the app will schedule my Bible reading of the whole scriptures in one-year period. Well, obviously, I have not finished it yet. I am just close to 10% of it.
Push Ups and Sit Ups Everyday Challenge. Some of those were uploaded in my YouTube channel. At first it was really hard and painful to my joints and muscles, thinking that I am already at my early 40’s and I never done this before.
Attend Religious Gathering Online. For me this is the most important part. In times like this we need to boost our spirituality to face this extraordinary challenge. Since mass gathering is, at this period, not allowed by the government, we, in our congregation were forced, like other religious groups, to do it online or livestreaming. Aside from the regular church services, I also watched online Bible Studies and Bible Expositions via Facebook Live, YouTube Live and Instagram Live. It is very noticeable that there is a tremendous increase of viewers compared before when the pandemic covid-19 was not yet around. People became more religious and I think that is good.
To add on those I have enumerated, is a regular video call to my family in Cavite and from time to time to my siblings and relatives in Metro Manila, Laguna and Quezon province.
Thank you for spending your time reading this short quarantine story of mine. You can reach me also in my other social media accounts – YouTube, Facebook page, Instagram and Twitter with the same account name, Bradd Von Learns.