Surviving the worst

It was the worst in 40 years. 

Yes, typhoon Ondoy was the worst in 40 years…even worse than Millenio or Reming.

This time though, it wasn’t the winds that was the killer, but the rains. To give you an example, I share with you a picture:

See the gate? That’s the gate of our “phase,” around 10 houses away from us. If you look closely, you’ll see the head of our guard, who’s trying to save what he can from our gate.

And just so you’ll know how grave the situation was, in the 30 years we’ve lived in our village, we have NEVER, ever, experienced flood–not even ankle deep. Imagine how shocked we were seeing this when we went outside….our house was dripping on the walls inside, all our floor mats were wet, we couldn’t go out.

And yet we were lucky. Some parts of Metro Manila, Rizal, Laguna, and other provinces are virtual rivers and seas now. Our other kababayans are not so lucky–trapped, hungry, weak, suffering. It is so heart-wrenching. The extent of the damage is not easy to comprehend, and I could not help but offer a prayer every now and then. After all, besides all the things we can do to help [like sending money and donating food, clothes, medicine, blankets, etc], what all can we do but to pray for them?

Let’s all pray that the worst is over.

On the bright side, times like these bring our the best in mankind when you see people helping and taking care of each other. And seeing how other people “forget” themselves is just as touching as the suffering that compelled it in the firstplace. Yes, the worst times bringing out the best in people.

Oh, and one more thing, I got to bathe in the rain again.