Healing from the Worst Typhoon I've Experienced

Our home flooded often when I was growing up because there's a creek at the back of our house. I almost drowned during #OndoyPH. The water came up to fast and I was only able to save my desktop computer. Everything else went under water, my laptop, passport, books, shoes, photo albums... everything. It was traumatizing and I couldn't help but cry when I see videos of what's happening back home now. The typhoons that passed the last few weeks have been ruthless. 

I remember after I cleaned up I was feeling the shock of what just happened. I was sitting in the kitchen with my Dad and I started to cry. He nipped it at the bud and he immediately re-framed me from wallowing in self-pity. He said those are just things and you can earn it back. 

Look into the future. That's what my Ate taught me when I had Miggy at a young age. She had me talk to someone who went through the same situation. It was like talking to the future me. And I did the same right after #OndoyPH and #PepengPH. A few days after the great flood I had to fly to Iloilo for an engagement. I didn't want to go anymore, but our parents pushed us to go. 

Going to Iloilo helped me a lot because I met many people who shared similar experiences. A year before #FrankPH badly damaged Iloilo. One of my friends said that her home was flooded from floor to ceiling. They told me about how they slowly got up from the setback. 

Our parents pushed me and Sweetie to go to Iloilo even though our homes were not fixed yet. Our wedding was scheduled 13 weeks after the typhoons. They wanted us to focus on starting anew. Aside from the inspiration from friends, we had many people who also supported us. We started our new life and built up our little family from almost nothing. 

Look up and look into the future. The sun is always waiting to rise in the horizon everyday. I thought I'd write about this today in case you have family and friends who need comfort and consolation. 

My thoughts and prayers for everyone going through hardship and trauma. May God bless you. 

If you can help, more information on how you can donate can be found here.

#CB//220 #StuckAtHomeDay/250 #StayHome #BeKind

2 weeks to 10: 2009 and Typhoon Ondoy

In September 2009 Typhoon Ondoy brought so much rains and caused so much flooding. I almost drowned on that fateful day and I was only able to save my desktop. Everything else I had went under water. A few hours after I was rescued from the basement I was in the kitchen with my Dad. I started to cry and he asked me, "Why are you crying? Are you crying because you lost all your stuff? They are just things and can be replaced." My Dad had his "sermon face" on so I immediately snapped out of feeling depressed. I immediately started to plan what to do the next day.

Two thousand nine proved to be a very memorable year. I struggled for half a year due to my illness so my activities tapered off. It took a miracle for me to pull through and my Singaporean cardiologist marveled at how I recovered (there is no known cure for heart failure). Aside from healing it took a lot of love and prayers for me to get well and be back to my usual self. Despite my messed up state Jay proposed to me and we tied the knot later that year.

I mentioned in my previous post that Map Maker influenced my work a lot. In mid-2009 I was tasked to launch the mapup party kit. This was a program where you could gather friends to map your area (or you can do it on your own). Having good maps is very important and this proved to be very useful later that year when Typhoon Ondoy happened.

With Wayne, Mang Dante and Doc Leonel.

The next day we luckily had electricity already and I went to the mall to get a wifi dongle and a few clothes (everything was wet!). When I set up my desktop I immediately sent an email to my new manager (Julian Persuad) to let him know that I would probably be slow to respond because of the crisis back home. I remember being a bit antsy then because he was set to start in the Singapore office the next day (so I was technically in-between managers that weekend). Jules was one of the best managers I ever had.

Things went into motion then and a help page was set-up. I was asked by MLQ (and many others) to help house map info into one crisis map, so with help from Dan Delima (one of the Filipino engineers in Tokyo then) we managed to gather info into one crisis map. We also got volunteers to help gather and map information. I realized though that the local map didn't have much information yet so I started thinking of a way to get more people to contribute to the map.

A month after the crisis I had to put two things in hyper gear -- implementing the business stimulus program and planning for my wedding. Went around the country teacher entrepreneurs how to use Adwords and working with STI to get students to create websites for businesses. It both went well and my wedding had a bit of something from across the Philippines. During those trips I also made sure to meet blogger communities and friends across the country.

In 2009 the developer community also started to gain interest in Android and we had our first meetup about it.

And we had a developers workshop with Globe at the Ayala TechnoHub.

IMMAP started to become active that year.

One of the IMMAP meetings.

2009 changed my perspective a lot. It was when I realized that I could do so much more to make what I do make a bigger impact and be more valuable for others. 

Because He Said He'll Never Give Up

In just a few more days we'll be done clearing up and sorting through my stuff that drowned in the flood. I had written off all of my cassette tapes since my small music cabinet that housed my collection was totally wrecked. But guess what, ONE tape actually survived!

A few months back I blogged about my treasure and listened to the tape and forgot to put it back in the cabinet. The player did not survive, but since he promised he'll never give me up, he's still alive!

In the Tunnel

Before and After

It's been a week since the Ondoy struck us here in Manila. Another typhoon, Pepeng, is currently wreaking havoc in Northern Luzon. I pray that the families experiencing Pepeng's wrath would be okay. I hope they managed to prepare for the worst.

I've been swinging between being happy and sad the whole week. There would be days I would be perfectly fine, even managing to work a bit, but there would be days when I feel like I'm still in chest deep water screaming for help.

I found solace in the people I met in Iloilo early this week. They experienced the same thing when typhoon Frank flooded Iloilo July last year. They have since moved on. My dear friend, Mabel has since given birth. She was 8 months pregnant with my godchild when their house was flooded to the roof. She doesn't remember how she managed to get up to the roof. She gave birth about two weeks later with some complications.

Seeing Kyen-Kyen reminded me that there would be life after this disaster. The bundle of energy my friend struggled to contain when we were having merienda brought me hope. It took awhile but after chatting for awhile my godchild started playing with me. And that's how things will probably be. It's going to take awhile before I'll be back to my usual self, but I will get there, hopefully sooner and not later.

Help for Typhoon Ondoy

A group of tireless volunteers and Google have put together a page where you can easily find and report information about Typhoon Ondoy. You may visit the page at -

http://www.google.com.ph/landing/typhoon-ondoy.html

Some photos from my basement.

There are countless other people who need help badly. Donation centers are asking for bottled water, canned goods, blankets, clothing, medicines, sacks of rice etc. Please check the link above how you can send donations.