Reminder

I set up a reminder on what day to blog on WordPress. I didn’t know Saturday is included.

Typhoon Fabian which I told you about yesterday wreaked havoc again in some parts of Metro Manila because of the monsoon rains pulled by the typhoon including our town. Two days of rain and some villages and subdivisions here were flooded. We were blessed and lucky that flood waters didn’t reach our place except the two streets near the entrance of our subdivision. Just the same, Josef and I prepared for any eventualities. I didn’t sleep a wink last night except around 5:30 am to 7:00 am this morning. I was monitoring the news in our town. Our good mayor was in our town hall the whole evening with his disaster team and he updated us almost every hour with what was happening.

Jovy brought our car to her grandma’s place in Quezon City just in case. Our two dogs came along. It was full of some of their important things including the 50-inch smart television in their room.

I was praying the rosary at around 4:50 am when I thought I was having nausea because of lack of sleep. There was an earthquake followed by a weaker aftershock. It was 6.7 somewhere in Batangas province. Most of my friends didn’t notice because they were asleep and it was still raining then.

When nature takes its course all you can do is pray that you will be safe from disasters.

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Missing Picture

Here’s the photo I was trying to show you. I used my tab to upload it since it was the one I used to take it. It is in my media library, it loaded yesterday, I wonder why it is missing now. Look at the muddy water all around.

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Gloomy Sunday

They are playing Only Friends on the radio which I blogged about two weeks ago. I never get tired  listening to it though.

I am digressing again.

It’s a good thing I attended an anticipated mass last night. I spent most of the morning  searching for news online and listening to the radio on  news about typhoon Karen. We were under signal #2 but we were lucky that we were spared of heavy rains and gusty winds. Typhoon Karen (international name: Sarika) slightly accelerated  a few hours ago  over the coastal waters of Pangasinan but hear this, tomorrow there is another one that will enter PAR (Philippine Are of Responsibility) and news reports say it is a super typhoon, stronger than the last one we experienced today.  Haima will be named locally as Lawin. I am praying hard we won’t be affected too much.  It is the middle of October and yet we are still experiencing severe weather disturbances.  Sometimes these late in the year weather disturbances are stronger than those we experience during rainy season.  Sometimes they come as late as December.

I am sharing a prayer with all of you  a prayer for deliverance from calamities.

ORATIO IMPERATA

Almighty Father,

We raise our hearts to You in gratitude, for the wonders of creation of which we are part, for Your providence in sustaining us in our needs, and for Your wisdom that guides the course of the universe.

We acknowledge our sins against You and the rest of Your creation. We have not been good stewards of nature. We have confused Your command to subdue the earth. The environment is made to suffer our wrongdoing, and now we reap the harvest of our abuse and indifference.

Global warning is upon us. Typhoons, floods, volcanic eruption, and other natural calamities occur in the increasing number and intensity.

We turn to you, our loving Father, and beg forgiveness for our sins.

We ask that we, our loved ones and our hard earned possessions be spared from the threat of calamities, natural and man-made.

We beseech You to inspire us all to grow into responsible stewards of Your creation, and generous neighbors to those in need. Amen

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It Pains Me To See This

My cousin posted this on her FB account, a picture of the bridge going to our barangay in the province. The river is overflowing and so many people in some areas and barangays are trapped in their homes needing immediate rescue.  I talked to my brother early this morning and he said that they could not go down  to the town proper and cross this bridge to buy drinking water since their water supply was also cut-off due to the massive and destructive flood which has not yet subsided until now.  I could no longer contact anyone there. Our barangay is high up the mountain so luckily they are free of flood but they need help with food supply and potable water. It’s a good thing the governor has put up a page asking for list of places in the whole province where rescue is needed.  Our town have so many barangays submerged in water.  It reminds me of typhoon Ondoy, the pain and heartaches of losing lives and properties, the hardship of going back to your home which was full of mud and the price of renovating – replacing  cabinets, repainting walls, cleaning everything and disposing appliances and hundreds of books  and mags which were flooded. We have opted for built-in cabinets which won’t topple down in case of flood or earthquakes.

They need help ASAP.

The bridge is as high as a four-storey  building from the floor of the river so you can just imagine how high the flood water is.

