I was sitting in the tree stand about a week after Typhoon
Yolanda hit the island of Leyte and I got a buzzing text. “PetPet, we r okay na. God bless.
Thx for your prayers.” It was
from Mano Ted, or Teodoro Tabaranza, the mild mannered man whose family shared
a home with me for two years following training in Tanauan. It was great to hear from him, and I
was overjoyed to finally hear from him.
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| Mano Ted doing paperwork for livelihood assistance |
The next day, I got another text, all in Waray, that there were lots of
relief supplies coming in, and that since there was a full moon, the entire
town center of Babatngon was full of people in the warm evening air celebrating
their good fortune and the generosity of the foreigners. ‘Damo Hubog’ (many drunk), the text said. That’s the Filipino way, I thought, to be
out celebrating good fortune and consuming supplies while they last, because
who knows what tomorrow will bring.
There has been lots of postulating since that the storm’s unprecedented
strength was yet another indication of climate change and worse natural disasters to
come. Many news outlets have rated the
Philippines as one of the most disaster-prone countries in the world, situated
on giant fault lines with rising seas and horrible weather.
I’m afraid that us westerners and pragmatists like to talk
about all of those statistics and climate patterns because we’re not in the
thick of it, we’ve convinced ourselves that we can stem the tide; reverse these
horrible global environmental patterns, and most importantly, if things get
really bad where we are, we have the resources to fly away from them, to get
out of harm’s way. Maybe we can change
the intensity of climate change with policy changes or increased fossil fuel
conservation, but I think that we sometimes lose sight of the fact that many
feel helpless, and that many feel that talking about all of these issues is
pointless, if not utterly discouraging. We
forget how helpless it must feel to have no options but to stay put, and wait
out the storm, or wait for more earthquakes and storm surge to toss our flimsy
livelihoods around. I know that I
forget, and often wonder why there isn’t more alarm amongst people who are
affected the most by these changes, but I have to remind myself that they see
alarm as futile, like shouting at a thunderstorm or building sandcastles by the
surf.
When I read the text from Mano Ted, my first thought was of
the waste, picturing the donated rice and water and school sets and whatever
else being thrown around the town center during happy-go-lucky coconut wine-intoxicated
mayhem, but then I remembered that maybe when you can’t get away, and maybe
when you don’t have faith in the continued presence of relief, or a responsive
government, it’s all that you can do to be happy for today, and trust that
somehow, something is going to work out.
Since speaking with Ted, I have been able to connect to
others there. I called a Tabaranza
family member just the other day to see how she is faring and she told me that
she is fine, as are all of those in Babatngon, and that the storm in Babatngon
was nothing like it was in Tacloban. I
asked her what she has been doing, and she said that she goes daily to Tacloban
to help cleaning, and that she’ll replace the roof on her Babatngon home at some
point in the future. I guess it’s all
relative.
My supervisor, Nimfa Machate, and I spoke the other day, and
she said that her home was badly damaged, but that she has been fortunate and
was able to buy supplies to fix it, however construction workers are in short
supply and she’ll have to wait until workers are available. When I asked her about what the most pressing
needs were, she said that there are homeless and displaced, but the biggest
need is food. Livelihoods were lost, and
farms were destroyed, and I assume fishing is difficult now that boats and
fishing supplies may have been lost. An
additional loser from this storm is the environment, since, in the wake of
destroyed crops and fishing made difficult, people will be more tempted to
revert to destructive high-yield fishing techniques that are killing an
incredibly sensitive fishery. I look
forward to asking Nimfa more about this in coming weeks.
Since Mano Ted’s initial texts, I’ve learned that due to
prisoners that are still loose, they feel that the island is unsafe for
children. Because of this, Ted has sent 5
of his 6 children to go and live in Bohol with family and to go to school there
indefinitely.
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| Three of Mano Ted's children, Aldric, Angelin, and Nobi |
Nimfa’s granddaughter also
went to live in Manila until the situation is under control, or
understood. Mano Ted’s family sees the
better life for his children and the safety of Bohol as a blessing, but,
knowing how close the family is and their communal living, this disruption will
be a huge change to their family, and seems very sad. Whether prisoners are running loose and pose
a real threat or not, I don’t know, but the turbidity and feeling of unease
from the typhoon’s destruction is affecting lives in devastating ways.
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| Maam Nimfa on right, speaking with Lillibelle Arong of the employment commission to get livelihood assistance for local fishermen |
In the coming weeks, I’ll be trying to communicate with Tita
Grace’s daughter and husband, Tito Terry, and continue to learn about other
friends in Leyte. Thus far, 5924 Filipinos are confirmed dead from the horrible storm. Local leaders and relief organizations expect that number to continue to rise as they reach more and more remote villages.
The Church of the Brethren disaster services will be
mobilizing a relief effort and I would like to encourage anyone who has not
donated funds to the response, or who knows others who would be willing to
give, to donate through them. After
speaking with their leadership about what they do and how they direct funds, I
can assure donors that their response will be meaningful and efficient. If there are other ways you would like to
contribute, I encourage you to do so. The disaster is far in the past for our
rapidly changing media stream, but is all to present for many people in the
Philippines.
A friend who I met in a coffee shop in Tacloban, Fred Bouwman has returned to the island to
help friends who are in need and touched down just this past week. Fred is an intrepid and generous man who is making a huge difference in many lives of kids in Tacloban. Check out blog at http://bikefororphans.blogspot.com/ for an idea
of the current situation.
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