Some of my thoughts...

In this blog post, I would like to share some of my thoughts and feelings of my encounter in Manila.

Religion
Firstly, Catholic is a total foreign religion to me. I don’t have any catholic friends or priest that I known. Eddy Hew is a Christian, and I am a Buddhist, and we stay in a Catholic Church. This is the first joke, what a wire combination. Of course, before that I were told that Catholic was very conservative. But for this 2 weeks, I have learnt that Catholic are not conservative as I was told. In fact they are very open minded, kind and nice people. Fr Tony is a very kind and humble person. He is very considerate as well. For he knew that I am a Buddhist, he prayed very short during the meal. Just a sentence and its done. And never did he try to convert me into Catholic. This really makes my stay very comfortable. Thanks again. And I have this wonderful experience to attend the first mass in my life, and it was in Tagalog.

The People in Philippines
Basically and generally they are very happy and positive people. You will definitely hear a joke everyday. At least I will hear a joke everyday, and I really enjoy the laughter and the fun with all my friends here. The Philippinos are very humor. They can joke about anything and anytime. Even during bad times, like flood. Carla said that people still can joke even the water was at their chest level! In addition, they are very nice towards the guest, they appreciate the friendship, and they are very people oriented. I feel like I am the least people oriented in the team… Thanks to Shernan again for reminding me to smile. Have not done that in quite a while.

The rich and the poor
I have been to the place where the people with less income lived. And I have visited Makati, Megamall and Mall of Asia. This I have witnesses the wealth disparity of the rich and the poor. The worse affected people by the flood are always the poor people and rich people always can recover very fast from their loss. What I can do for them is very limited and the impact is so minimal. The people in the urban area are continuing with their life, go to work as usual. While some of the poor people are still staying in the evacuation centers. Just hope that people lives can be improve one day and the wealth should be share more evenly.

The kind people
Firstly, I must commend on Ms Carla and all the volunteers for their persistence and untiring effort in packing the Hygiene Kits. They managed to pack all the 5000 Hygiene Kits in 3 days time! Saturday, Sunday and Tuesday. I am quite tire on Saturday and Sunday, sitting there watching them packing. I can see that the volunteers had demonstrated the selfless effort when they were carrying the heavy stuff and their speed in packing the Hygiene Kits. I know that they are here really to help. They might have felt the impact of the flood and the impact to the people. I think that’s their motivation. Thanks again. You all have taught me a great lesson.



I also must commend Ms Cel and her staff for their help during the purchasing of all the Hygiene Kits items. Ms Cel had helped us so much. And when we thank her, she just said, ‘This is the least I can do.’ She is just so kind and humble. Thanks again.

For Fr. Tony, thanks for risking your life to go to the bank and withdraw such a big amount of cash. Thanks again for the shelter and food. Many thanks.

For Annalyn and Catherine, thanks for helping us in purchasing the stuffs at Divisoria. That’s real tiring. Thanks for your effort.

For all the kind people in Philippines, I know why Ninoy Aquino said, ‘Filipino is worth dying for.’
Kids
I have met some kids during this journey. Basically they like to pose in front of camera. Whenever I aim my camera at them, they will pose for me. During the flood, some of them had to swim for their lives, where they climb up the trees and roofs. They hope that the flood will never happen again. I share the same hope with them. Hope that it will never happen again.

Relief Mission

This blog post has to be written in English. This is because I would like to dedicate this post to all my friends in St Peter Parish.


26 Sep 09
Typhoon Ondoy hit Philippines, brought heavy rains and flooded Metro Manila and nearby area.

28 Sep 09
8.00pm, night market, SS2
I received a phone call from Ms Hayat, staff from Mercy Malaysia. She asked me if I would like to volunteer myself to the mission in Philippines. I have to give my answer by noon tomorrow.


29 Sep 09
10.45am, SKM head office in Asia
I applied leave from my boss, dear Michael Lee. He is a very kind person. I told him about the mission and would like to apply leave from him. He said that he will consider it for half an hour and will get back to me. While I am waiting anxiously, Ms Hayat called again and asked if I would like to go, if not then she will put me on the waiting list. 11.15am, Michael agree to let me go with the consent of other colleagues that they will not take any leave during this period.