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Facing The Storms

♫♪♫All that I am, all that I have
I lay them down before You, oh Lord
All my regrets, all my acclaims
The joy and the pain, I’m making them Yours

Lord, I offer my life to You
Everything I’ve been through, use it for Your glory
Lord I offer my days to You
Lifting my praise to You as a pleasing sacrifice
Lord I offer You my life

Things in the past, things yet unseen
Wishes and dreams that are yet to come true
All of my heart, all of my praise
My heart and my hands are lifted to You

Lord, I offer my life to You
Everything I’ve been through, use it for Your glory
Lord I offer my days to You
Lifting my praise to You as a pleasing sacrifice
Lord I offer You my life

What can we give that You have not given?
And what do we have that is not already Yours?
All we possess are these lives we’re living
That’s what we give to You, Lord

Lord, I offer my life to You
Everything I’ve been through, use it for Your glory
Lord I offer my days to You
Lifting my praise to You as a pleasing sacrifice
Lord I offer You my life

Lord, I offer my life to You
Everything I’ve been through, use it for Your glory
Lord I offer my days to You
Lifting my praise to You as a pleasing sacrifice
Lord I offer You my life
Lord I offer You my life♫♪♫♪

This inspiring song has played in my head since this morning. I was more inspired attending mass at St. Padre Pio chapel with Fr. Jerry Orbos, SVD  as mass presider. Josef and I agreed to meet there before the mass but we saw each  other  only after the final blessing. There were so many Padre Pio devotees who attended –  people from all walks of life, people in wheel chairs, people who believe that there is a loving God who will always be there for all of us. I was touched listening to some of them sharing a bit of their stories  before the mass, some came from nearby towns and provinces just to attend the celebration.  We were on the same journey, seeking intercessions from Padre Pio. We each have our own personal intentions but we were there as one family celebrating his feast day.

The past week  was  not just busy for us, it was pretty tiring too. Come to think of it,  Metro Manila was not even under any storm signal but typhoon Mario wrought havoc to our town again, flooding most areas because of the monsoon rains. It  was typhoon Ondoy all over again. We are still thankful though that even if flood waters reached our house (almost knee-deep), it didn’t bring damage to properties. PAGASA said that what is supposedly an amount of rainfall for a month fell in a day. Five years ago, when typhoon Ondoy hit us, we had to renovate. I had all our cabinet changed and fixed permanently.  I am not yet done arranging and fixing our personal things which we had to move to higher shelves. Sometimes I feel physically drained, it’s like doing manual labor, cleaning the house etc. ( I haven’t touched the garden yet).

Life is a bit hard sometimes but we have to move on and move forward. The uncertainties, the fear and trauma of dealing with such natural  disasters are still there but we are thankful that we are alive and enjoying moments with  the family. There are more things to be thankful for than to complain about. Fr. Jerry said in his homily this afternoon, “Offer your pain to God, be thankful for all your blessings. When the burden is too much, let Him carry it for you”.

Sunshine comes after the rain.

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Bangon Pilipinas

“The most beautiful people we have known are those who have known defeat, known suffering, known struggle, known loss, and have found their way out of the depths. These persons have an appreciation, a sensitivity, and an understanding of life that fills them with compassion, gentleness, and a deep loving concern. Beautiful people do not just happen.” – Elisabeth Kubler Ross

I am thinking of  a nice title for this blog but all I can remember are the faces of those survivors , fellow Filipinos who were directly affected by typhoon Yolanda. We get to see several countries pitching in, embracing us  and helping not just financially but their presence in the devastated areas are like beacons of light and hope for  everyone. We get to see that the bayanihan spirit is still alive. We get to see people from all walks of life, from all areas in the Philippines doing their share of helping, making their presence felt, trying to reach out to  our unfortunate kababayans.  And the silent majority  are there quietly doing their share of repacking, donating goods and extending their hands and praying  that this tragedy would somehow make us realize that life is short but it is never too late to do our bit of kindness. We are in mourning – mourning for  the  loss of thousands and thousands of people from the Visayas, we are in mourning seeing the devastation caused by typhoon Yolanda, we are mourning for those little children whose lives were suddenly cut short.

Some observers say they admire the resilience of every Filipino, the ability that one could still smile despite everything, the desire to rise again from the rubbles  and  rebuild one’s life despite all the odds. They admire the way we handle grief, weeping in earnest for what happened but life has to go on and we pick up the pieces  slowly but with determination that we could do it.

Earlier on, I was one of those who asked, “but where are the local officials and where is the national government?”  I would have ranted like the rest of the netizens in the social media whose way of coping was criticizing every move of our government officials, help is slow in coming and it’s a matter of life and death –  save our people from extreme hunger and thirst. The former are doing their best to bring sanity to such chaos but it still seems lacking and they need to move fast.  I posted this earlier at Facebook  and some of my friends had different reactions to it. Short of cursing the government for their slow move, they won’t take it sitting down. The government must know that they lack the push to do what needs to be done.

