00:00:00Jessica Taylor: Hello. Today is June 14, 2020. My name is Jessica Taylor. I'm
interviewing-- your name please.
Brigitte Sanchez Robayo: My full name is Bridget Johanna Sanchez Robayo.
JT: --for the Latino Oral History Project slash Process of a Pandemic project at
Special Collections and University Archives at Virginia Tech. This project is in
partnership with the Voces Oral History Center at the University of Texas at
Austin. Please know that this interview will be placed in the Special
Collections and University Archives, at Virginia Tech, and shared with the Voces
Oral History Center, at the University of Texas at Austin. If there is anything
you do not wish to answer or talk about, I will honor your wishes. Also, if
there's something you want to talk about, please bring it up and we'll talk
about it. Because we are not conducting this interview in person, I need to
record you consenting. So I'll ask you a series of six questions. Please say
"yes, I agree" or "no, I do not agree" after each one. There are several
questions we need to make sure you agree to before we go on. Special Collections
and University Archives wishes to archive your interview along with any other
photographs and other documentation at Virginia Tech. Virginia Tech will retain
copyright of the interview and any other materials you wish to donate to
Virginia Tech. Do you give Special Collections and University Archives consent
to archive your interview and your materials at Virginia Tech?
BSR: Yes, Iagree.
JT: Do you grant Virginia Tech right, title, and interest in copyright over
00:01:00 the
interview and any materials you provide?
BSR: Yes, I agree.
JT: Do you agree to allow Special Collections and University Archives to post
this interview on the internet, where it may be viewed by people around the world?
BSR: Yes, I agree.
JT: Do you grant Virginia Tech consent to share
00:02:00your interview and your
materials with the Voces Oral History Center, at the University of Texas at
Austin, for inclusion in the Voces of a Pandemic oral history mini project,
which will include posting the interview on the internet?
BSR: Yes, I agree.
JT: We have many questions in a pre-interview form that we have already filled
out. We use that information from the pre-interview form to help and research.
The entire form is kept in a secure Voces server at the University of Texas at
Austin. Before Virginia Tech sends it to Newman Libraries, we would have
stripped out any contact information for yourself or family members. So that
will not be part of your public file. Your public file will only be accessible
at the Newman Libraries. Do you wish for us to share the rest of your interview
in your public file available to researchers at Newman Libraries?
BSR: Sorry, let me see if I understood. If I agree to share the interview in the
Newman Libraries?
JT: The information provided in the pre-interview form that will be stripped out
of contact information.
BSR: Yes, I agree.
00:03:00JT: On occasion Special Collections and University Archives and Voces received
requests from journalists, who wish to contact our interview subjects. We only
deal with legitimate news outlets. Do you give consent for us to share your
phone numbers or emails with journalists?
BSR: Yes, I agree.
JT: If you change your mind, let me know. So I'm going to go on to the questions
here. Can you tell me a little bit about your experience with COVID-19?
BSR: My experiences, which sense? Any sense?
JT: Can you tell me how you first learned about COVID-19?
BSR: How first I learned? For the news, I start
00:04:00listening in I think that was
last year, like in January, February. I started listening about the virus in
China that become growing and growing. Then I listen how that becomes a pandemic
was according to the amount of people who got it becomes a pandemic and then how
it started spreading out. The first time that I listened about COVID was big in
the news.
JT: Where were you getting your news at the time?
BSR: In my smart speaker here in my living room. I have a Google Home, and it
has the option that when you say, good morning, it'll tell you, hey, Briggitte,
how are you? and then tells you like the main news of the day and the things
that the smart speaker considered you need to know for today. So I hear that
news in the smart speaker.
JT: Wow, that's really interesting. What
00:05:00was your initial reaction to hearing
that news?
BSR: At the beginning it's like something that is happening in another country.
You think, oh my God, that is terrible. I hope everyone is okay. But honestly I
didn't feel sad or worry or even think that I that can like have any kind of
relationship with me at any point or that will affect me. At some point I never
thought about that is like, when you hear that something happens in our country,
it's something sad. So do you think about the people you do hope that the people
is fine? But actually you don't feel. Do you have any close feeling you know
about yourself? Because I never thought that it will be like affecting me so
much, like maybe like any other kind of sad news from different countries.
