Nap Time Rocks!

these kids…

looking at Mia, i feel like i want to tell her how much she is blessed to have a home, a family (albeit missing one parent but who cares, she’s got the best nona and nono, and titos anyway), and food to eat anytime she wants. if only she could understand now. how much i would stress that to her.

for now, i’d like to let everyone know there are so much that we can do to help children who have no such privelege. they may have families but they get abused, or food but those come from hard-earned streets money which they shouldn’t even be doing, or clothing but tattered and barely hangs on to their bodies.

when we had an outreach in partnership with the Virlanie Foundation last Saturday, i fought the urge to cry. i have Mia and this was not the kind of life that you’d want for your kid, or any child for that matter. it was unfair to be born into street life, with nothing to look forward to but where the next meal will come from, or if daddy won’t come home drunk to beat me up again. too cruel.

you may think that i’m overreacting. i say, the next time you decide to do an outreach, go to the streets. special homes won’t let you see the harsh realities of poverty. it just won’t. i was talking to one mother who was very proud of her eldest son who now works at a local fastfood chain. he sort of brings home the bacon now, since the father isn’t much help because of the chronic drinking.

the conversation would’ve been Oprah-worthy if not for the punchline. she told me too that she had hit “jackpot” (that was her term for it) by getting pregnant thrice by a foreigner. that’s not the bitter part. she was so looking forward to raising one of her daughters into a teen so she can bring the family to a better place. if you can read between the lines, i don’t have to tell you that it’s through the flesh trade.

i wanted to ask her where she lives and take the kids myself. that’s just one reality. i’d hate to find out what the others are.

if you have the heart for children, please do share your blessings. the Virlanie Foundation needs so much of it, aside from monetary, there are needs too like personal hygiene and school supplies. vitamins and first aid kits for wound dressing and the like. (believe me, you wouldn’t want to see the worst case of it).

help bring back the smiles into these faces. you can learn about and get in touch with the Virlanie Foundation through www.virlanie.org.

like i said, your blessings are worth nothing unless they’re shared.

Stranger #4: Barker, mother

yes, i’m a sissy. i never got the courage to walk up to a stranger again until today. the last time was too easy. this one, though as easy as the first one, was difficult to digest.

name: lourdes

age: not important, but with the hardened life she’s had, who knows

address: binondo, manila

occupation: barker*, mother of 4

territory: where the quiapo jeepneys are found in manila

we had a long conversation about raising kids in that part of manila, how important it is for them to stay in school, and how proud she is of her 21-year-old son who now works at a big local fastfood chain.

she’s a barker for quiapo jeepneys, one of the occupations that make our manila culture interesting and busy, and she’s damn proud of it.

hard times, desperate measures. it would’ve been an altogether inspiring story if not only for the part of our conversation that involved some trafficking. i don’t want to go into that really.

my fourth stranger, found in Binondo.

—

* bark?er –noun
1. an animal or person that barks.
2. a person who stands before a theater, carnival sideshow, or the like, calling out its attractions to passers-by.
3. in Filipino slang, one who calls out to passengers for jeepneys

**this photo is part of the 100 Strangers pool, come join us.

rethinking someone

i’m rethinking someone. he’s appeared in my thoughts again. just like that.

i don’t know why, but during the long drive to pampanga today, i remembered him. though it was my brother who drove for me, i remembered how he used to drive for me.

and how we used to have long conversations about anything under the sun and they would still seem like they were the most sensible things in the world to talk about.

how he drove me home one night i was ‘temporarily incapacitated’ and he never took advantage.

i’m rethinking you, ain’t that grand?

Stranded

like i said, September 26 for me and Mia was a different story. since our company decided to push through with the Family Day though it was raining (not as bad), i still decided to go. Mia was even dressed up for the occassion already!

i asked my brother to come with me (because i needed an extra pair of hands to hold on to mia while driving) but he preferred to stay home. what a blessing that turned out to be. so we picked up another officemate and went on our way.

