Almost a year ago, Tacloban City, as well as other towns in Eastern Visayas, were nearly erased from the Philippine map after the strongest typhoon ever to hit land in modern time pummeled through it.
In just a matter of three to five hours, the area was dramatically transformed into a scene of death and destruction.
Funny, but everything still seems as fresh as if they just happened yesterday.
This is my family's story in the throes of Super Typhoon Haiyan -- local name, Yolanda.
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Mommy was adamant on the phone: "If you don't come home this coming long weekend, I swear I will not be taking any medicine anymore!"
Thus, even with little money in my pockets, I made plans to come home to Tacloban City to visit my family.
It's not that easy for me to just get up and go home to the province on a whim. You see, my work in a bank did not exactly put me in a comfortable financial position. Then, a round trip plane ticket from Manila to Tacloban roughly costs around PhP 5,000++ on promo-less days. Then of course, once I am there, I cannot just stay home and not spend at all. Plus, there's the daughter who probably thinks that I have loads of money to spend every time I go home for a vacay.
And of course, there's also the cats. I have a choir friend who I used to call on to take care of my cats while I was away on long trips, and I had to leave money with her plus extra food for the days that I was gone.
To make a long story short, my finances would already be diagnosed with cancer by the time I arrive in Tacloban; terminally ill by the time I return to Manila.
And yet, I had to go home.
I was in Tacloban City by October 27. The weather was quite fine with the northeast monsoon being kept at bay. When I got home, I was pleased to see that both mother and daughter were quite okay, except that my mom was a bit emaciated from not being able to eat well. (She said she lost her appetite. Great.)
Thus, for the entire week, I was dutiful daughter and mother to my two girls. Brought my mom to a hair salon for a nice trim; treated my family to dinner at Quarterhouse, the hole-in-the-wall resto selling skewered goodies along Justice Romualdez Street; met with a former student who lived in the next subdivision from us; and did some serious malling with the daughter at Robinson's Place Tacloban. Even managed to attend this birthday party at our neighbor's place in Housing Seaside with Mommy. We just had to attend -- those neighbors of ours are relatives of another former student of mine and they would go out of their way to see to Mommy, especially when my daughter is away. Besides, they just lived across our rented place so travel from Point A to Point B for Mommy was not too taxing.
I also managed to visit my mom's hometown, Tanauan, to discuss some family matters with a cousin. Before I left, I took a pedicab ride around the town to see how things have changed. Much as I wanted to head for the beach that day, dark clouds above were telling me that heavy rain was to fall at any given time. Thus, I settled for passing by our town plaza. (Sorry for the lopsided picture, by the way. It was a bit difficult to take a decent photo while the pedicab was in motion, and I didn't exactly tell the driver to slow down.)
By the time I returned to Manila on November 1, I managed to maximize my time with family and friends in Leyte. Mommy's appetite returned in the duration of my stay there, and her batch of medicines were replenished. Meanwhile, my daughter maximized my finances (haha) with several food binges at the only decent mall Tacloban City has, Robinson's Place.
Little did we all know that whatever we knew about the "old" Tacloban and Tanauan will dramatically transform in the next few days...
And of course, there's also the cats. I have a choir friend who I used to call on to take care of my cats while I was away on long trips, and I had to leave money with her plus extra food for the days that I was gone.
To make a long story short, my finances would already be diagnosed with cancer by the time I arrive in Tacloban; terminally ill by the time I return to Manila.
And yet, I had to go home.
I was in Tacloban City by October 27. The weather was quite fine with the northeast monsoon being kept at bay. When I got home, I was pleased to see that both mother and daughter were quite okay, except that my mom was a bit emaciated from not being able to eat well. (She said she lost her appetite. Great.)Thus, for the entire week, I was dutiful daughter and mother to my two girls. Brought my mom to a hair salon for a nice trim; treated my family to dinner at Quarterhouse, the hole-in-the-wall resto selling skewered goodies along Justice Romualdez Street; met with a former student who lived in the next subdivision from us; and did some serious malling with the daughter at Robinson's Place Tacloban. Even managed to attend this birthday party at our neighbor's place in Housing Seaside with Mommy. We just had to attend -- those neighbors of ours are relatives of another former student of mine and they would go out of their way to see to Mommy, especially when my daughter is away. Besides, they just lived across our rented place so travel from Point A to Point B for Mommy was not too taxing.I also managed to visit my mom's hometown, Tanauan, to discuss some family matters with a cousin. Before I left, I took a pedicab ride around the town to see how things have changed. Much as I wanted to head for the beach that day, dark clouds above were telling me that heavy rain was to fall at any given time. Thus, I settled for passing by our town plaza. (Sorry for the lopsided picture, by the way. It was a bit difficult to take a decent photo while the pedicab was in motion, and I didn't exactly tell the driver to slow down.)By the time I returned to Manila on November 1, I managed to maximize my time with family and friends in Leyte. Mommy's appetite returned in the duration of my stay there, and her batch of medicines were replenished. Meanwhile, my daughter maximized my finances (haha) with several food binges at the only decent mall Tacloban City has, Robinson's Place.
Little did we all know that whatever we knew about the "old" Tacloban and Tanauan will dramatically transform in the next few days...
(To be continued)
- Photos are mine
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