times like these is when you see the humanity of people's spirits. malou & i decided to volunteer at world vision in answer to miggy's request for help last monday. repacking sacks of rice ain't easy - the sacks were heavy, the deed was laborious but everyone were in good spirits. i felt happy being in the company of such generous people (jan, marjo, jm, anjo and malou). i told malou that there is a natural high knowing what we were doing is for a worthy cause - that in some way, it affects the lives of people in a positive way. charity does that and its probably why a lot of people do it - food for the soul.
i got pulled into an early morning tuesday when i barely just arrived at the office. it was again some volunteer effort for the company to check some of our employees who were also badly affected. it was a good thing my schedule was a bit light during that day so taking the day to help out was forgivable. we did the groceries. we did the repacking and off we went. i was assigned to my colleagues in the marikina area and we passed by familiar roads and i couldn't help but feel moved by what i've seen. marikina riverbanks (mall) was in really bad shape. there was debris everywhere and muddy cars being towed. along the roads were people busy with a lot walking still muddy. you've seen it in videos, pictures and television but being there where it all happened felt frighteningly surreal.
both my colleagues who we visited are okay. they've started clean-up and slowly going back to their normal lives. it was a frightening experience for both. we see these things happen in the provinces and think really nothing of it until it happens in our lives. its the only time we realize that these events can happen to anyone. what happened with "Ondoy" is a tragedy and i hope that we learn something from our mistakes.
the past two days has been tiring. but there's a feeling of happiness and relief with it. so if you are free - donate or volunteer somewhere. there's still a lot of people needing help. Go!