JT: When did you realize that it was going to affect you?
BSR: When I start listening that the virus is spread out in that way is
prominent in that it started going to different countries and then arrive United
States and that goes to different countries. Then I start thinking, oh maybe
that this will affect me as well, could affect my family in Colombia. When you
hear that it's spreading out around different countries, then you have, maybe
it's a small, but there is the possibility that that can affect you and your relatives.
JT: What was your family's reaction, both here and in Colombia?
BSR: That depends on the age. My cousin and the younger people were not so
00:06:00worried about that. They were like, how do you feel about this? And this and
that. My mom, my uncles, they were like, you hear about the virus? Oh my God.
Just pray for us to be good because it is dangerous, that kind of things. They
were just like a little worry that doesn't affect that people so much that
doesn't arrive to Colombia. When they start listening that hearing United
States, the numbers were growing and growing and growing, they tell us like, be
really careful because I have heard that the situation in United States is very
bad. Please be careful outside. Don't go out. Just use a face mask, that kind of
things. But mostly like the older people.
JT: How did the pandemic affect your family in Colombia?
00:07:00BSR: The ones that are in Colombia-- My mom and my younger sister, they got the
virus. They got COVID on December last year. We were really worried particularly
because of my mom because my mom she suffer of the heart. She has low pressure.
She had comorbidity. She has some illness like the blood pressures situation and
she's older, so she could be affected very bad in a bad way. We were worried
about her when she got the virus in December, but thankfully they didn't go to
the hospital. They were just at home all the time. My mom had a very bad time
for the breathing situation. It was sad because she had to separate from my dad,
from the
00:08:00room. It was curious, my dad didn't get it. My mom got it, but my dad
didn't get it. They live together. They sleep together, but my dad was fine. Of
course he tested, but he was negative. When my mom had the first like intuitions
that she got the virus, when she started feeling not so good, she just say that
that she was suspiciously feeling that maybe she got the virus, so she asked my
dad to go to a different room and take distance and everything. That was sad for
my dad because my dad used to sleep with my mom, so he couldn't sleep alone in a
different room. It was hard. It was sad for him, and he's old. He had to take
care of my sister and my mom because they both got the virus at the same time.
They live together, but different rooms. It was hard for that. I
00:09:00have an uncle
who is even older and she has brief problem, so she didn't go out. She always
asked for deliveries and when going to go it was just herself. It was hard for
them in particular to be isolated, to don't go out because my family is very
active people. In Colombia, they at the beginning did a lot of quarantines in
the Capitol, in Bogota, where my family's living right now. My family, my mom,
my uncles, they are teachers. They like to be with people, and they are very
active. Being isolated at home all the time for them is like a nightmare. At the
beginning, they were fine. Later they moved become not so good. It
00:10:00was hard for
them at the beginning because the quarantining started on the first time instead
of last year. So when the quarantine is started and everything they become after
sometimes like very sad kind of things because of the isolation. Later on the
same Barry was more worried because my mom got the virus on my system, so we was
more like a worry situation.
JT: When you said that your father was taking care of your mother and sister.,
what did that look like? What was he doing for them?
BSR: He was cooking for them. He was the one who cook, so he put the food in
plates. They put a small table in the entrance of the room. My mom just move
away from the entrance and my sister be the same. My dad like put the food in
the table and he goes away and then my mom took that. She ate and then she put a
lot of alcohol in the plate. Then my mother had gloves, so with a glove to the
plate he clean it with alcohol and everything. So he cook it. He bought
everything if they need. In particular my mom, she got some fever, so he bought
the medication and gave it in the same way that the
00:11:00food gave it to her. He was
the one who made the cleaning all the time. They talked but not my in distance.
