Tulong sa CDO at Iligan 2012

Around Christmastime, I found myself signing up for a Medical Mission/De-briefing for the Typhoon Sendong Victims in Cagayan de Oro (CDO) and Iligan City. For a segurista type of person like me, I was surprised with myself. I know that by mid-January (the scheduled trip for the project), I will still be hectic at work. And I will still have backlogs from my other previous little assignments and commitments. Normally, I’ll be having second thoughts of making my already complicated life be more complicated. But there, the team leader has told the others that I'm joining and they're buying our tickets soon. Since there seem to be no backing out, I started helping in the fundraising. That part is where I started getting my inspiration to continue with what I’ve found myself into. Thank you for responding to my call for help. Thank you for your encouragements and for the prayers you’ve said for our safety and for the good effects of the activity. Thank you too to those who sent financial assistance to the project. We were a total of 15 volunteers – 5 MDs, 8 RNs, a dentist and a pharmacist. This group was started by the staff of Mapua Institute of Technology Health Services. The rest of us were friends of theirs who got invited because of our past experiences to these types of projects. Because of your help, we were able to go to CDO and Iligan to extend quality help to a percentage of those affected by Sendong. We conducted free medical consultations with free full dose medicines including antibiotics, distributed relief goods (Thanks to the place called Divisoria, there was multiplication of bath towels, blankets, toothbrush and detergent bars. Thanks to generous donors, our food items were not limited to sardines and noodles and rice) and had de-briefing with those billeted at Camaman-an Evacuation Center in CDO and Tambo Shelter Box (Tent City) in Iligan City. There were 89 families in Camaman-an and 123 families in Tambo. We also left boxes of necessary medicines to the Parish Church of Camaman-an. There were at least 30 families sheltered in the parish social hall. Unfortunately, we couldn’t find time to service them like the other two centers so we decided to give them our excess medicines which was timely because they’ve ran out of supplies.

Faith, hope and love were very tangible in every step of this adventure. These and other insights from the project, I’d like to share to all of you.

Not to be ashamed to ask. Somehow, it’s in our human nature to feel it not so easy to beg. There’s that fear of being rejected, ignored or insulted. But I realized that asking people to help is giving them opportunity to be generous. Asking my friends for help is giving them opportunity to show how much they care and support me. I don’t measure help by money alone. Since you are my friends, somehow I also know your capacity. A like to my post, a line of encouragement and a promise of prayers weighed as much too. It’s amazing to witness how generosity can be infectious. Because people saw that we’ve gone out of our way to render service, they were encouraged to help us too. Our van driver didn’t charge us for van rental for our trip to the airport going back to Manila because he saw our work when he serviced us the day before. We asked permission from the Philippine Army rescue group in Tambo to be allowed to use their dining table for our lunch. Not only were we allowed to use their table, each of us was also served a bottle of ice cold drinking water.

Faith in God. So much for religion being opium of the people. I rather believe that being need, being at a loss leads people to the Omnipotent. Because of faith, many of these people are coping well enough from the trauma of having to flee from the raging waters of the flood and from the losses that they had. For example: There’s Fe who, because of the logs that hit her while in the floods, lost consciousness and as a consequence lost her child whom she was holding that time. She didn’t blame anyone for the loss of her child. She mourns for the loss, yes. But because of her faith, she’s able to accept what happened and comforts herself by looking at the picture of her child whenever she misses her. Another lady said she lost a comfortable home they’ve invested and sweated out for, for years. Because of faith, instead of mulling over the loss, she and her family are planning how to start all over again. Another lady was so grateful to St. Joseph. She salvaged his image among the junk several years back. Because of her devotion to the saint, she attributes their survival. She kept on speaking to the saint during their ordeal. She said their house was not as sturdy as that of the others, but it did not collapse during the floods and they were all saved.

Personally, the experience also widened my understanding of faith. Before the actual trip to CDO/Iligan, I had several little and big requests from our Lord. A friend was teasing me because my little prayers were unanswered. In fact, my little fears started to become real. There were several inconveniences that happened before and on the first day of our trip.  But I was in awe with the answer to by big requests. I was bracing myself for the de-briefing assignment. Knowing my tendency to fall into melancholy and despite that, I hoped to achieve the aims for the participants of the de-briefing activities -- that they be able to tell their story, that I be able to detect unhealthy coping and make the necessary referrals, that I be able to synthesize what I’ve heard, that I be able to identify coping mechanisms so that the participants be able to find direction. I asked that I don’t get emotional, that my forgetfulness don’t attack, and that I be able to say the right words – the therapeutic technique in the nurse-patient interaction. I was able to achieve that. My gift for synthesis was at its best and I did not have to worry about how to respond! And my group mates where just great!

Hope. The people’s faith is helping them get up from the devastation of the recent calamity. I had to correct myself in how to refer to them. They are survivors, not victims of Sendong. You can feel their hope of being able to rebuild their lives again. Meanwhile, they need to be guided; they need more assistance in their little steps towards independence. For instance, they need new homes. Since acquiring a new house is not going to be soon, they need shelter boxes (tents) where they can have more privacy and security while the head of the family starts going back to work again.

Love. It’s so wonderful to confirm that, really, love conquers all! There’s a young couple in CDO who was expecting their first child last December. When the waters started to rise, the pregnant lady was awakened by mild contractions. She awakened her husband and they both discovered that water has started to enter the house they’re renting. The man called at a neighbour who’s a tricycle driver and instructed him bring his wife to the hospital while he put their belongings to a higher part of the house. But the waters were rising fast. The man eventually decided to leave the house to save himself, leaving behind the baby clothes and the money they’ve saved up for his wife’s hospitalization and everything they own. While he worried about whether his wife was able to make it to the hospital, his wife feared that she might soon be widowed because she saw how ravaging the floods were. I love happy endings and this one is.  The following day, the couple saw each other in the hospital. It was a few more days before their baby came. At the time that I met them, they are just awaiting the right time to start going back to work again. I didn’t notice any trace of trauma on the couple during our conversation. They shyly told me they’re celebrating their first wedding anniversary last January 22.

A fourteen year old girl’s story also caught my attention. She told me that during the floods, her father had to fish her out from the waters knowing that she cannot swim. Recalling the near death experience made her cry but it strengthened her trust on her father and was grateful to realize how much her father can do - endangering himself - for love of her.