It is our fourth day after the 6.9 magnitude earthquake hit the northern part of Cebu, and I have so much to tell that I cannot yet process. Everyone is in great turmoil, facing a level of problems we never dared to imagine but are forced to endure. Emotionally, physically, and financially, everyone struggles to keep their sanity after what happened. Now, the most obvious and primary need of the people is financial and non-monetary donations that could help them survive each day. Our family is also in turmoil, but luckily we have relatives in the city who sent us goods and necessities for the weeks to follow. Some private groups have been able to reach the Northern Cebuanos directly without any barangay intermediation, and we were also handed goods several times.
Today, we had our goods delivered by our relatives, and I would say we have an abundant stock because donations also reached us. One of them was small sacks of rice, equivalent to 10 kilos, two for my family. Since we already had sacks of rice, we decided to cook the rice we received from the donation and turn it into sopas so that more people could benefit from it. We decided to make champorado and sopas for variety.
It was drizzling this afternoon, and a rice soup was a good choice to donate to the people to bring warmth to their afternoon. We formed our neighborhood as a community—we have slept and eaten together since the first day, and until now we remain together on the ground where we are staying. This afternoon, with the same process, we cooked the 10 kilos of rice immediately so we could deliver it as early as possible. However, I wasn’t able to take photos of the cooking because we are still in alert mode, not bringing phones during our activities to stay aware of the environment in case an aftershock occurs again.
We soon rode the tricycle we rented from our neighbor, but he let us borrow it without charge. I never thought people would flock to this soup because this was just a little act of kindness to fill the hunger of people who are homeless like us. From Hagnaya, San Remigio, we traveled to the main areas and neighboring barangays, particularly Argawanon and Calcalan. There, people flocked as we stopped by, and you can see in the photos how hard but happy people are when we gave them soup.
We had two kalderos of soup—champorado and sopas—both rice soups with different tastes. As soon as they grasped the soup in paper cups, they ate it right away even in the drizzle. I could see how hungry people are in this time of calamity, and I am grateful that even if we are also in need, we can still share the blessing we received today.
These are the young ones who helped us during the cooking and distribution. We ate at one table after the distribution but remained conscious of the aftershocks. We are always alert yet tense whenever the land vibrates. There have been 3,000 aftershocks now, but we are still afraid every time it occurs.
By 5:00 P.M., we stood by the street because the leader of our purok told us that relief goods from private groups were coming. The people in our area immediately headed to the street to wait, and when they arrived, we fell in line to get our share.
It was not the end of our day—we still stood by the roads, with no shame, because survival is needed during this time. We even put up a banner written on plywood, tarpaulin, and cartons, saying we needed food and water. Fortunately, there were still groups who stopped to hand us what we wrote on the placards.
Today is the fourth day, but we are still challenged with how to survive and stay comfortable. This might be an unfortunate week for us, but I am still grateful to have this community in teamwork and as one family. What one gets is what everyone eats. Sharing is a survival skill in this calamity, and so is being part of a community—not moving alone. Again, we don’t move alone.