a visit to San Mateo

finally after days of planning and postponing, due to typhoon pepeng, I (with some fort bonifacio friends) got to visit my friend's place in san mateo. Only her mom was there when we came, but I knew we reached out as planned, knowing that among everyone in their house, it was tita who was so traumatized (she was the only one there when Ondoy came. flood level reached the roof) and she's the one doing most of the cleaning now as everyone else has to go to work.


meet bitoy, one of their 3 dogs
which she was able to save alone :)

The flood's gone, but my heart broke upon seeing the ruined interiors, the appliances that may never work again, and the mountain of clothes laid now on their muddy garage.

She was delighted over the real lunch we brought (chicken joy, siomai and rice) for they've been eating a lot of canned goods lately, as San Mateo stores and markets ran out of stocks after Ondoy. She shared that they're blessed enough that no one died, that "buti nalang" their home was damaged by water instead of fire, and that there's water supply immediately for her to do the cleaning. she also joked that "ang galing, yung mga nakasampay o tingnan mo. bagong laba yan bago mag Ondoy, bigla nalang naging two-tone!"

Looks like there's a lot of optimism left in her family, which is really good right? somehow it lessened my worries. And she's been doing well! their sink's so clean now, it has all the salvaged and cleaned kitchen utensils. the bathroom's not only usable, but it's also so clean. in one corner she's got a clean table too for the condiments. and in their sala is a tall pile of their clothes which she washed N times to get rid of mud chips. kudos to tita! She said, "pag sabay sabay ko inisip, masstress lang ako diba", apparently she's been doing things one at a time, focusing on the important ones first. which is effective. and really inspiring.

Apparently there's still a lot of work to do -clothes to wash, car and appliances to repair, furnitures to clean and A LOT of things to throw away. but with that optimism I guess she can do it before christmas.

I'm really hoping that they'll keep the optimism so they can recover soon, also so they could inspire those who can hardly stand after the calamity. Likewise I pray for the rest who are also struggling now with what Ondoy left.