The three of them live together so if my dad was sick, there were nobody to go
out to do everything. He was always attending them by cooking. What else? Like
giving medication. This guy said that fortunately my mom, who is the one who was
most at risk. She didn't have to go to the hospital because then that mobile
maybe they will have to be closer to get her to the hospital and everything. It
was just the medication, the food, the drinking, the drinks as well. I don't
know. I never even know what else. I send a friend to buy fruits and vegetables
in Colombia and some kind of plants that we have to increase the defensive the
immune system. I think in Somalia and ask him to make like
00:12:00big purchase for my
family and keep bringing it to the house. He just leave it in the door, and my
dad was the one who put a lot of alcohol on take care of that kind of things. He
is the one who can give them and may water with the plants and everything and
gave them all the things to them.
JT: You mentioned plants that help with ammunio response--
BSR: To
00:13:00increase the immune system.
JT: What plants would that be?
BSR: I remember when they mentioned moringa. I didn't know even that plant exis.
Last year on April, when they COVID was there, nobody got it. My mom says
moringa is really well for that kind of things. They asked me for that. Moringa
is used in different parts from Colombia to
00:14:00increase the immune system. I just
remember fruits and vegetables in general. I remember that at the time we select
some specific orange, the ones that have high vitamin C, vegetables as well. But
the plants in this moment I just remember moringa.
JT: What was it like for you to communicate with your family while all this was happening?
BSR: When my mom got the virus or like all this year?
JT: All this year, but the viruses as well. I'm sure changed things.
BSR: Yeah because they are in Colombia, and I am here, the communication way was
the same as before because I am here United States. We always communicate by
WhatsApp. We make video calls in the family and communicating that way that
00:15:00 was
before the COVID with COVID was the same. The same way of communication because
even when my mom was in her room, alone when she got sick, she can use her cell
phone. The difference is that she become tired very very fast. Before we talk
with all the family like two hours. This time after twenty minutes, she was
like, I am so tired. When she has to just leave the meeting because she just get
tired very fast. That was different, but the way of communication was the same
by WhatsApp. Maybe another difference is that I couldn't travel to Colombia
because
00:16:00of this situation. I couldn't travel. Before, I will travel, but I don't
travel so much. But if I had the opportunity, I travel. This time I couldn't.
There is a difference in communication by video calling. My mom got sick. When
she was sick was when she was fine. The communication, I would say that maybe
even goes higher because all of us were in our homes. Before the pandemic
sometimes people were working, so they didn't arrive at home to connect to the
others. These times everyone were in their homes, so they can connect on time
and they can stay there more time. So even we spend more time in our meetings
sometimes, but it was by WhatsApp. Maybe different members of my family were
between them. My family members, who were all in Colombia, because before they
were to visit the relatives, but these times all of them were by WhatsApp. So
that was different and that makes the communication different online than face
to face. But
00:17:00that is how we communicate and how I communicate. When I knew that
my mom was sick, I just call every day, and how was she and everything? So how
was my sister? Asking when they will leave. And as I told you, I searched for
someone, who can help me from Colombia, to provide something to my family.
JT: How did it affect you to not be able to travel?
BSR: It affected me a lot because I couldn't see my family. For me that
energizes me. To eat like my food and to be with my friends, with my family. So
that was a little hard. It was
00:18:00not like a to say like, oh my god, I will kill
myself or something like that. No, but it was sad. Everyday you were listening
about the situation and how it becomes bigger and bigger and bigger, that
prepares like your mind and yourself that situation will happen. So that helped
me to prepare myself to think that in some point that maybe I will not able to
travel. That there is this possibility, then that possibility becomes stronger
and stronger and stronger. So I prepared myself like mentally, psychologically
that I will be here and I can't see my family. So that helped me a lot. I think
the other thing that helped me is
00:19:00that because I am doing my PhD I am very busy.
Sometimes when I go is like I felt guilty because I have a lot of work to do,
and when I go there, I don't work. It's very difficult to meet the goal, so I
don't do anything. Then that helps me. Like-- okay, but I have to do this. I can
use the time like try to find the positive things of the situation, so that
helps me to prepare mentally that I will not be there that I cannot travel. But
still not see my family and they'll have this possibility of traveling was hard
because I didn't get the energy that they usually get when I go there.
