Cabin Fever

How do we survive cabin fever as the pandemic quarantine stretches to a month? We dream, we squirm, we imagine, we fantasize, we eat, we watch the world through electronic eyes, we cook, we read, we grieve, we exercise, we rant.

PF publisher Mona Lisa Yuchengco, in part 3 of her "Life (and Love) in the Time of the Coronavirus" talks about what she does and does not do, as the unrelenting virus continues to upend everyone's routines.

Off-tangent dreams is what Canada-based contributor Patria Cabatuando Rivera writes about in "COVID Dreams in Toronto."

Reading of course can be salvation from the drudgery of home-based routines, so here's a reading list I've put together of impressive Filipino-authored books you might want to order online.

If you've lost a loved one recently -- an experience that, according to the Worldometer tally, 176,596 families worldwide have gone through, here's a way of "Tending Grief in Community," a suggestion by retired professor Leny Mendoza Strobel. 

And if you can see travel to exotic places like Finland in your personal crystal ball, here's 2 Filipino-owned restaurants -- Pobre and Paisano -- to try in Helsinki as covered by intrepid traveler Michael Gil Magnaye in "Filipino Fine Dining in Finland."

Since we all now have the time to cook, try out Pobre's recipe for Pike Perch Pesa

Our In The Know links expand our Covid-19 coverage:

On Pandemic’s Front Lines, Nurses From Half a World Away
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/20/world/asia/coronavirus-philippines-nurses.html?fbclid=IwAR0xlwriAQ4pRzTn_NML-kuCHivJ-FH99TyKwvcN9OysxoprVCn5Ubmzs_I

Coronavirus exerts heavy toll on Filipino community in UK
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/17/coronavirus-exerts-heavy-toll-on-filipino-community-in-uk?fbclid=IwAR1_xBt4Dz7-2jZsTdVmfz5hCm4Pmzu3OVnn6Ej7QcL-VI5dVpyHpNAn3Xg

‘Bayanihan Musikahan’ now aids rural farmers and urban poor
https://lifestyle.inquirer.net/361046/bayanihan-musikahan-now-aids-rural-farmers-and-urban-poor/?fbclid=IwAR2VAtpbnmtasfMnlg4pLraioIaqr-BLSAH8n4g54_qOEZVvs_98cD6FqzY

Coronavirus: UK Citizens Furious at L 1000 Repatriation Flights from the Philippines while Travellers in Peru Paid L 250
https://www.independent.co.uk/travel/news-and-advice/coronavirus-uk-travellers-repatriation-flights-philippines-peru-a9447966.html?fbclid=IwAR3GxJAktODn7RB6h9x6s5YlBoxkiJhtYnyn3tenAcVYo5mOx7hDQgcCrcE

A Daughter’s Heartbreak: A California Mother Loses Battle to Covid-19
https://balitangamerica.tv/a-daughters-heartbreak-california-mother-loses-battle-to-covid-19/?fbclid=IwAR2gb42WFym4aoNi0qe6BmcFqAjBNjVxOSfLXVA_-UYTi0WETIDUBjJHMeg

Sheltering In Place When You’re Half the World Away from Home
https://gen.medium.com/sheltering-in-place-when-youre-half-a-world-away-from-home-3869ad0cf662

'Inseparable' New Jersey couple, both health care workers, die of coronavirus days apart
https://news.yahoo.com/married-44-years-inseparable-jersey-211632538.html?soc_src=hl-viewer&soc_trk=ma

And our Video of the Week, here's a musical tribute to the Filipino frontliners all over the world produced by the Department of Education of the Philippines.

Facing the Challenge

With coronavirus news and missives swirling relentlessly and dire economic prognostications triggering panic attacks, we wonder how our entrepreneurial kababayans are faring. PF contributing writer Jennifer Fergesen checks in on Filipino food businesses in Europe and reports their situation in "Filipino Restaurateurs in Europe Grapple with Pandemic."

Author and balikbayan traveler Cecilia Manguerra-Brainard tells her story of how the virus trailed her in the early days of contagion when she traveled from the Philippines to LA in "CORONAVIRUS: The Beginning." 