Imelda Avenue in Cainta was already flooded halfway (around the area of Makro Cainta), probably half of the tires were submerged. Rexi (the camera) unfortunately wasn’t able to take photos because i was too busy navigating following a truck.

by midday after getting to Club Manila East in Taytay, the rain was already pounding hard. we were all confident that since the resort was a bit elevated, there wouldn’t be any problem with the water. the show went on.

that's the whole company (of 25), with family and minus a few who couldn't make it

lo and behold in about an hour or two, the muddy water was already thigh-deep out on the street and was beginning to flood the parking area. fortunately it didn’t rise any further but that meant we were all stranded inside CME. i already planned to go home right after lunch but the idea if submerging my car with me and Mia inside didn’t really sit well with me.

in the meantime, my mom has already been texting me not to come home anymore because there were flash floods. particularly on our street, which is sloping down towards a dead end, the water has been coming down faster than expected. my 2 brothers thankfully were aware enough to start bringing some appliances upstairs when the water started to come into our garage. the garage was thankfully empty. my mom had our other car with her in Cubao.

when the water started to come into our living room, my brothers started to bring some furniture up onto the higher level of the kitchen. (that turned out to be futile later on). they also thought about bringing in the 3 washing machines but unless you were Superman had a crane to do that, good luck with that.

by the time my dad came home, the water had rushed into the house waist deep in the kitchen and the ref was managed to be transferred upstairs. all the rest of the furniture were unfortunately left.

to make the long story short, my mom had been able to go home in the evening since the water had subsided by then. the cleaning that had to be done was unbelievable. and my mom being the cleanfreak that she is, had shifted to high-gear OC. i can imagine how that was.

i, on the other hand, had been worrying about Mia’s milk and diapers (i had only brought enough for one day) since we had to stay overnight. but God provides, that much i had been assured. one of the resort’s personnel and our HR manager braved the floodwaters and managed to get to SM Taytay. (thank you, thank you!)

by Sunday afternoon,we still weren’t sure if we’d be able to go home because the waters outside and in some areas where we planned to pass were still too high. but the sun shone, a la Noah’s Ark and a dove came bearing an olive branch.

so Mia went swimming! (forgot to download the photos)

we were finally able to go home when we got news that we could take the Valley Golf-Masinag hiway route. the mess (an understatement) that is Marikina was disheartening. even more so when i realized later that a lot of people washed up on the river banks died.

to say that we were blessed and that my family was spared isn’t even the point.  there were so many others who weren’t and who still need help.

—

pictures of how Ondoy damaged the house here

you can still help. click here to find out.

hay ondoy

this was in front of our house

ours is a dead end street, so guess what, it looked like one big bowl of flood/creek water

it took a good one week to clean out the mess, but that’s one thing friends and churchmates are good for (special mention to <insert your names here> hehe). thank goodness for kind hearts.

my brother’s camera phone didn’t have flash and electricity was already out by the time the water inside the house rose to chest deep in some parts and waist deep in some, so no pictures.

many say it’s mother nature’s wake up call. i say it’s God’s. our free will has destroyed so much of what He has given us to enjoy. all the cynics out there will even go to lengths to blame God, but oh well, whenever man has failed he tries to blame it on force majeur, God included. sad, sad.

and to our widely inefficient government who, in the middle of the mess is blaming each one of its members, shut up and do something about our widely inefficient disaster response system, urban planning (as if there’s much you can do now), and the rest of your administration.

i wish you all had drowned in the flood along with all the garbage and rat crap. well, that only goes out to the corrupt and hopelessly insufferable ones. which almost are all government employees.

and for the rest of us, let’s stop being so apathetic and do our part. plastic bags, candy wrappers, cigarette butts and all, we’ve done our fair share of polluting the environment. i bring my own shopping bag (even in grocery shopping), i pocket wrappers and small papers when there’s no trashcan around, and i don’t smoke. we also recycle plastics and paper at home.

what have you done so far?

it ends tonight

like i said, this blog has had nothing new in the last 2-3 weeks. so it ends now. i think, what am i supposed to write about? oh hey, i’ve forgotten, i take pictures too.

blue green is my favorite color. it’s melancholic in a lot of ways, but it’s different.

like how i want my life to be different in so many ways. i think, when will that be? and then,

“It’s never too late to do what is right.” -Charles Swindoll

i think i’ve done something right. i’ve donated blood, scraped up all remaining excess stuff in our house to give away to those who need them more, and did not complain how the stinking floodwater reached up to chest deep to spoil everything my brothers weren’t able to save (meanwhile, mia and i were stranded in Taytay).  but i still feel that it’s not enough.

hay, Lord. when will that be? and then,

“…how many times have I broken your heart? and still You forgive, if only I ask…”

thanks to Ondoy…

the blog is now worth 2 weeks of nothing new :{

i’ve found some self-worth in helping other people

i’ve realized how much the world needs God

i’ve realized how much I need Him

i’ve realized how much (or little) i’ve done to remedy that need