VIEWED AS CARNAGE OF THE 4TH DISTRICT

Nicole S. Jordan, BSED 3A

“I’m seen as an omega around these parts,” her voice muffled behind her mask. “I pity myself.”

Jona*, 32, a pious female pastor

who tread the land for ministry and share
the word of God from Northern to Southern
Antique. Life flashed before her eyes when
she heard the news from the barangay. The
nightmare of the entire population has
taken over her; and the thought almost
choked her to death, spiritually and
mentally. She started to show symptoms of
the Coronavirus Disease (COVID) in Kalibo,
Aklan when she started coughing. She was
Pastor Jona’s* residence with her family quarantined inside to avoid the
swab tested when she arrived at San Jose, spread of COVID-19 in District 4
Antique and safely went home to Sibalom Photograph by Nicole S. Jordan BSED 3A

but woke up the next day with an erring

and deafening news from the barangay
hall, April 29. The barangay brought a medical result where the word “POSITIVE” ran in permanent ink
which is a synonymous word for death’s door.

The news did not fly swiftly. The people lingered the narrow streets with no mask on and
children played without second thoughts on social distancing nudging and shrieking to avoid the ‘it’ in
the game. The speakers would produce a stern voice for the parents and their children but it would not
even sway them. Stories flow like the gushing river from mouths to ears. Their house is a small family
church, most people from other municipalities, who does not have a clue about their situation, rush to
their doors with the intention of going to church or a visit but they remained deaf and mute.

“Stigma” Jona* spoke in a distance. “Everyone was afraid of my family and I can’t blame them
but they would look at us with pure disgust.” While rumors and gazes shoot through the windows and
fences, she would wonder how they would thrive during the quarantine. In a world full of bad rocks,
there is still a gem. Her neighbor would set a stool in between their fences and would leave a full set of
*That is not her real name
 meal and other necessities for them. “You can recognize the people who you could rely on during this
crisis.”

The barangay captain, Alfonso Orquia, Jr., declared a surgical lockdown in the district when the
news was announced. Slender bamboos sealed the paths for different streets of the district and people
from other municipalities had to write their names for contact tracing to pass through the one entrance-
exit path. COVID may not be a threat in the eyes of children and minors. The curfew would start at 10
p.m. but they would still linger the streets at night. Red and blue flickering lights would alert them to run
for their lives and hide from the patrol’s sight.

Midwives and the Barangay Nutrition Scholar (BNS) are accountable not just for their own risk
and safety but they are assigned to perform a house visitation to the home quarantined COVID positive
patients regularly. Wearing masks, eating healthily and getting enough sleep are advices left by the

District 4 street at night with minors strolling and playing midwife to the patients.

Photograph by Nicole S. Jordan BSED 3A

*That is not her real name