Today, we went Northwest of the city. This area was near a lake at the bottom of a hill. As the water up stream became too much, those communities opened the dams a bit to allow water to flow...and so on and so on until it reached this community. As you can imagine this community is now massively flooded. Unfortunately, there is no where else for the water to go, it has reached it's destination. They are predicting it will take months to recede. Months!
Thoughts for today...
Dengue fever: there are few things in life that I am afraid of. Living overseas, specifically in SE Asia, there are two things I fear. First, being bitten by a dog with rabbis. There are so many street dogs around. Many of them can be aggressive. That scares me. Second, is dengue fever. It has no vaccine. It has no cure. If you get it, the remedy is stay hydrated and basically suffer. If you get too sick then go to the hospital for an IV or blood transfusion. I don't like things I can't prevent, I want to be actively protecting myself against such illnesses. I read in the paper this morning that there are rising cases of dengue in our area. The standing water is breeding mosquitoes. A certain kind of mosquito carries dengue. There are obviously an increasing number of those mosquitoes, thus an increasing number of dengue cases. I covered myself in DEET this morning just praying it would ward off the mosquitoes. I was lucky to remain bite free today. Many of the people, including very young children weren't so lucky. I saw so many people covered in mosquito bites all over their bodies. In our proposal we planned to distribute mosquito nets, that could be a very good thing right now to help protect against diseases like dengue.
evacuation site: in the community we visited today we noticed many abandoned homes. The water was chest or neck high, we were in one of the make shift rafts that we rented from the locals. One of the people I am traveling with said those evacuated communities had an eery silence, I must agree. We then stopped in at one of 540 evacuation sites. There are over 300 families living in this small school house. Most classrooms house multiple families. As we walked around the numbers ranged from 11-21 families per room. These are not large rooms. They've moved the classroom furniture to the roof so the families can sleep on the floor. Each family has staked a claim, a small square in the room. In that small square they store the remainder of their worldly possessions and the family members spend time there (eating, sleeping, cooking, waiting). The first floor of the building is flooded. School was scheduled to open next week. Not going to happen at this location because there is no where for the approximately 2,000 people living there to go. The government is looking for an alternative location to start school.
attitude: the people we are visiting have lost all their material possessions, many have lost loved ones. They currently live in water world with a lack of food and often in cramped quarters with previous strangers. You would think these facts would entitle them to being grumpy and ungrateful. I can't say I wouldn't be feeling those things in similar circumstances. What we are finding instead are people with smiles on their faces and an incredible sense of humor. We came across a man today who was trying to salvage anything left in his home and take it to the evacuation site. He's in neck deep water and piling things he finds in his make shift raft. He sees us. He smiles, then he says, "this is a disaster." He doesn't say it like he is bitter or angry. He says it with a hint of sarcasm and a smile - I could picture him saying, "now this is what I'd call a disaster." People have been very welcoming to us, even as they trudge through the murky waters and I sit relatively dry in my rented raft. I learned about a bit about life today, we can choose our response to things. Your worst nightmare can come true and you can grow depressed and angry, or you can keep smiling and find moments worth laughing about. I hope I would have such a gracious attitude under such difficult circumstances.
the storm that will not end: Typhoon Parma spent most of the day hanging out in one northern region of the Philippines, then it turned back toward our direction. The rains had stopped this morning, but now they are back. Just what this place needs - more water! When will it end? We are told there are four more months of rainy season. Four. More. Months. Yikes!
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