Life Lessons…From an 11 Yr Old
“Don’t sweat the small stuff”
“Life is not a race”
“Enjoy the present moment”
“Just breathe, smile, and repeat”
These are the mantras going through my mind as Sophia and I navigate first the Singapore, and then the Manila airports on our way to reconnect with Ben, Ava, and Paul (or “BAP” for short 😊).
We’ve been separated once again because of COVID. BAP left on a Thursday, Sophia and I got out the following Tuesday. Just enough time for a “girl’s weekend” in Singapore. Even though Sophia had tested positive for COVID, her symptoms were pretty mild: head congestion, sore throat, tired. Still, given the strict rules in Singapore (and sophisticated contact tracing through an app that even kids had to download and use to check-in EVERYWHERE), we weren’t going too crazy on our girls weekend.
Our days were pretty chill and looked something like:
Breakfast
Schoolwork for Sophia/ travel planning for me (2 weeks out from our trip to Australia and we had nothing but our flights into and out of the country booked).
Walk along the beautiful Riverwalk, Marina Bay, or Gardens by the Bay
Pool time (offered at limited times throughout the day through a reservation system).
More school/logistics work
Dinner (either room service or an outdoor café along the river)
“Movie nights” catching up on Marvel series’ Falcon Winter Soldier and WandaVision (both fantastic!)
Despite being “stuck” in Singapore, we were feeling pretty lucky. Conversations with Ben revealed that Manila was…challenging. A few quotes:
“This is like the anti-Singapore: Nothing works the way its supposed to AND the authorities are annoyingly rule-following.”
“I’m totally lacking the words to describe this country. It’s like everything almost works. Or works but is harder than it should be.”
Paul even told Sophia he hoped she tested positive a second time (which she did) so she could stay in Singapore longer (which we did).
During this time, Sophia took 3 more home tests (I took 2 - which gave me flashbacks to home pregnancy tests) just to confirm when she was negative and we’d be able to fly out. Thanks to Paul’s wish and Sophia’s still positive test, I had to rebook one set of tickets already rebooked from our original plans. Third time was in fact a charm.
Given the frustration with Manila and delays on our end, we were all looking forward to reconnecting in Palawan, a small island about an hours flight from the mainland. BAP arrived Monday with a plan for Sophia and I to join them on Wednesday.
Getting from Singapore to Manila required more paperwork and time spent in long lines than any of us wanted. On the paperwork side, we needed print outs of everything: our tickets to Manila, our tickets departing Manila after our stay, proof of vaccination, proof of negative tests, proof of insurance, and our Philippines Health Passes. Confident we had everything we needed, we were surprised when our health pass had to be redone before exiting Singapore, then when we arrived in Manila, the health pass wasn’t registering properly and so we had to stand in a separate line (monitored by the Philippine Coast Guard?) and wait to have all our documents manually verified (again). The next day was more of the same as we tried to navigate check-in for our flight to Palawan. This was another cluster with multiple checkpoints and long lines (in two days we spent nearly 8 hours waiting in various lines).
This is when my incredibly low tolerance for inefficient processes was tested to its limits. I kept repeating those mantras over and over again in my head, but it was not working. Then, I looked over at Sophia, who was as chill as could be. She was happily doing a Spanish lessons on her Duolingo app, completely unaware of or unfazed by how insanity provoking the cluster around us was. As I expressed my frustration, she just looked up and said, “its nothing compared to Nairobi. I’m sure we’ll make it through, it is just gonna take some time.”
Ummm, OK. Right. And now, I’m the child and she is the parent.
In Palawan, the lessons kept coming. While beautiful, Palawan was not exactly what everyone expected. Our secluded, ecofriendly villa with its own private beach was over 90mins from the main city of Puerto Princesa and completely off the grid. This sounded great, but meant that there was no electricity for much of the day and when the generator did kick on (between 6pm to 6am) the fans worked overtime to cool off sauna-like temperatures in the rooms. There was also limited refrigeration. Food was kept cool in a cooler with ice or freezer that would come on at night and gradually thaw out throughout the day. The majority of cooking was done on an outside stove top fueled by a woodfire pit.
We were in a tropical jungle on the coast, which was stunning, but completely alive with every insect, bug, bird, and critter you could imagine. Every space – indoors and out – had ants crawling on it. This included our backpacks and our beds. Luckily they were completely harmless and just more annoying (and a bit gross).
Though we had confirmed before booking that the villa would have Wi-Fi, the router was broken and could not be repaired while we were there. With no cell service either, we were completely offline for the week - this I didn’t mind at all, but made Ben’s work calls a challenge. He had to ride 30 mins in a motorcycle side cart (not a legitimate side car, but a metal and wood cart precariously rigged to the side of the motorcycle) to a cell tower. He did several work calls and meetings in the middle of the night from the cart under the cell tower.
While we all embraced the glamping experience, Sophia truly enjoyed it. She could have happily stayed another week. She is definitely our Zen Master. She sees the beauty, adventure, and wonder in the present and is content to enjoy what is while others lament what is not.
Watching her navigate the various obstacles of the past few weeks has been both rewarding and instructive. As I felt my own blood pressure rising at inefficient systems and frustrating situations, I kept coming back to what kind of example I was setting for Sophia and what example was she demonstrating to me. While she wouldn’t use the same words or phrases, she embodied the mantras I was trying to channel:
“Don’t sweat the small stuff”
“Life is not a race”
“Enjoy the present moment”
“Just breathe, smile, and repeat”
