The Red Horse

After a breakfast of chicken and rice we headed on over to CBC to load up a couple of multicabs with food packages to be distributed around Floodway.

Our first stop was a basketball court hall that was serving as housing for more than 200 families left homeless after the floods. Many people were queueing up when we arrived so we quickly got things underway. Pastor Les and John manned the back of the van, handing out the packages. The people had been issued a ticket prior to our arrival and needed it to get the package.

Despite the best efforts of those in charge to maintain order, the understandable desperation of the gathered crowd soon led to a somewhat chaotic scene. At one point their was some confusion over a woman who had somehow gotten two tickets. After some heated words the tension died down, only to rise again when the throngs of people that had been crowding around the back of the van all shifted to one area at the side of the hall, surrounding a group. It was unclear to me exactly what was happening but after some more shouting the crowd made their way back to the van, hands extended.

When all the packages designated to that area had were handed out we moved on to the next spot. This time stopping off at the church that we were working with, the packages were distributed to groups of 10 at a time, limiting both the confusion and tension experienced at the basketball court.

The church and it’s volunteers have been going non-stop since the typhoon, assisting the local people in any way that they can.

For over a week they have been housing more than 100 people who lost their homes in the floods, some whose homes were still partially under water. We were told of one man who had been saved at a church service on the Saturday night and then suffered a fatal heart attack the following morning. With his new found faith, the man died with a smile on his face, which we were invited to view as the body was on display at his wake held in a tent just across the road. However we had more packages to get out and so were on our way.

Next stop was another area of floodway which had been badly hit by the floods, parts of it still under water. At their peak the floodwaters had reached a height of 8ft, enough to submerge some of the houses we visited.

In one house I was invited into the upstairs area where I met 21 year old Cathlyn. Along with her 3 month old son and 2 other families, totaling 11 people, Cathlyn lives in an area that is at most 3 metres squared.  Despite these extremely cramped living conditions, some would consider these families lucky. Living on the second floor mostly spared them from the floods that destroyed everything for so any others.

Following lunch with the volunteers from the church (rice and chicken again), we made out way to one of the houses that we are helping to rebuild whilst here. Building had already begun and we will have to wait until the concrete floor is laid before anything else can be done so it looks like the real work will start tomorrow!

J

This morning Philip and I traveled to a town called San Lorenzo Ruiz, in the city of Pasig, one of the many areas of Manila still partially submerged after the heavy rainfall of typhoon Ondoy (Ketsana) last week.

Arriving at the town we soon came across a makeshift port, where the road sloped away into the murky water.

Demonstrating true Filipino ingenuity, the town’s many trisikad, pedicab and jeepney drivers have knocked together a fleet of rafts that they are using to ferry the townspeople around. They range from very small, simple wooden platforms with a few plastic jugs attached for added buoyancy, to the more spacious vessels, built around old fridges and bathtubs.

Our boat for the morning was the former and our ‘Captain’ John, waist deep in water, pulled us through town to show the damage that was caused. After a short while we stopped off at John’s house, which he shares with his two younger siblings, his mother and his grandmother, Francesca.

I poked my head inside the doorway and Francesca immediately sparked up a conversation with me, in near perfect English.

From her cramped stoop just above the waterline she explained “The government are the problem. When they need something from us they help us, but where are they now?” Her words echo the feelings of many people here in Manila. “We need food but nobody is bringing us any, what can we do?”

With so much damage caused and so many people affected, some of whom are much worse off than the people of San Lorenzo, this is a question that many thousands are asking. For Francesca and her family it may well be a case of sitting and waiting, praying that it doesn’t rain and that the waters filling their home recede sooner than predicted, which some suggest won’t be until December.

In the afternoon we made our way back to the Community Baptist Church (CBC) which is serving as our base for the week we’re here. We spent the afternoon unloading foodstuffs that had come in from a variety of sources.

Miles Ahead, a charity from San Diego organised 132 50kg sacks of rice, enough to feed 10,000 people.

Family operated shipping company Aboitiz took a collection from the family members and raised over 11,000,000 pesos ( almost AUS $300,000) which they put towards organising food parcels, of which we received 400 to distribute.

Aboitiz really must be commended for their contribution to the relief effort. Not only have they given very generously but they have done so with no desire for public recognition. Their name and logo are nowhere to be seen and they are happy for anyone to distribute them, as long as they are going to the people who need it most, nice!

Tomorrow we will be distributing the food parcels in an area that has the unfortunate name of Floodway. Hopefully if all goes to plan in the morning we will also get started on rebuilding one families home which was destroyed in the typhoon.

J