JT: Do you have family here?
BSR: I have my cousin here in United States. She lives in a different state.
JT: How did COVID affect you especially as you're trying to pursue your PhD?
BSR: When they start asking the people to be quarantined and isolated, I
remember that I used to say to my family. I realized that my lifestyle is called
quarantine. I love in some ways that I couldn't go. I was commonly was here
00:20:00 in
front of my computer working. I have a dog, so I have to go for my dog for her
to live, her exercise, and walk. That is very helpful for me as well because
that will give me a reason to see different scenarios to breathe. That dynamic
didn't change so much because it was the same like me in the computer and going
out just with my dog. The difference maybe was I think that the big difference
is because I am Latin. Here they used to do some Latin parties, and I love
dancing. I love to dance. So usually I go to those parties. And that's, of
course because of COVID, there were no more parties. I missed that a lot. I
tried to stay in contact with my close friends, who were Latin, even some
Colombians as well. So I still keep in contact with them, talking to them, even
meeting with them. I have a friend, Jeremy Frankel is here and we used to go
out. She has another dog and her dog and my dog becomes friend became friends.
That's how we met because of our dogs. We started like just talking a lot,
walking
00:21:00a lot, while the dogs just play out there. So I continue and she doesn't
have contact with so much people as well. So then we try to keep on contact,
keeping our distance, but we still try to do the same. I try to have my closest
friend sustain some contact and just do the same the computer and everything.
What I miss more maybe one of the parties because there was the spaces when I
can go and spend a lot of energy doing something completely different than
study, but most of the time I am here in front of the computer, just me so then
I didn't feel it. It
00:22:00was not so hard for me. Maybe the parents and can't travel
to Colombia was and maybe economically as well because I didn't receive all the
salary that I usually received. So I have to pay. I have to complete for the
remainder for everything from my savings. So that affects me economically,
financially a lot. I struggle a bit.
JT: How did you cope with the changes in salary over the last year? What
strategies did you use to make it less of a problem?
BSR: I like to save money. I like to have money
00:23:00in case I have an emergency or
something like that. I had savings first and second commonly I am very serious
with money. I asked for a loan for a friend and I get it. Between the loan and
my savings, I could cover the rent, my dog's food, and everything without being
starving or something like that. I try always to buy just any the things that I
need. I try to don't go to restaurants and just cook that kind of things to try
to maximize the money that I have.In particular, it was a combination between
those two: my savings and the loan so I could cover everything. They issues that
my service that means that I didn't have more savings. I started having savings
again. It's hard, but it's more like the dynamic of spending money and try to
see how you spend the money. I realized that I spend a lot of money of food even
when
00:24:00I don't even go to restaurants. I eat a lot, so I spend a lot of money on
food. I have to take care of that like minimize that kind of things. I put all
my expenses in a list and write, what is this? Every day when I bought
something, I go write it in a table. Then what I realized I used to do that
before, but when I could save money easier, I didn't do it. But now because I
knew I had to be more careful. I did that. I realized, okay, I don't need these
or these. I used to spend some money in treats for my dog, so I haven't bought
her any treats since last year. I gave her one treat like once per week. I still
have some so it's just like try to extend that more the most I can then I don't
have to buy treats. That's the
00:25:00kind of expenses that I said, I used to buy her
some treats, but I said you don't need treats. You need food. You need your
vaccinations. You need all kinds of things, but you don't need treats is not a
necessity so no more to treats for you. I did the same for with me, like, I
don't need these. I don't need to buy these like blues or something like that. I
have clothes so also don't buy this and this. It did the kind of things to just
like have like the what do you need. For instance food. I need to
00:26:00buy things for
cleaning because I will not leave like dirty, so I need to buy things for the
cleaning the apartment. So that kinds of things is how I organize and manage
like the money.
JT: Definitely. In terms of your PhD, has COVID changed the track or the timing
of how grad school is going for you? Did COVID change anything about your
education itself?
