Homecoming in the age of COVID-19

By Noralyn Dudt

“God is great, God is good and we thank Him that great-grandma Rosalina is here with us to share this feast in this difficult Covid times.”

Louie Samuel Vaughan, age 10

That was our 10-year-old grandson Louie Samuel Vaughan saying grace as we sat down for a meal on a recent cold January day in our home in North Bethesda, Maryland just 12 miles from downtown Washington DC. That great-grandma is Rosalina A. Onto, my octogenarian, soon to be a nonagenarian mother. This “feast” was a little more than elaborate than usual, but by no means a feast in the Filipino sense of the word.

My mother is one daring woman who braved the 14 hour-flight from Manila across the vast Pacific to San Francisco, California to visit my sister's family and to see (aka inspect) her house that is being leased. I say "daring" because I cannot imagine myself, much younger than she is, having a double-mask and a plastic cover over my face for 14 hours! But daring she has always been. She self-quarantined in my sister's house for two weeks before she ventured out for her daily walks. No, it was not an order from the Sacramento office of the Governor of California.  It is what sensible people do. When my mother recognized the fact that I was hesitant to brave the five- to six-hour flight to San Francisco from Washington DC, she quickly decided that it would fall on her to take that flight.  When we met her at the Washington Dulles Airport, she was wearing a double-mask and a plastic shield over her face. Though we wanted to hug her, we could not. We just stood there, smiled, and thanked God that all of us were still alive.

Anyway, after about a total of 10 weeks (nine weeks in the West Coast and one week in the East Coast) in the States, she decided it was time to return to Ilocos Norte—our home province. She was very much aware of the COVID protocols that awaited her in the Philippines and she thought she was prepared for that. But I doubt if anyone would ever be prepared enough for some, that looking back, turned out to be absurdities:

1. A COVID test a day or two before boarding the PAL flight to Manila. (reasonable)

 2. No family/friend is allowed to meet you at the airport. You will be transported to a hotel which you are require to book in advance, by the hotel van, at your expense. (irrational since you tested negative prior to the flight anyway)

For seven days you are not allowed to leave your hotel room—meals will be brought to your door. You are not allowed to meet anyone. (again, nonsensical)

3. After seven days, a COVID test at your expense is administered. If you test negative, you may be allowed to have your meals outside your room.

4. Two days before you board your flight to Laoag, you need to have another COVID test, at your expense. The result should be sent to a family member or a friend in your town or city so that this person can bring it to the local health office which will then authorize a city vehicle (aka ambulance) to pick you up and transport you to your place of quarantine (your own house if you live alone and with certification after an inspection by the health office).

 

Grand welcome

My mother was prepared for all of these. What she was not prepared for, was the “grand welcome” at the Laoag Airport. After having been “jailed” for 12 days in the hotel in Manila, she was overjoyed to be back in Ilocos—HOME SWEET HOME.

I can imagine how happy she must have been while picking up her luggage from the carousel, and with spring in each step as she proceeded to the Arrival Lane, looking for the ambulance from the City of Batac that was supposed to transport her. I can imagine her dismay when no ambulance from Batac was in her sight. Rather there was one from Bangui, one from Dingras, and so on.  With a heavy heart, she went back inside the airport and spoke with one of the staff. She was told that her name was not on the list.  I could see the terrified look on her face when she was put in a room to be “questioned” as if she landed “illegally” from nowhere.

I can imagine the despair she must have felt of perhaps being sent back to Manila on the next flight. The airport staff placed a call to the authorities in Batac but the phone was not picked up. It took over an hour of repeated calls. To my mother who was already exhausted from having followed all these procedures, it must have felt like eternity. When someone finally responded, she was so relieved. She and two other passengers bound for Batac went back to the arrival lane. A vehicle from Batac came, but it was not one of those shiny, sleek, modern ambulances that have been touted on Facebook. Rather, it was a dingy-looking vehicle that may be used to transport pigs and was very unsanitary, (my mother is very descriptive by the way) hardly the type in this COVID-19 era. The other passenger was a patient who just underwent surgery in a Manila hospital, and was experiencing a lot of pain. Apparently, she has begged to be picked up at the airport by a family member in her own vehicle.  But NO, rules are rules!

It was a very rough ride—as the vehicle was probably not meant to safely transport people, there were no seatbelts so the passengers were bounced around which must have been so painful for the person who just had surgery.

My mom

As soon as my mother was “dumped” at her house where she lives alone and would be allowed to quarantine there, the RHU nurse came by for a visit (aka another COVID test, which turned out negative, of course) ...and thereafter more visits for temperature checks. I am not denigrating the RHU or any of the other " actors" in this narrative.  They were just doing their jobs... they were just doing what they were supposed to do. The protocols that were put in place were intended to be for the public good.  But somehow in trying to execute and enforce these orders to the “letter of the law”, (literal interpretation of the words ‘the letter’) they lost the real intent of those who wrote the law. There was an absence of what is called “spirit of the law” and the rules that were meant to help the people and keep them safe ended up hurting them.

Mom, Phil, Louie, and his two journalists-parents (Bethel, our daughter and Scott Vaughan, Bureau Chief for Reuters)

My mother just got out of quarantine yesterday and now she's up and about. We call each other on FB almost daily.  She seems to be her happy and positive self again but her voice is somewhat tinged with bitterness over what happened. We are all appreciative of those in authority whose actions reveal their good intentions but something must be done to correct the lapses in communication between those who are ordered to enforce the rules and those of the governed.

 

Noralyn Onto Dudt is currently retired and is a former adviser/consultant to the international staff of the National Institutes of Health, International Monetary Fund, the Embassy of Japan and its agencies. A resident of North Bethesda, Maryland, a suburb of Washington DC where numerous international organizations and government agencies are located, she was given many opportunities to edit manuscripts of a varied genre—medical/scientific reports, project evaluation reports, and diplomatic correspondences.