Rainy days~~~

So the rains are…well…raining. o.o;; or should I say, it’s raining outside again. Well after what happened to us during Typhoon Ondoy, what used to be something I really loved experiencing is making me scared right now. Or traumatized. Or whatever. I really love rain, but too much of it…well, it terrified me so much. I can still remember how the floods rose so quickly, making me think that we should go seek an evacuation center or something. My brother was actually suggesting it, or my mother. But then again when it came down to it, even if we tried to get out, the floodwaters were already too deep to wade out into, and we’ll probably get ourselves into deeper trouble if we went to an evacuation center. So we stayed at our house. It reached waist deep (well according to my short stature lol XD)inside our house and ity was surreal. Our furniture started floating around, even our refrigerator and still unused, brand new washing machine my dad got as some kind of present from his kumpare from the US even tipped over. Mind you, it was a washing machine that you’d normally find in a laundromat. o.o;; THAT heavy. Our bedrooms were flooded, and because the floods rose so quickly we didn’t manage to salvage important documents, our dinner things, clothes (except for a scant few things we managed to scrounge out from our closets), and probably a lot of other things. My dad even had a story to tell when he went home that night…because it was already so flooded over at Ligaya, somewhere in the vicinity of Pasig that connects it to Marcos Highway (where Sta. Lucia, Robinson’s Metro East are located), he decided to walk all the way home. By the time he reached Sta. Lucia, it had already flooded the basement. And when he reached Vermont Royale/Filinvest, the currents were already too strong and they had to use a rope so that they could get across. The waters were unbelievably neck deep. Which was unusual, such as our house getting flooded over like that. He had his funny moments though, like how someone had mistaken him for an MMDA enforcer and bemoaned that they sent someone so old to rescue them (his uniform looked like what the MMDA personnel wore), and a group of young people holding on to him through the scary, strong currents of the flood when he’s already so old he could probably have been the first to be washed away if it came down to it.

After the floods subsided, we had major cleanup (which is still continuing even up to now). Because our refrigerator tipped over, my mom was worried that all our food inside the freezer is spoiled. Well miracle of miracles, they were all intact. However, the vegetables were mostly ruined in the crisper, and the floods sattered our supply of onions and garlic in and around the house. I remember my mom asking me to hunt for them, and they turned up in the unlikeliest of places. XD I haven’t had a bath for like 2 days because the power was cut off, but it was a good thing that it wasn’t all humid post Ondoy. When we managed to get the power back on (we were one of the luckier ones who got electricity back right away), I was so thankful when I had my showers. And then, we watched the news. It was so unreal. Metro Manila was inundated, and Marikina, Pasig, and other parts of Rizal…whoa. o.o;; We were hit by the floods, but we were still luckier than those people who lost their homes, their livelihoods, their lives. I wanted to cry seeing all those people asking for help, especially mothers who had no choice but to ask their children to beg on the streets for comforts we all take for granted. For a few days people went around our subdivision asking if we had clothes or food to spare, or if we had damaged appliances they could sell to junk shops. Then since the Marikina wet market was really devastated, Masinag wet market was bustling with activity, even our local supermarket. People were really panic buying, items on the shelves were gone almost at the same time clerks filled them up. o.o;; Also, stuff like plastic hangers, candles, bottled mineral water, matches, bleach, other detergent stuff and what could’ve been tons of instant noodle cups were the most popular choice for the shoppers to buy in truckloads. My mom spent buying chicken, pork, beef in bits and pieces since the meat supply in Masinag was getting scarce and was getting expensive. Vegetables were also scarce, and now that Typhoon Pepeng overstayed his welcome in the northern parts of Luzon, I could safely say that the vegetables nowadays are now like gold as well. 

This was probably what people needed in order to wake up from their indifference to the environment. A lot of accusations and blame were flung left and right, blaming the climate change, blaming the people who released water from the dams at the time the typhoon was raging, blaming obsolescent flood control methods…the list goes on and on. But if we try to look at the bigger picture…don’t we have nothing else left to blame but ourselves? Because we didn’t respect Mother Nature, we are now reaping the price of our “bahala na” attitude. Creation wasn’t suddenly put there like magic. If we disrespect everything that the good Earth has to give us, then of course we should expect a harsh repayment in return. Also, shoddy urban planning and totally ignoring the “what if” scenario decades into the future - part of our signature “bahala na” attitude as well as of course making more money first than ensure the lives of their constituents on part of corrupt officials, may they be local, regional or national - also contributed to the mess Ondoy and Pepeng made.

If there is one thing that was good in this tragedy, it was the bayanihan spirit of the Filipinos of which I am so proud of. Help poured in, even in one’s own little way, and eased the suffering of the people caught unawares by the floods. It brought all people together, regardless of social stature and probably clique. And even if the Filipinos are set back by this tragedy, they still remain resilient and still have something to be thankful and smile about, something which puzzled American soldiers doing relief operations for the typhoons. Filipinos can always and will always bounce back regardless whatever evil comes their way, and they face all of it with a smile. I just hope that whoever the next President could be this coming elections, he or she will have done something to respect and protect that smile with deeds worthy of it.

The White Queen