A Week for Calamities - Part Two

I apologize for my delinquency.  I said come back tomorrow and its taken me nearly three days.  I'm sure you all were hanging on the edge of your seats just waiting to hear of the troubles befalling those around me.  I should stop being sarcastic about real issues and its not unlikely that you DID hear about the calamity in the Philippines.  Several news services frequented by Americans have reported on the flooding in Manila.

smh.com.au

Some people were actually stuck in school last Monday evening because of the heavy rain.  Classes were then canceled for the rest of the week.  Which is about the most immediate effect the storming had on my life.  Basically it rendered mobility inadvisable - if not all that difficult in the neighborhood my family lives in.

So I stared at the computer for several days.  Also the TV.  Read some.  Mostly lost all motivation to do anything, and certainly nothing before noon.

It does mean I chatted with several of you on facebook - and even skyped some people because of my new ability to accommodate the time difference.

I DID do something on Thursday.  Erle and I (as well as two of her friends) went to her high school to volunteer with the relief effort.  First we stopped at the grocery store to buy rice and canned goods to donate to the efforts.  It seemed like everyone in the store was doing the same thing.

At the high school we joined probably a hundred other students sorting supplies.  First we sorted clothes.  Then we scooped rice from 50kilo sacks into 1kilo family portions in little plastic bags. Mostly we were in the way because of the small space and large number of people.  It took us a while to find jobs. Which brings me to two points:

1) Rice is a brilliant food - and we don't have a good equivalent in the states.  Rice can be eaten alone or with anything, is easy to prepare, takes forever to go bad, and is more nutritious/caloric than your average baked potato (which is what I'm assuming we give in emergency situations in America).

2) There are bigger problems here.  The relief effort kicked up just about as soon as the rain stopped and everyone pitched it as if it was second nature.  Indeed similar relief efforts take place at least once a year (from my non-scientific survey).  ONCE A YEAR?!  This would be like needing a relief effort every time there was a heavy snow back in DC.  From what I can tell its almost exactly the same.  The rain that caused this flooding wasn't particularly awful from a historical perspective - and it seemed to clear up relatively quickly.  It disproportionately affected the poor, ie people who live on the streets or in lower street level portions of buildings.  I guess the relief efforts are needed because small disasters in poor places suddenly become huge issues.  A poor drainage system leads to easy flooding and there are certainly a lot of poor people to displace.  I guess none of this should surprise me but it was so very odd to see everyone snap into disaster mode like it was second nature..... Perhaps there isn't anything they can do - but it also feels like a lot of people have come to accept it as a way of life.  Clearly my sense of outrage was offended and I am still processing this.

Well, enough of my ramblings.  My time here is almost up: only 9 more days!  I will guess about 4 more posts on this particular country before my chronological material runs out.  I hope you have a week free of calamities.

*see, told you it was long*