When the going gets tough, the tough gets going. This popular adage aptly describes the plight of the Alcantara sisters of Paco, Manila, whose privileged life was abruptly cut short with the advent of WWII. Ambassador (Ret.) Virgilio A. Reyes, Jr. lovingly tells the story of his grandmother, mother and aunts who survived a situation so much worse than what Covid-19 has created now, in "How Linda and Her Sisters Survived the War."

Other than the pandemic, the most important issue in the US right now is the Census 2020. We urge all Filipinos in the US to stand up and be counted (by filling out the form either online or on paper). The future of your families, the communities you live in and the communities you belong to depend on your participation. To know why it is imperative, Read Again "What Fil-Ams Should Know About the 2020 Census" by Cherie Querol Moreno.

What does battling an epidemic entail? Read Again Dr. Jorge Emmanuel's riveting story of the work he did as a World Health Organization (WHO) consultant in Monrovia, Liberia during the 2014 ebola crisis in "My Battle with Ebola." 

Our Happy Home Cook recipe this week is for the ultimate Filipino comfort soup, Chicken Tinola with a new way of serving it.

Here are links for your reading enjoyment:

Philippines: Covid-19 will devastate the poor
https://www.lowyinstitute.org/the-interpreter/philippines-covid-19-will-devastate-poor?fbclid=IwAR2KC_ucEtO9XCHZ1O1KcJqcsx6AHprBzk4z71h2MtGqNiWlXDOgY0APz7w

How this first Filipino COVID-19 patient battled the virus for 15 days and won
https://news.abs-cbn.com/ancx/culture/spotlight/03/23/20/how-this-first-filipino-covid-19-patient-battled-the-virus-for-15-days-and-won?fbclid=IwAR2TUJMc-Q0R9hr3hEyb0PHRlpcnoCxkgrId25yAAT9FsONmdJVxadoEBOA

Metro Manila’s Most Vulnerable in the Time of COVID-19
https://www.gmanetwork.com/news/specials/content/138/rick-rocamora-metro-manila-s-most-vulnerable-amid-covid-19/?fbclid=IwAR1VSaphXXP7N6tjqmy2dFmc_7mowQpOYYC0oGshZOPVznRHw7iLy2dS5fY

10 Things We Wish Pasig City Could Give the Entire Country
https://www.spot.ph/newsfeatures/the-latest-news-features/81448/pasig-enhanced-quarantine-a4362-20200318?utm_source=Facebook-Spot&utm_medium=Ownshare&utm_campaign=20200317-fbnp-newsfeatures-pasig-enhanced-quarantine-a4362-20200318-fbfirst&fbclid=IwAR1535XR4Lf0zGIZpsfgYHZSSOtKwN3BOOH5gbpJ3tPbugZ5pgabjsZoapc

'Bayanihan, Musikahan': Ryan Cayabyab, Filipino artists launch FB Live concert series amid coronavirus crisis
https://news.abs-cbn.com/entertainment/03/18/20/bayanihan-musikahan-ryan-cayabyab-filipinos-artists-launch-fb-live-concert-series-amid-coronavirus-crisis?fbclid=IwAR10yBiZd1SYUcKB26hgccSjWiM77LMS0XGt8RSe2wYan363U5fNtAASd_0

Cutting Our Travel Short And Trying To Get Home During The Coronavirus Pandemic
https://www.travelawaits.com/2493076/cutting-our-travel-short-and-trying-to-get-home-during-the-coronavirus-pandemic/?pv=related_list&fbclid=IwAR0-AmsVUrXlUzydOyvKjp-uAbe3sDmib0rwIyniwbN0jz3l1eX1Dd8OEZg

For Videos of the Week, the Filipino Voter Empowerment Project created these public service announcements to remind Filipino Americans to be counted in the US Census. In the second episode, three of the actors, Lily De Ocampo, Jurshia Felipe, and Jamie Sophia Tubal, are also nurses in real life. They took time out to volunteer for this project before the coronavirus breakout and are now serving on the front lines of the Covid-19 crisis.