Tip of the Iceberg (05102014)

I never imagined I'd feel so ashamed of how I've been living my life until today. The gravity of just how petty I really am dawned on me. My problems seemed so miniscule in comparison to how awful things have been here. We went to the provincial disaster risk reduction management center where Sir Vince had been working since Yolanda hit and he told us stories about how bad it really was in the context of lives lost and how they were coping with their losses. He told us that the building adjacent to them used to be a call center and that their roof was blown off. This broke their equipment and they pulled out of Leyte and transferred back to Manila. The problem was that they were employing around 1200 people from Leyte and around 5 people depend on the salaries that each employee gets there. That's 6000 people that suddenly lost their support. In fact, Sir Midas said that out of the 1500 businesses in Tacloban city, only 150 renewed their license. It must be even more difficult for the people to recover because the economy is really down. What's sad is the people who need the jobs are those that need to cope the most. The area is poor and this makes them a bad candidate for investments. Many businesses pull out and this means that these poor people even lose their capability to work for their sustenance. Especially in the culture the Philippines has, it is really valued that you earn what you have.

Sir Vince also recounted how there was really harsh winds and that windows would burst because of so much pressure. In fact, most of the injuries incurred by the people during that time were from glass and wood. He said that the first responders to their call for help was really doctors. They saw so many bodies lying around and people were basically zombies right after. They were just walking aimlessly around the streets because of such shock. I couldn’t imagine seeing everything a mess and piles of bloated bodies on the ground. Right now, I already have a heavy heart just seeing the destruction in the area and for him to say that this was 1000 times better already? It really must have been rough. They also had to let the inmates out because the jail's roof was blown off as well. What they were expecting was that they couldn't get the people back in the jail but a few days after, they had around 80% of the people back PLUS families. That really tells you something. They prefer to be in prison now instead of in their homes. The prison was the haven already. There was no communication at all except for some old radios and the only way for people to actually know how their loved ones are is to physically be there to search for them. There was also a mass exodus here to the neighboring provinces because there was no food and water

In order to get back to their feet, they relied heavily on donations. The gave seedlings for coconut trees as well as rice plants because these are the primary livelihoods in the area. They also gave out fish pens to the fishers in order to help them. Donations such as infrastructures, temporary facilities like a maternity clinic were also given. But all this is temporary. NGOs are pulling out one by one and people are having to learn to stand on their own two feet again. Despite Leyte's efforts to recover from the disaster, the effects are still prevalent. In fact, I just saw a lady take off her shirt in the middle of the road. Actually, I saw quite a lot of people who are not mentally well while we were touring. It gets harder to feel normal when people experience a great loss. 

Even though there was an underlying gloom about the place, that did not stop them from celebrating their fiestas. We first went for lunch at the provincial engineer's house and they actually served us food in the table. They only met us that day and they still welcomed us into their home. For dinner, we met the barangay captain of another barangay in Palo and we were also invited to dine with them. It was very touching to see that people would still share what little they had to us, even though we didn't really need it. I also liked how they would still serve and welcome anybody to their homes. I haven't experienced that since I was 7. We used to prepare a lot of food during our fiesta in Bulacan and everybody was invited to come. My grandmother used to cook the food all day and we shared what we had to our neighbors (we were living beside the squatters area called "looban"). Again, I felt how generous these people truly are. It is not merely in their fiscal wealth but also in their hopeful spirits. They are veyr generous of the latter, giving people hope to continue with their lives. The message I got was that the sharing of the food with everyone is an opportunity to share the idea that they are not alone and there is reason to still feel happy and hopeful despite what has happened.