MANILA, PHILIPPINES — Sent a list of recommended episodes to PumaPodcast’s COVID Diaries, I play one on Spotify, and the first line got me stopping on my tracks.
“We found out online through Twitter. My sister in law sent a tweet doon sa family viber namin. And then we saw in the hospital where my dad was confined, nag-iisang result that matched him — 67, male, admitted March 11,” shared a woman who had to say goodbye to her father through the ICU door. “We didn’t even receive a call from the DOH (Department of Health). It was through pulling a lot of strings sa mga kakilala, doon namin na-confirm that it really was my dad.”
These are just one of the stories shared in PumaPodcast’s special on people’s experiences during the global pandemic, a thrust of the Filipino startup in telling stories on the ground away from the noise of politics and top news headlines. The group, primarily hosted and ran by journalists, also dissect the pandemic though a journalistic lens, but this series is different.
The podcast continues. The woman shares that as she said goodbye to her father, she could see a sparkle within her dad’s eyes. She doesn’t know if she could hear him from the other side of the door, but in spite of that, she decided to sing to him still.
“Even though this is a pandemic, it’s still about humans. It’s not just a number, it’s a life. We could all use so much more compassion and so much more acknowledgment of people’s humanity,” the anonymous woman spoke…not to me directly, but it was as if she was waking me up to this reality.
PumaPodcast’s special, although without a doubt can be heavy on one’s heart, is a way for people to share their stories and educate others through firsthand information. As an introduction for one of the episodes go: “This podcast will not make you feel sad, or make you feel mad. Hopefully, if anything, it makes you feel a little bit reassured.”
This particular episode, different from the one mentioned above, talked about a couple’s experience as they found out they they tested positive.
The intro continues: “Our only aim through this episode is to give you a little bit more knowledge, a more intimate understanding of what it might feel like if you and your spouse turn out positive for COVID-19.”
Patient X and Patient N, a couple who both tested positive for the coronavirus disease, were asked to go home from the hospital as they found out their results. They decided to go home after no hospital could admit them, and because they were caught in the middle of disarray as health workers struggled in haphazard coordination. Inside their house, they isolated themselves into their own rooms and nursed each other back to health.
One episode is a frontliner speaking, a resident doctor from a government hospital whose parents worry day in and day out and are telling her to resign. Answering the call of duty, she stays on but calls for others to follow protocol as it is the only way to fight the pandemic. Another episode, a surgeon, tells how hospitals continue to operate, treating patients who have appendicitis, fractures, and other concerns, and how doctors are getting more creative. She shares, she even had to treat a patient inside their car just so they don’t get exposed to the virus.
Episodes can run from two minutes to twenty depending on how much people narrate, but each one packs so much information. The PumaPodcast team shared that the goal is to humanize the situation by helping others gain a better sense of what’s been happening on the ground, and eventually become a tool to flatten the curve.
This playlist is just one of the many resources of information you can tap to know more about the pandemic and how it’s really impacting us Filipinos. As one who has been following the strict quarantine guidelines from day one, I admit I may have formed a bubble in my own home, and the influx of information and noise from everything that’s happening around the world distracts easily, and may have detached me further away from the situation. But if you, like me, want to understand more from a different person’s perspective, sobering truths await.
