The Aftermath of the Supertyphoon is Worse than the Pandemic

My body is aching from all the heavy lifting of groceries, water containers, heavy bags and other equipments for our evacuation, and all the walking and running needed to be done. My mental health game is a bit shaky, and there are days when my anxiety cannot be contained, and I am left to wonder how we can move forward. Yes, I know that we can get through this, but I am still processing and grieving our loss. A loss is a loss is a loss -rupi kaur

Wednesday 22nd of December and it's six days since the destruction of Supertyphoon Rai (Odette: PH name), and there's still no visible help from the government in my place, and some areas in the city still have fallen trees on the road: where is the clearing operations? 😢

Quick story on Empathy

My sister Hive account@swaycanete and I talked yesterday as we were waiting in line at a fast food store for our brunch. She shared how downhearted she was because her friends did not empathize with her. Sway shared in their Group Messenger about how we lost our home due to the typhoon. Most of her close friends replied, "that's fine, they are just things, you can replace them soon, and you got this". She felt bad because they did not acknowledge the loss and only focused on the "positivity" side. This reminded me that it's truly important to have empathy, because as a victim of the Typhoon myself, it's not really comforting when people say, "that's fine, we can all move forward", without even saying "Sorry to hear that, I empathize with you, and I wish I can help or do more, I hope you can get through this soon, let me know how I can help, we are with you on this trying times." It's relieving when people extend empathy because as victims, we are comforted that they, too, somehow feel what we feel.

My sister Sway has spent one year of hardwork in order to beautify and reconstruct her room. In fact, the room renovation was just finished last month November, and she recently purchased new bed, pillows, wall block stickers, and the like. And then the storm happened and all her room stuff got destroyed. It was a year of hardwork and it was all gone in a matter of minutes. 💔 Same goes with my father who spent a lot of his time and effort in building and maintaining our house. He shed blood and sweat to build our house from the ground up and it was taken from us in just a matter of a moment." The loss is plainly cruel to the core and it seems no amount of "that's fine, we'll all be well" can cheer them up as of the moment.

The typhoon is savage/brutal/INHUMAN in nature. I can say its effects are more what the pandemic has brought to me and my family.

Right now as we are in survival mode, we cannot process our loss and grief yet. It adds to the stress and fatigue we are currently experiencing.

We are all exhausted physically, emotionally and mentally.

I told myself that the quarantines and lockdowns last year were better than what we're currently experiencing because at least during the lockdowns, there's electricity, Wi-Fi, water all available in the house. Now it's very hot inside the house and water supply is difficult to find. We cannot stay in the house for a long time because it's too hot, and we also need to find where we can get potable drinking It's draining!! 😭💔

I do not know how long it takes until we get electricity and water supply back. The past few days have been severely hard for me, because I need to be up and about and be ready to go, and all the heavy lifting and trauma of being house-less have left me with less energy and vigor. IT IS SO EXHAUSTING.

Below are photos I would like to share which are mostly optimistic in nature, because the sky seems to cheer me up these days, and I cannot help but take photos and keep them as memories, a part of what I can look back on; at least these are reminders of hope amidst this dark period of my life.

The sky at 5:00 today; from the house of my sister--our temporary evacuation place

View from my workplace

Heavy traffic is real nowadays

Last Sunday, when we went near the mall for the charging station

Sunset last Saturday, when my sisters and I went out to buy groceries and all our necessities

The moon is so pretty

One Pavillion Mall

It is SO, SO DIFFICULT TO LIVE WITHOUT ACCESS TO CLEAN DRINKING WATER AND ELECTRICITY when you have been born and raised in the city, and all your life all these basic needs are conveniently given.😭 Everyone is adjusting. We all are. Life is extremely hard these days because as our city is fighting COVID, we are plagued with another crisis in top of an existing one. HONESTLY IT IS DIFFICULT TO BE CHEERFUL AS CHRISTMAS IS APPROACHING BECAUSE HOW CAN I BE IN A CELEBRATORY MOOD WHEN DEEP INSIDE IN AM SO EXHAUSTED. 😭😭🥺 When will this nightmare end...?

This original article is written by Jong, the blogger behind writetowander.com. All photos are hers, too.

Jong CL

_{Hive-llo, everyone! Welcome to Jong's little buzz-y corner in Hive. Jong believes that every person she meets can teach her a thing or two (or three, or more) about life. She shares her love for life here-- the captivating beauty of life! To be more specific, but not necessarily in this order, she's interested in: wisdom, love, poetry, single life, books, travel, health&fitness, fashion, gratitude, unspoken hurts, heartbreaks and healing. Lastly, she loves Jesus.}

_{Do you like her content? Make sure to upvote, then! Drop some love by leaving a comment-- she really appreciates listening to your thoughts! 💛 Feel free to reblog if her post resonated with you. Kindly follow her to not miss a post! Happy hiving, loves! 💛}