Hope rises from the ruins

 

JUST BE By Bernadette Sembrano
The Philippine Star, Tuesday, June 12 ,2007
 

The Cagsawa ruins in Bicol were inaccessible by car. There flowed a small river, and people crossed through a makeshift footbridge, with a sign and bucket, asking for a donation.

Scampering through the pebbles, two boys approached me tenaciously selling pictures of images of the havoc caused by Typhoon Reming in November 2006.

I ignored him and he stopped selling. Pacing… Pacing. No more time, I thought to myself. We had a flight to catch. My eyes were on the ruins, then I heard a voice, “We are 10 kilometers from the volcano.” The boy said in Filipino. And he went on… “The permanent danger zone now is 10 kilometers”… “More than 200 people died here.” I was stunned on how he spoke about the tragedy so matter-of-factly. “On the right side is the old museum, where 30 families took refuge and were miraculously saved.”

Sammy Jim, the 11-year-old local-turned-tourist-guide is one of eight children of farmers in Busay who lost their livelihood because of Typhoon Reming. His father, he says, is still trying to dig through rubble to get back into farming. Sammy, on the other hand, is out-of-school, not because he wants to, but because his old school is gone. Ninety-nine percent of the schools in Bicol were affected by Typhoon Reming, according to Jo Saw, manager of Sagip Kapamilya.

Sagip Kapamilya brought me to Bicol for the turnover of a school in Oas, Albay last Friday. ABS-CBN foundation was a conduit to raise donations for Bicol. It was the first time for me to be there since the calamity. The weather was bright and sunny, and yet five months after, traces of Reming remain: in schools that were uninhabited, the railroad tracks, destroyed and the boulders on the side of the roads. But Jo explained that situation has improved since. Soon after Typhoons Reming and Milenyo, the coconut trees were like match sticks protruding in the hills. As if it were a sign of things to come, the coconut match sticks are back in shape just like the school in Oas.

More than 20 classrooms were built in Oas and 39 classrooms in Daraga. And the children? They were images of hope. Their smiles conveyed their overwhelming happiness. From the way they embraced us, one could not tell that these were once victims of Milenyo and Reming, that they lost their homes and lived in evacuation centers for months. Indeed, we Filipinos are survivors, many thanks to different groups and individuals that helped, from international organizations to local NGOs, overseas Filipinos like the group of mothers from Kuwait who donated school chairs, the students who gave part of their allowance, and survivors themselves who volunteered during the feeding program. It was thrilling to see it all materialize.

At Cagsawa, villagers survive by selling plants and itak, and a carver has created sculptures from stones spewed by Mayon. Of course, there’s Sammy and his photos for sale.

Sammy volunteered to take my picture by the Cagsawa Ruins. “I know how to use it,” he said, referring to my digital camera. “Aren’t you attending school?,” I asked wondering what he was doing there on a Friday afternoon.

“I am going back to school, they’re just fixing the tents that will serve as our classrooms.” He remains optimistic despite the ruins that surrounded him. Sammy took the camera from my hand. His eyes did not wince as he looked through the viewfinder, taking my photo with Mayon at the background.

Bicol still needs of cash donations and books for the schools (encyclopedia set, dictionaries, visual aids, reference books for Math, Science and English, story books. No workbooks and pocketbooks, please)

 For donations, call Menchie Silvestre at 415-2272 loc. 5409 or log on to menchie_silvestre@abs-cbn.com.

Be a blessing!