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[randomapa]

V-Day.

Okay, I got huge arms. I know. 

Well, I got the jab today and I still can not believe it. It’s been more than a year since the world got into this sinkhole called COVID-19. There have been so many lives taken by this virus, and it still continues up to this day. Friends, relatives, co-workers, public figures, to ordinary citizens, every day, someone is added in those staggering numbers of infected. It’s crazy. It feels like the virus is getting closer and closer. 

When you live in a densely populated city like Manila, at a period such as this time, you will find yourself getting anxious daily. In the streets, you will find people who don’t wear face coverings, or they may be wearing one but not proper. In other areas of the country, there are still unauthorized public gatherings; not enough free testings for people; inefficient contact tracing systems in every place of establishments; and on top of those, there is just a lot of issues in the management styles of the public authorities.

So when news about the vaccine was told, a lot of people, including myself, got very excited. The first recipients of the 1st dose of vaccines were our heroes, the medical frontliners. They, among every other sector in the society, had to face this COVID-19, daily. There are two vaccines that are currently available in our country, “Sinovac” from China and “AstraZeneca” from the UK. 

Today, those who are next in line for the COVID vaccinations are people with co-morbidities. For someone who has a co-morbidity such as hypertension, I had to include myself in the next priority. 

In our city, the vaccination registration started as early as new year’s day of 2021. I did my registration online. It was very efficient, I must say. Now, it is Vday. There are two vaccination centers near my place, and I chose to go to Ramon Magsaysay High School. I did my research the night before and I prepared the requirements needed. In my case, I brought a printed copy of my waiver with a QR code and a copy of my recent maintenance meds prescription (this must be within 6 months).

I went to the vaccination center around 8 AM. To my surprise, there was a frighteningly terrible long queue of people. I had to walk around the school to find the last person in line and I ended up being the 80th person for the second batch of vaccine recipients. The queue didn’t move until around 9 AM. Little by little, my spot gets closer and closer to the gate. I realized that I should have brought an umbrella, water, and a stool chair. 

It was almost 11 AM when I reached the gate of the vaccination center. After a little while, I heard sirens from an automobile. It turned out, the city Mayor, we call him Yorme Isko Moreno, arrived at the vaccination center. Then the lines moved quickly. That was a relief considering that it was so hot.

We were able to get inside the vaccination center, then I saw a mass of people, also waiting to get vaccinated. There are several steps to get vaccinated in the center. 

First, you have to write your name and complete address on a small piece of paper being given by the vaccination staff. Then you will have your temperature and blood pressure taken which you will also write down on the same small piece of paper.

Secondly, you will have to be interviewed by a physician. They will ask you for some personal information, your co-morbidity, your allergies, and the number of times you got vaccinated for COVID-19. 

Thirdly, once you are done with the physician’s interview, you shall proceed to the vaccination room. There, you will receive the vaccine and will then be asked to proceed to the observation area.

Lastly, in the observation area, you will be monitored by the vaccination staff for 15-30 minutes. They will give you reference numbers to report any side effects or adverse reactions that you will feel after the vaccination. Once the time lapsed, and you did not feel anything wrong, you will be allowed to go home. 

By the way, I got the Sinovac vaccine. I was told that my second dose will be on May 1, which is Labor Day. As of this writing, I feel a tolerable headache. It’s like when you have a hangover. I took paracetamol so I feel better now. I’m just really happy to get vaccinated now. I wish my family gets to be vaccinated too. We still have a long way to go but little by little, just like that frighteningly terrible long queue, we will arrive. 

#GetVaccinated

[randomapa]

April Fools’ or April’s Fool?

I woke up from a bad dream. It was early, past 3AM. I had hiccups, perhaps from breathing too fast. There was a feeling of sadness that I wanted to cry. I remembered that in that dream, I joined a class of law students. I saw my former professor. He was teaching the same subject. I looked at him and his eyes looked at me back with a stare that felt like there was disappointment. I felt ashamed. I sat next to a student who looked familiar to me. He was a colleague from a previous job. In real life, he works as a civil servant, just like me. But in that dream, it felt like he was such a big shot. He asked what happened to me. I deflected the question with a smile. The class ended and I went out of the classroom, feeling down. That’s when I woke up, having hiccups. 

I didn’t get out of bed immediately. I was still figuring out what time it was. So I checked my phone. It was past 3AM and I paused to contemplate on that dream. I realized that today is April 1. In the west, it is called April Fools’ day. However, that short moment I had, the first thing in the morning, was not funny at all. It was sad, I almost bawled. 

Here’s the thing, I live alone and this happened at the time of another lockdown. As I write this, the COVID-19 pandemic hits us hard. So hard that we are already more than a year being on a community quarantine. The same quarantine restrictions, the same problems, the same issues. It’s been more than a year and we are not getting any better. In fact, our infection cases are higher than last year. More people are getting sick, some whom you wouldn’t even imagine getting infected. People who were well sheltered, like celebrities, politicians, those with high status in the society, they were not spared. It’s a nightmare. 

Let me share with you about what happened yesterday. A hashtag went trending on twitter. #LugawIsEssential. A short background: a delivery guy was apprehended by local authorities for trying to deliver lugaw (porridge). These local authorities said that lugaw is NOT essential, therefore, the delivery guy should not be outside, for it was way past the curfew hours. They were caught on video and it became viral. Outraged, people in social media ranted about the crazy restrictions imposed by the local authorities. Then the President's spokesperson manifested that lugaw, or any food for that matter, IS essential, therefore must not be hampered in transportation. However, there was this government executive who made a jest in an interview after explaining the ruckus. In his remarks, he pertained to lugaw as a person, not food as NOT essential. It made the headlines. Since people are now stuck in their homes, they have a lot of time to engage in a lot of issues, and as usual, people got not chill about politics. 

So these things get into my head. It’s not healthy. I know. And the fact that I live alone, doesn’t help. That’s why I started to write again. Forgive me if the topics jump from one thing to another. I just wanted to express my thoughts. That’s how random my thoughts are right now. By the way, this blog is called randomapa, so you can expect more randomness in the coming days. But for now, here is a story which is sad, troubling, definitely random and definitely not funny, considering that today is April Fools’ day.

Photos from  @arkitekyuklid and OneNewsPH