Oral History with Brigitte Sanchez Robayo, June 14, 2021 (Ms2021-023)

Jessica 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 the 1:00interview 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 your interview and your 2:00materials 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.

JT: 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 listening in I think that was 4:00last 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 was your initial reaction to hearing 5:00that 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 worried about that. They were like, how do you feel about this? And this and 6:00that. 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?

BSR: 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 room. It was curious, my dad didn't get it. My mom got it, but my dad 8:00didn'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 have an uncle 9:00who 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 was hard for 10:00them 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 food gave it to her. He was 11:00the 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 big purchase for my 12:00family 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 increase 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 increase the immune system. I just 14:00remember 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 was 15:00before 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 of this situation. I couldn't travel. Before, I will travel, but I don't 16:00travel 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 that is how we communicate and how I communicate. When I knew that 17:00my 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 not like a to say like, oh my god, I will kill 18:00myself 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 that because I am doing my PhD I am very busy. 19:00Sometimes 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 in 20:00front 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 a lot, while the dogs just play out there. So I continue and she doesn't 21:00have 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 was not so hard for me. Maybe the parents and can't travel 22:00to 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 in case I have an emergency or 23:00something 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 I don't even go to restaurants. I eat a lot, so I spend a lot of money on 24:00food. 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 kind of expenses that I said, I used to buy her 25:00some 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 buy things for 26:00cleaning 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. I think that makes more work for the professors because it's not the 27:00same. 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 because I used to go to schools to 28:00observe 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 still will not turn on the camera. 29:00So 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 maybe that changed 30:00more 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 the internet is not working good, then you 31:00lose 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 of assessment that he 32:00did 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 not 33:00as 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 laptops inside the classroom, so maybe I will have the same situation with my 34:00slow 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?

BSR: 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 kind of 36:00teaching 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 maybe even starting with the 37:00platform, 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 attention in the 38:00teacher. 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 tools, but before you even come with 39:00that. 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 in fall. So they starting 40:00an 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 do that kind of things to explain the activities between. They 41:00didn'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 a little bit traumatic. My students this year were very excited when they 42:00knew 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 so they could work. I didn't know if either happened in other places or 43:00if 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 in the first one, I didn't 44:00feel 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 vaccination, I could be one of the person who get it 45:00and 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 has COVID changed how you have gotten healthcare and 46:00gone 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 like a lot of things and is this kind of like atrocities in the 47:00order, 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 some kind of contact activity. Before with the pandemic 48:00with 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, but that 49:00has 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 from Dulles airport in Washington. So I have to go to Washington, 50:00and 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, but you will just like other people in there. So nothing is 51:00strange. 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 to 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 country like mine because not many places didn't have 53:00internet 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 learn 54:00and 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.