BSR: The classes become online. Before we're face to face and now they are
online.
00:27:00I think that makes more work for the professors because it's not the
same. You have to learn how to use the platforms to create the breakout rooms,
that kind of things, so that makes more work for them. It was not face to face.
Maybe that makes something different because you don't have bodies like the same
situation with their family. You don't have human contact. Even is different to
talk you and me is like the feeling is different and here in face of a screen. I
will say that maybe it's more than the human contact that we don't have because
in terms of the academic, it was the same. We continue reading and writing as
before. The quality continues being the same. The professors try to do the best
they can in the conditions and we had. In that tense, it was the same. Different
to me more in terms of my assistantship
00:28:00because I used to go to schools to
observe teachers. In this time, because classes were online, the observations
were online as well. That makes a lot of work for my students because it's
different. To do a class with adults, with PhD students, is different than to do
classes with teenagers. You can't mandate twenty people to turn on the camera in
a class. But for adults, you can tell them, I like to see your faces and
everything done and then the others will turn on the camera without big deal or
is what I think commonly and more in a PhD environment. But in the school, you
can say the same to the teenagers, but they
00:29:00still will not turn on the camera.
So you are a teacher, you don't know, in fact, if you have junior students in
there. That is hard. So but in terms of my level of processing was more for the
assistantship because even starting look, observing that class online was a
complete learning to me and complete labeling to my students, to everyone. So
that changed everything. Even the kind of recommendations that I gave to my
students. I used to gave a lot of like classroom management, like look the
people to the faces, like try to hear, like have eyes everything in different
places to engage participation, that kind of things. But in an online
environment that is completely different, so I will say that
00:30:00maybe that changed
more in that way. In my classes, I think quality was the same more the contact
before the pandemic. The classes were face to face but also they kind of have
task. They're kind of like homework that we had. We're also reading in the
computer and writing papers and sending the papers by email. That was the same
year. That was the same kind of situation. The participation in the class were
online and the professors are still try to encourage us to interact through
breaking rooms to participate. That was the same. Maybe some situations, when
you have technological issues, like
00:31:00the internet is not working good, then you
lose part of the class, or you are outside. In some classes, when my computer
was just there thinking and thinking and thinking and thinking and thinking. The
classes that they have to go and the component is they're just thinking and
thinking and thinking. That kind of things affect you. Like to go to a class or
for reason my computer is small. As I happen to me, I think that was in fall. I
had an old computer and it was very small, very, very slow, very slow. So the
professor say, okay.Please answer these questions to me, just at the end of the
class. He gave us some time for that. So the questions were in Canvas. We had to
download the paper and just answer the questions. It's not like big deal and the
questions were not bad questions. It was just some kind
00:32:00of assessment that he
did for his class. Something very nice. He was, okay. Go to Canvas and just do
it. I went to Canvas and my computer was there. The people, and then you start
to download that word paper, and the people started saying, done. Thank you very
much. Bye. And people say bye, bye. I was there just under the big word paper,
and because English is my second language, I am also very slow writing, as well.
So I think that I might write but I have to read the same phrase to check my
spelling, my grammar, that kind of things. So the paper was downloading and it
was just another person and me in the class because everyone was, okay. Well,
thank you, Mary. Bye, bye. And I had no class. So that kind of situation is
00:33:00 not
as simple because the professor saying, okay, just send me when you complete it.
But even when the professor says that you feel a little stress. You are there to
like without doing anything, just being like, okay. Come on. Come on. Do it, and
just looking and you try to do something else. But no, just you have to wait for
the paper to go. Then they can complete it and then submit the paper. It's
another part of the story. So there's a issue. Maybe that when you have
technological issues is sometimes it was rainy and then they sign that is the
WiFi is not so good. But in general terms, I didn't have that kind of problem.
It was sometimes and also because my computer was very slow. So that is that.
Maybe if I was online or if I was face to face-- We also used to work with
00:34:00laptops inside the classroom, so maybe I will have the same situation with my
slow computer in the classroom. That could happen as well. So I didn't know what
I just leave there. But it was not like this big stress. It was just this kind
of situation and it was because of the futures of the technological tools that I
was using.