Rant all you want, criticize all you want but are you doing something? ARE WE DOING OUR SHARE in helping the government make life easier for the typhoon victims?  Sec. Dinky Soliman said that this is a collective effort so let us join hands and be one. It does not help that all we do is post negative comments and act as if we know better.

So I told them: I respect all your opinions here. All of us are affected in one way or another by this massive, destructive, enormous and devastating calamity. All I’m saying is that we must not negatively react “lock, stock and barrel” to all the news we read online.  And while we all know that it is the government’s duty and responsibility to help our people, let us do our share. Sometimes, ACTIONS ARE  BETTER THAN WORDS.

I was surprised to receive this wonderful letter from my niece who is a student at Oklahoma Christian University. She said and I quote:

Hi Tita Arlene! I just wanted to say a quick hello and see how you guys are doing. I also wanted to let you know that even though I know you guys weren’t affected directly by the typhoon recently, my school has sent a lot of love and prayers to the Philippines this past week and a half. We have a Filipino alumna  from here who spoke to us today about it and we also had a special prayer time specifically for the Philippines last Tuesday. So if you know anyone who was directly affected, please let them know we’re thinking about them! I definitely think about you guys a lot because it’s been so many years since I’ve seen all of you. I’m glad that you all are okay, and I hope you’re doing well. Please give Nate a hug for me on his birthday this week. I can’t wait for the day until I finally meet him. I always take joy in seeing the pictures that you and Ate Nissa post of him  – he’s definitely growing up fast! Anyway, I miss you all and please send everyone my love. Take care always!

Mae 🙂

Everyone is praying for the Philippines.  Our faith is bigger than any storm that comes into our lives. Bangon Pilipinas!

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The Day Metro Manila Stood Still

A week before “habagat”  (southwest monsoon)  wreaked havoc in Metro Manila, it rained hard causing flash flood in some areas of the metropolis. Who would think that even without a typhoon signal, flood waters would rise  again? Those three days that we stayed in our neighbor’s house reminded me of typhoon Ondoy which destroyed most of our belongings  three years ago.  There are several factors that caused the flood but I won’t go into details about it since this is a perennial problem in our country every time the rainy season sets in.  Our mountains especially in the areas of Montalban are now bare causing rain waters to flow freely, inundating  rivers that in return overflows to low-lying areas like ours. The problem with informal settlers who are near bridges and waterways hasn’t been solved yet so with high-rise buildings (built by influential people) which should not be there in the first place. Palakasan or lagay?  One of the major factors that among us Filipinos are probably guilty of is how we haphazardly throw trash everywhere. A few months ago, I blogged about this. It’s a case of “as long as it is not in my backyard or in front of my house”, who cares? Discipline is the key and it is never too late to change our ways. Believe it or not, this contributes to flooding because the water canals are clogged.

MMDA Chairman Francis Tolentino in an article posted by ABS CBN news said that Metro Manila can never be flood resistant but it can be flood resilient. I hate this feeling of always being afraid every time it rains hard. It’s as if  one would always have that feeling of insecurity when the rainy season sets in, more so when there is a typhoon signal.

I took pictures of the flood in our vicinity not because I’d like to be reminded of the pain it brought  me and my son and our neighbors affected by it but I just like to share that when nature’s wrath is at one’s door, you are helpless to do anything but pray.

This was at the back of the house, flood waters kept rising past on the first day and 90% of Metro Manila got flooded.

Our small pond was inundated so we lost the Koi fish (all of them) which we took care of for three years.

Notice the rising waters on day two. It reached knee-high inside our house and about ankle-deep in our bedrooms and since we have to save everything, it took us a while to transfer and put them in higher places. Until now, my back aches because of so much work, putting back everything where they used to be and cleaning the house- read – scrubbing the floors  with disinfectant.

It was like a ghost town…

Ang layo pa ng umaga!  Taken at dusk – no electricity, no radio and the world was just so gloomy.

Notice that red mark on the Meralco post? That was where we gauged if the water level went up or down.

Another week in history is over. Thank God for the gift of sunshine. Thank God for the gift of friends who are always there to cheer us up.

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It’s Nice To Be Back

Why do I get the feeling that I don’t know how to start blogging again? It’s been one stressful week. Rain, rain go away and don’t ever come back. Every time it rains, it gives me the shivers and I remember typhoon Ondoy all over again. We’re still lucky though that the water only reached more than a foot high inside the house.

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