The Day that has been Etched on my Mind

i never have thought that this will happen to me.

i just thought that September 26 will be a regular rainy day but it has brought floods that had swept towns. the biggest destruction of nature i have seen in my life.

rain hasn't stopped or lessened since friday. after seeing a movie, i had a hard time going home. but it didn't cross my mind or got scared of the effects on the next day. i got up around noon and was so surprised that the waters have already entered inside our house. a little bit lazy though to move around, the people at home were already putting up the things higher as the brown water rises. until it came to a point that we stand on our beds but the water still goes higher.

we couldn't do anything more when the water went waste-deep inside the house. we really have to get out of the house as we see some of our things, even heavy ones, float on water right in front of us. we have taken safety precautions as everybody switched off their fuse boxes to halt all electrical connections and keep everyone safe. mama almost didn't want to go and keep a look on all the things. finally we convinced her to start packing up and we transferred to a neighbor who has a second floor.

we bagged clothes for three days. of course, we see to it that we have our phones safe for communication is essential. we are constantly in contact with my sister who lives in upper cainta. thankfully, everyone is welcome inside their house seeing to it that everyone will be safe. sadly, we left our dog at home and i feel very sorry for it. i know that he can swim but he has been loyal to us eversince. we managed to put him at our nipa hut but still the worries for a life, even for a dog, is still disturbing my mind.

when we got into the neighbor's house, i immediately washed myself and took a bath to prevent getting diseases from the flood.

we tried to keep alert overnight checking on the height of the water for the rain hasn't stopped until before midnight. i had the biggest scare i ever had in my life. i prayed 3 rounds of the rosary and keeping the faith that that situation won't last long.

by 10AM next day, we are already came home. our house was a big mess. mud and a huge pile of garbage was all around. texted my boss that i cannot go to work for a week because of the big damage and a lot of cleaning and repairing to do. thankfully they allowed me. sister and brother-in-law went with food and other important things to keep ourselves warm on the next nights.

here's what we did when the flood subsided:

1. first we managed to clean even one bathroom and bedroom. it's hard to sleep at night if you cannot stretch your body to sleep.
2. we're also thankful that our appliances still work after 3 days of washing it with water and air-drying it. too bad manuals were also soaked up in dirt.
3. all clothings were put out and began washing them non-stop. for the first days, we handwashed them and scrubbed the mud off. 2 to 3 times we soaked them in water with detergent.
4. we're so tired of eating canned goods for that week, but what can we do? still thanks to the food that came. amen! better have anything than nothing.

with all the losses after Ondoy (Ketsana), here's what I've realized:

1. better to know that everyone you know is safe in times like this.
2. always keep communication lines open.
3. Tide is better than any detergent. (I hope TIDE will pay me for this. LOL), match it with Downy Antibac so that there will be no mosquitoes.
4. experiment cooking with your resources.
5. save your photos.

there are lots of stories after the storm and sometimes you might also believe myths:
week before Ondoy, there is an old woman who came door-to-door with people at the Provident Village in Marikina, which was greatly damaged by Ondoy, she asked for drinking water and no one offer her anything. after that, she calmly said, don't worry, i'll give you lots and lots of water. Ondoy tragedy happened.

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