JT: You mentioned you work with teenagers, right?
BSR: No. I work with preservice teachers. Because they are preservice teachers,
they teach to, to school. They teach in a school to teenagers. It's middle and
high school.
JT: No direct contact with the middle school and high school students?
BSR: No. I was just observing not them, the class. I was just there observing
the classroom. If because I was observing my student who was a preservice
teacher and he's in [inaudible] in a classroom with teenagers, so I will be in
the same space with the teenagers who are my students' students. But I never
interact with them because I was just observing the class. I never interact
directly with teenagers.
JT: How did you find that COVID affected your students, the teachers?
00:35:00BSR: That was huge because I would say to that effect it's curious in two
different ways. Last year, on a spring, commonly my students in spring, they are
doing their internship. So they go everyday to school, to teach, and to do
teacher work. So last year, in spring, they started going to school face to face
like regular situations. Then the situation happens in schools have to go online
and everything that was a huge change for them because they were learning. That
maybe was dramatic in many different ways. First, because they couldn't
experience the teaching environment completely because they were with the
students until I think it was something in March. So they couldn't finish their
internship, going to schools every day, meeting with parents, that
00:36:00kind of
teaching experiences that really makes you feel the teaching profession. So they
couldn't live that in as part of their preparation, that couldn't live that part
of the teaching completely. Second, because they were learning to be teacher,
preparing, doing a lot of planning a lot. They have to do a lot of planning and
additional work for the relationship. So journals everything, and then they have
just to change to the online environment. So they have to learn how to do it and
at the same time, the schools were managing. I think that the counties were
managing all the situation when if they would go to meet, considering the
parents' permission because there is a situation of having teenagers and
children in a screen. So what will happen with the teachers? Are all the schools
managing that situation? Even I think that
00:37:00maybe even starting with the
platform, so they used to meet with Meet, but Meet had some limitations. For
instance they couldn't make group work. Some had breaking rooms. I think that
mean, now have it, but before we didn't have it on that time, so they couldn't.
The university one suggestions that we commonly do is, okay. Try to do group
activities. So they had these in the autosave part of them, but they couldn't do
it. Of course, we were very, very flexible. You have to do group activities. If
they couldn't, but those are those kind of changes for them. For the
preparation, they have to just be really creative. Start thinking, how will you
call the students' attention in this environment? If in a class, in a common
classroom, when you are feeling that people, when you see someone moving is very
difficult for the students for some or sometimes to keep their
00:38:00attention in the
teacher. That is one of their teaching skills, to capture the attention of all
your students and have all your students with you in your class. In another
environment, when the students all the time look in the same screen, it's very
difficult. It's very difficult because they are children. Particularly they have
some children, of early ages, is that they can't keep doing x, the same
activity, more than twenty minutes. Depending on the ages, that time increases.
So one of the things is that you must write like different kinds of things,
provide a variety of tasks in this online learning environment. That means that
you need to know a lot of technological
00:39:00tools, but before you even come with
that. So that was a huge change for them that to ask them for a lot of
creativity, plus learning for them. For some of them was very like an advantage
that they had learned a lot of these like pedagogical, technological tools in
the university so they can use it and even they can help other teachers to learn
it fast. But it was a huge change for them. So it was for them was really hard.
This spring was like the opposite because this students that I have this spring
are different from my students from spring because my students in our spring
graduate. Now they have teachers. My students on this just past year, they
started in an online environment because they started
00:40:00in fall. So they starting
an online environment and everything. For them that change what the opposite.
They were from online to face to face. I think that was April or May. For them
it was at the beginning, they start like managing classroom online and
everything there. You start having students in the classroom, and they face a
very difficult challenging of having students online by the face to face as
well. So for instance, one of the recommendation was like try to keep your
online students and your face to face online students with you in your class.