6.30pm, Mercy Head Office
I was introduced to Mr Eddie Hew, Senior Program Officer. I had a meeting with Hayat and Hew, was told what to prepared, expectation of me and etc. Mr Shaharudin, the acting GM of Mercy Malaysia met up with me too and he asked if I knew how to swim…

8.30pm, Kelana Jaya Medical Centre
I took the vaccination of Typhoid and Hepatitis A. I had taken tetanus during a bike accident occur at the end of August. Total vaccination fee is RM160 ++, from my own pocket. And got to know that the vaccination will only take effect after 1 or 2 weeks…
12pm pack my stuff… slept at 2am.

30 Sep 09
6.45am KL Sentral
Met up with Hew and we proceeded to KLIA. We caught the flight at 10.20am.

2.30pm
We arrived at Manila airport, terminal 1. We were welcome and greeted by Ambassador of Malaysia Mr Haji Rosli.



1 Oct 09
We visited ABS-CBN, the tv station for Philippines. In the afternoon, we dropped by Veritas Radio Station and send a box of water purification tablets to them.

2 Oct 09
In the morning, Mr Ren Ren, our driver, drove Hew and I to visit the site. Firstly, we arrived at Fairview Riverside. Although I was so astonished to see the devastating area, I just have to take out the camera from my pouch and start taking photos. As I have told myself to remain calm for whatever scene or situation that I will encounter. Mr Hew was talking to his boss, Said on the phone.
Next, we went to Bagong Silangan, one of the most affected area in the Quezon City. Ms Mayan, social worker and Mr Angelbert, public school teacher brought us around the place. There were little caskets in the evacuation centre, people just remained calm.
There were a lot of houses destroyed by the flood. People were cleaning up their houses and cloths.


3 Oct 09
We visited another affected area in Santa Lucia. The meeting point of a creek and Tuliahan river.

This is an elementary school in Santa Lucia. There were total of 200 families in this school and average of 9 families in a classroom.

4 Oct 09
We visited Divisoria, the wholesale market in Metro Manila. The place was very crowded and of course the prices of the goods are cheap. Thanks to Catherine, Annalyn and Eric, who helped us so much throughout the entire journey. We have brought 100 sets of Hygiene Kits which consist of towels, toothbrush, tooth paste, soap, laundry soap, shampoo, slippers, panties, sanitary pads and combs.

5 – 6 Oct 09
We went to Ms Cel’s office. She has been extremely helpful to us, where Cel and her staff, Airene helped us to order the 5000 sets of Hygiene Kits.

Then the next day, we started to receive all the items in the Hygiene Kits.

7 Oct 09
5.58am, Hew and I were woke up by a call, the 5000 buckets were here in St Peter Parish. Half awake, we went out and helped to carry the heavy buckets down the stairs to a lower floor in the church. The buckets came 40 in a stack; it was really exhausting to bring them down the stair case…

At 3.30pm, we arrived at Bagong Silangan. We distributed the first 100 Hygiene Kits to the people in San Isidro Laborador Parish. Before the distribution, Mr Hew will tell the people about Hygine, to wash the hands before eating, and we sang happy birthday song to estimate the length of hand washing. After that, there was a psycho social activity for the people, where they sit in groups and share their experience. After that, we distributed the Hygiene Kits and left.

8 – 9 Oct 09
The items for the Hygiene Kits continue to arrive at St Peter Parish. Thanks to Ms Cel and all her staff who have helped us in the logistics. The slippers for kids were the last to arrive. It was about 10.30pm on the Friday night.

10 Oct 09
So great to see someone who is so familiar, someone I have known for 2 years, Ms Carla and our colleagues in Manila office came and helped out in packing of Hygiene Kits. Ms Carla helped to organize the whole packing process, brief the volunteers how to pack, how many to pack etc.

In the afternoon, we distributed another 100 Hygiene Kits in Santa Lucia.

11 Oct 09
Thanks to Carla again for bringing me to shop for souvenirs and buying me lunch. In the afternoon, we continue to pack the Hygiene Kits. In 2 days time, we managed to pack 2700 Hygiene Kits.

12 Oct 09
We had lunch with Cel and friends. At night, we had farewell dinner for me. Fr Tony said that it’s a tradition to have a nice dinner for farewell. This is to make sure that I go back tomorrow. Lols…

13 Oct 09
In the morning, we distributed 140 Hygiene Kits at Bagong Silangan. After that, I said good bye to my dear friends in St Peter Parish. Shernan, Ac, Jollibee, Jade, Margie, Annalyn, Liza and Roselle, thanks for the hospitality and friendship that you have given. Really appreciate it.