November 23, 2013
“Dead bodies still litter the road sides, like garbage, one survivor said, waiting to be picked up, while the living struggle for basic necessities.”
It is hard to imagine what a huge natural disaster is like, especially in poor places without the resources to respond.
A few years back I met a shy foreign exchange student from the Philippines, Vanessa, who was having some problems with her host family in St. Paul. Her host mother was Pilipino, married to an American serviceman. For some reason, we clicked and in 2009 on my return trip from Samoa, I visited her family in the town of Delores, East Samar. They showed me wonderful hospitality. I reciprocated by testing everyone for diabetes. Her father's reading was the highest I had ever seen. Vanessa, her father, and I took a long overnight minivan taxi ride to Tacloban, the largest nearby city with a hospital. I mentioned to the family that the father’s condition was extremely serious and they should prepare for the worst. He died a few months later.
Tacloban was also the city where Vanessa went to college as a Biology student, torn with wanting to go into medicine, but worried about the hardship this would cause her family. She has almost finished her formal medical school classes in Manila and faces many more years of internship, etc. Now Typhoon Hayian has changed a lot in her life.
Before are a few passages from her spotty emails. I thought you might like to read them.
“Tacloban City has been wiped out. And that where I went into college. My home for 4 years. I still cant believe it. I have no words for it.
We still haven't heard from mama. Eastern Samar has been badly hit. Thats where the typhoon hit first. We got a news that shes okay but not knowing what really is and not being able to talk with anyone in our family back home is getting us all worried. Very much. Its awful, beyond awful.”
“ The Philippines is all over the news. But really, its Tacloban City that has been hit so soo bad. Its almost gone (but we wont let that happen, of course). Then there Eastern Samar where our place is. If you remember, we are facing the Pacific Ocean... We are blessed that aids are pouring from all over the world... The local government was a victim too so it has been handicapped. And because all communication lines are down and because we are a nation of islands, the national government had a hard time tending to the victims, it has been 10 days but much work has yet to be done. Upto now, we havent been able to contact mama. We heard that damaged at Dolores is minimal as one of our relatives went to a place 4 hours travel time from dolores to inform us they are okay. But, there is shortage of food supply and fuel at our place. My siblings sent a package to our place full of foods and candles. But we dont have idea if it reached our place.
I wish and i hope mama is with us... I really do. She's all alone there but with my nieces and relatives. I wish I can fast forward time and she doesn't have to work anymore to support me and so she'll just live with us here in Manila. She's the only one i have with all my siblings married and papa gone. I love her so much uncle nick that everytime i think of her now i want to cry.
God be with us,
Vanessa”
“Dead bodies still litter the road sides, like garbage, one survivor said, waiting to be picked up, while the living struggle for basic necessities.”
It is hard to imagine what a huge natural disaster is like, especially in poor places without the resources to respond.
A few years back I met a shy foreign exchange student from the Philippines, Vanessa, who was having some problems with her host family in St. Paul. Her host mother was Pilipino, married to an American serviceman. For some reason, we clicked and in 2009 on my return trip from Samoa, I visited her family in the town of Delores, East Samar. They showed me wonderful hospitality. I reciprocated by testing everyone for diabetes. Her father's reading was the highest I had ever seen. Vanessa, her father, and I took a long overnight minivan taxi ride to Tacloban, the largest nearby city with a hospital. I mentioned to the family that the father’s condition was extremely serious and they should prepare for the worst. He died a few months later.
Tacloban was also the city where Vanessa went to college as a Biology student, torn with wanting to go into medicine, but worried about the hardship this would cause her family. She has almost finished her formal medical school classes in Manila and faces many more years of internship, etc. Now Typhoon Hayian has changed a lot in her life.
Before are a few passages from her spotty emails. I thought you might like to read them.
“Tacloban City has been wiped out. And that where I went into college. My home for 4 years. I still cant believe it. I have no words for it.
We still haven't heard from mama. Eastern Samar has been badly hit. Thats where the typhoon hit first. We got a news that shes okay but not knowing what really is and not being able to talk with anyone in our family back home is getting us all worried. Very much. Its awful, beyond awful.”
“ The Philippines is all over the news. But really, its Tacloban City that has been hit so soo bad. Its almost gone (but we wont let that happen, of course). Then there Eastern Samar where our place is. If you remember, we are facing the Pacific Ocean... We are blessed that aids are pouring from all over the world... The local government was a victim too so it has been handicapped. And because all communication lines are down and because we are a nation of islands, the national government had a hard time tending to the victims, it has been 10 days but much work has yet to be done. Upto now, we havent been able to contact mama. We heard that damaged at Dolores is minimal as one of our relatives went to a place 4 hours travel time from dolores to inform us they are okay. But, there is shortage of food supply and fuel at our place. My siblings sent a package to our place full of foods and candles. But we dont have idea if it reached our place.
I wish and i hope mama is with us... I really do. She's all alone there but with my nieces and relatives. I wish I can fast forward time and she doesn't have to work anymore to support me and so she'll just live with us here in Manila. She's the only one i have with all my siblings married and papa gone. I love her so much uncle nick that everytime i think of her now i want to cry.
God be with us,
Vanessa”
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| Vanessa (plaid dress), her mother to immediate right, aunt far right, grandmother to left, father with cousins. Photo taken, August, 2009, Delores, East Samar, Philippines |
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| Happier Times. Eat Bulat, duckling in the egg, at her brother's apartment in Manila. |
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