That is very, very difficult. In their cases, they used to do a lot of classes
and design tasks online and try to provide synchronous and asynchronous
activities, maybe
00:41:00do that kind of things to explain the activities between. They
didn't meet in synchronous sessions and asynchronous sessions, to go face to
face and to face and to channel and to leave the situation of having the
students in there and managing their behavior and that kind of thing. So it was
like the opposite as well. They live that part of the teaching experience, face
to face, at the end of their internship. So it was different. We're like, that
they didn't live like learning or teaching that way. But it's a situation that
we had and the good part is that they learn a lot. They learn a lot about how to
handle these uncertain situations as teachers, and they did a very good job on
that. It was hard for them. It was a lot of work to them. I would say maybe yes,
like
00:42:00a little bit traumatic. My students this year were very excited when they
knew that they will have face to face students. They were like, these kind of
tough feelings between scared but excited. So that was challenging for them, for
us. I think that all of us we learn along with all this equation.
JT: Is there anything particular to southwest Virginia that was challenging for
you or for your students? Beyond the internet issues, obviously.
BSR: Are you talking about like the state is there something that's specific
about Virginia?
JT: Yeah and being in the mountains too.
BSR: I don't know because I don't know how that works in different states. I
think that depending on the population and the places. For instance, in big
cities, maybe there are students who didn't have the sources. What happened here
is that if the students didn't have the sources, the schools provided Chrome for
students
00:43:00so they could work. I didn't know if either happened in other places or
if their students had some issues with it. Sometimes there were students I had
issues with the internet, but I don't know the reason. I don't know that we're
makers, they live in mountains. Maybe that was a bad sign or something like
that. I can't tell.
JT: Absolutely. Switching topics. Did you get your vaccinations?
BSR: Yeah.
JT: What was that like?
BSR: Painful after some hours. I got the Pfizer, and
00:44:00in the first one, I didn't
feel the shot. It was here and if they didn't feel it in the first one, but some
hours later my arm when I move we were very painful. It's like you can do the or
you can do these but it was like, oh, painful. I felt tired with a second dose.
I was scared because all the people that I knew they become sick have like a
leader of the filling Then my mom, I remember she told me, okay, both medication
for the fever and put water next to your bed and in case you got fever and you
develop something. So I was like, yes. I know because everyone that I knew
becomes sick with the second dose. So I was thinking that maybe I become sick as
well, but I didn't. Thanks, God. I didn't. I just become like tired, and I just
slept a whilend that was all. I didn't get fever or sick or anything. Just that,
just the pain in the arm. I ask and they told me that these are muscular
injection, and that's why it was painful in the arm. But that was all.
JT: Why did you decide to get the vaccine?
BSR: I think that one reason is like doing what I can to become the situation
more normal. I will not say to protect myself because I understand that the
vaccination is not a shield. What the vaccines does is that if you got the
virus, the virus will not kill you. You will not become such sick as if you
don't have the virus is what I understand. A I know that people get it then
dividers will become like this appearing or at least be less proportioned
outside. So first, to protect myself in case that I get it, I will not be so
stressed. But also like to help to become the situation better socially for
everyone. If I don't got my
00:45:00vaccination, I could be one of the person who get it
and then I can spread it out without knowing because that is the situation
without. You can have an I don't know that you have it, so then the situation
will remain the same. It was hard because we are social beings, humans, we're
social beings. So it was hard for many people. So it was like doing what you can
do to regularize the situation again. So I mean that helps. Not just to protect
me, but also to protect others. So I would do it.
JT: Beyond the vaccine, how
00:46:00has COVID changed how you have gotten healthcare and
gone to the doctor over the last year and a half?
BSR: If COVID affect how I go to the doctor anything? I don't think so because
when I needed to go to the doctor, I went to the doctor. It was just all the
actions when I went to the doctor were different because they kept the
regulations. So first they asked you if you got sick or you got fever, you have
contact with someone who has symptoms. You have the list of symptoms and then
you answer a lot and they change your temperature and they keep their face mask.
If they told us
00:47:00like a lot of things and is this kind of like atrocities in the
order, but any people can have with the other because any people can be a danger
to whoever. Then I think that just a dynamic. Answering always but it was not
just to the doctor. Commonly if was if I go to different places, I have to
answer the same fourteen questions and they check my temperature and everything.
