ten ₱esos

I’m sorry that I haven’t kept up writing on the weblog. After Saturday evening Mass and dinner with Nick, I came home, checked news on the internet and learned of the ferry capsizing after noon, seven hundred people feared dead and tremendous rainfall, flooding and mudslides in southern Luzon, the Visayas and Mindanao. We hadn’t had any rain yet here on Saturday.

Sunday afternoon we had rain, and it continued through Monday night. I can really feel the weather changes throughout my body and my sinuses. But I do not suffer like all the bereaved family members of the drowned ferry passengers and residents of flooded provinces. Their sorrow is… (sigh)

200,000 Filipinos have been affected by the hurricane/typhoon. 16,000 have fled to emergency shelters. Thousands have lost their homes, hundreds have drowned in the ferry and flooded villages… A 56-year-old man and his eight-year-old granddaughter were buried by a “garbage slide” at a trash dump in Cotabato City. Now that’s sad… How about all the families of people who’ve perished and those who’re missing?

We pray that Pinoys who are missing after flooding can rejoin their families! Though their barangays and homes be washed-away, if they can reunite with their loved ones, friends and neighbors and rebuild their villages, livelihoods, schools and churches…

Here is another photo essay: BBC News In Pictures

Sunday afternoon onward Dominic and I had four electrical blackouts. So I was not on the internet writing on the weblog. I did nothing to serve the poor and had nothing to write about. Mack came to visit us and recharge his phone before evening Mass. And Dominic and I conversed with him about his family, education, learning the English language, his new high school, Pat’s employment prospects, Pat’s abscessed tooth, etcetera.

But I wished that I were serving in the Philippine Red Cross or some organization in which I could aid others in distress. Disaster relief, I guess they call it. I would much rather be ‘out there,’ doing something, serving the poor, than waiting-out a rainstorm here. Yes, I could consider that we’re fortunate to be here in central Luzon, 4600 feet altitude, in a sturdy cement home with food, fresh water, dry clothes, warm beds. But rather than play chess or Scrabble in the darkened flat, I would rather be out-and-about and be useful to someone.

Dominic went to bed, and I resumed reading a book that JoAnn P. had mailed to me, The Shack . I loved the cover design -beautiful photography and graphic design- and the title reminds me of the shack that Mack and his family reside in down in Baguio Gold. The title character in this book is also nicknamed Mack.

Initially I had my fluorescent-bulb lantern lit in the center of our round, wood dining table, assuming that Dominic would sit and read a book or magazine. But after he retired to his bedroom, I lit three candles and switched-off the lantern to conserve its battery power in case the blackout were to last two days.

I really enjoy tranquil times of focusing on a good book or The Good Book. The blackout forced me to spend quiet time with the written word rather than endlessly surfing the internet under the pretense of research. So with three candles before me I delved into The Shack about eight o’clock and reached the second stage of the protagonist’s story as I munched on a mixture of raisins and peanuts.

I wondered if the electricity would be restored at 9:53, as it has been previously. Nope. Not tonight. Obviously a tree branch -or a whole tree- had downed a power line. In Benguet, so many pine trees on hillsides lean over the roads and the power lines alongside them. I wouldn’t be surprised to hear that a particular cement utility pole that I’d seen leaning over Tuding Road had toppled from the rain-soaked, muddy slope.

Well, I didn’t finish reading the book before I went to bed. But I highly recommend it to all. I thank JoAnn for mailing it to us. It offers rich food for thought. I have thought of what it says about the nature of God and our potential relationship with Him. The book speaks of the whys of human suffering and why God allows it, so I thought of my own life, of the Filipinos suffering during and after Typhoon Fengshen, Burmese and Chinese who’ve suffered flooding, Iraqis and Americans being killed by bombers…

I don’t offer answers here and now. I just say that I have been reading and thinking about suffering and about my relationship with God, the nature of God and the purpose of my life rather than writing.