But yes, if I needed to go to the doctor, I had it as any other moments.
JT: Beyond your family and beyond school, were there other organizations, like
churches for example, or other organizations that you're involved in that
affected you or helped during the last year?
BSR: I used to go to Tansu International Federation, that has a group here in
Virginia Tech. It was not just from the university, it was a group of people
also in the New River. So I went to that to practice dance. Also when Kobe's
comes and we always meet but outside and keep it a lot of distance between us. I
think that we didn't meet at the beginning of everything, but then we start
meeting but always outside keeping these standards and keeping regulations to be
safe also because it's
00:48:00some kind of contact activity. Before with the pandemic
with it some kind of movements when you have to touch the other one. Even though
we didn't do these movements during the pandemic just what you can practice by
yourself. There was a change with the pandemic. There was a change. As I told
you, like, the Latin situation I couldn't meet with with many people as before.
JT: Last section here. How have the current social movements of the last year
and a half impacted your daily life?
BSR: When you say social movements, what do you mean?
JT:Like the election, or Black Lives Matter, the January sixth thing in
Washington, D.C., things like that.
BSR: I was surprised, but not to say those are situations that happens when you
have a movement. Black Lives Matter movement happens when people react to some
kind of situation and justice situation. Right now what is happening in my
country in Colombia. I know you have heard about the national strike,
00:49:00but that
has happened and that happens when just people react to social injustice that
they are living. So I was surprised. When I tell you I don't know it's like I
tried to read about that and stay informed about that. One day when I was
walking here in Blacksburg, it was a lady with announcement about the Black
Lives Matter situation. She was just to be here. I hear, here is how I can I
call help. That is those situations. They only see that maybe you can think is
because I had to travel to Colombia. I had to travel in December, but because my
mom got the COVID so I had to move my travel to January. So I have to travel in
January and for those days were the presidential possession, so was the
Washington situation, the January six. I don't remember it, but the issue is
that my travel was one day or two days before the President took his position.
My flight was
00:50:00from Dulles airport in Washington. So I have to go to Washington,
and I stay in a hotel. My family told me, hi. Be careful because of this. Then
we saw in January six, so we don't know. It's very close to the presidential,
the situation from the president where he took care. So that must be dangerous
of course because you've seen event happens on January sixth. What could happen
when the President takes possession of his role? So be careful and you are
alone. When I stay in a hotel, and there were a lot of military people in their
hotel. But it's just like other people. So the only thing is that they were
military people,
00:51:00but you will just like other people in there. So nothing is
strange. Nothing happens different. So, there's that. There was a situation and
I don't know what else to say, but I just leave it in that way. In Colombia,
where is different, the situation is very different than what happened here. I
am worried, sad because I can be in my country helping with that, but I help in
ways that I can from here.
JT: Is there anything you want
00:52:00to discuss that we haven't talked about yet?
BSR: No, I think that something that I would like to say is that I admire how
people and how the university try to adequate conditions to make the things
continue working, despite the situations that are there. So it was like things
didn't stop, and how and the importance of resources because here there were the
possibility when the schools gave a Chrome to the students and gave the
resources, so they could continue taking the classes online. That situation
didn't happen in a
00:53:00country like mine because not many places didn't have
internet ahere were not resources to give a student a laptop or a Chrome or
something like that. T is to say like, having the resources also help to manage
the situation, but also people doing the best that they can to manage the
situations and try to have to provide like education healthy. If I had to go to
a doctor, I went. The service was not canceled. Just adequate all the conditions
to try to provide what people need. So I admire that. I think that is very,
very, very, very good things. In my field, education, I saw different efforts
from different roles, different people to try to make things work, and to
00:54:00 learn
and work and help others with the conditions that we have to stay there to
support. We try many, many things and we try to show them that we were there for
them if they need some kind of support and that is really helpful when you are
living a very harsh situation.
JT: Well, thank you so much.
00:55:00
