Typhoon Yolanda took away everything they owned, but not their best reason to celebrate Christmas.
Pastrana municipality, Leyte province, (December 12, 2013, by Anders Nordstoga, CARE Philippines
On a basketball court next to an elementary school badly damaged by typhoon Yolanda, Josephine Blanco (38) waits with more than 200 people in line to receive a food packet from CARE and its local partner organization, Accord. A few weeks earlier, she had begun preparing for the holidays. In Palo, the nearest city to her home outside Tacloban in the province of Leyte, she had purchased a picture of Santa Claus. “I wanted something to remind us that Christmas was coming soon” says the mother of five children aged one to nine.
Protected by a tree
Josephine and her husband Richard first heard of Yolanda five days before it arrived on November 8th. They thought it would be just another typhoon. “Typhoons are nothing new to us. We are used to them. Only after an hour, did we realize this was something different” Josephine explains. “Around eight in the morning, my husband took all the children and ran to the cooperative warehouse, the closest concrete building to our home. I stayed here. I thought it would not last long, but it did not stop. My husband came back and we hid under a mango three that had fallen down next to our house. Metal plates and other things were flying around, so we lay there for two hours. We were so scared. We were crying and praying.”
“When the wind subsided, we got up to check on the house. But there was nothing left.” They went to get their children from the cooperative, where, they estimate, more than a hundred families had sought shelter. Most of them had bundled together in an office, the only part of the building where the roof was still in place.
“The children had been very scared. There had been a lot of noise. They told us that the door had been banging very hard” she recounts and meets the eye of a young girl from next door who had also been in the warehouse. The girl nods gravely. “She remembers” notes Josephine.
How to start anew?
“After Yolanda, we did not know what to do. We did not know where to start. We were out of our minds” she says.
It did not take them long to get to work. “We picked up materials from around the area to build a new house. We put up the walls in two days. We went to Palo and waited a long time in queue to get the tarpaulin we have as roof” explains Richard.
Fortunately, they could still get ground water from a tap. They managed to salvage some rice and, after a few weeks, they got some food from the local government. Without any way of earning an income, they still depend on assistance. On December 12th they received a food kit from CARE and Accord.
“This kit is beautiful, we are very happy about it. It will last the whole family for two weeks” exclaims Josephine on the way back from the distribution. In her bag, she has one kilo of dry beans, five tins of corned beef and five tins of sardines, one kilo dry fish, half a kilo salt, half a liter of cooking oil and two kilos of sugar. Her husband carries 20 kilo of rice.
Waiting for work
Richard used to work at a farm cultivating rice, earning a salary of 2.5 dollars a day. Josephine helped out occasionally, when not in Palo buying and selling fish. Her little store at the harbor is now all gone and the rice field needs rehabilitation before they can start working again.
“Our first priority now is to rebuild a proper house, but in order to do that, we need an income. We are waiting for the landowner to clean up the field so we can start cultivating rice” says Josephine. Richard says he is confident they will be back to work before Christmas.
Before Yolanda, three of the children went to school. Now only the eldest son, Jon Rey (9), has classes, while the damaged school building is being repaired. Jiselle (7) is staying with her grandparents in Palo, while and Jeffry (6), Jesar (2) and Jessica (1) are at home.
A reason to celebrate
Josephine has no intention of calling off Christmas because of Yolanda. “We will celebrate Christmas, because we are grateful to be alive” she says.
On Christmas Eve the family will stay home. The next day they will, as always, go to Palo and celebrate with their extended family. It will be on a smaller scale this year. “You know, in the Philippines we eat a lot during Christmas. In our family, we have roasted chicken, fried noodles, bread and coca cola. The children are always asking for soft drinks” she smiles. “We also drink a local wine made from coconut, called ‘tuba’.” This year, they will have to do with less food and no decorations.
“Just before Yolanda, I bought a picture of Santa Claus, but it was washed away. I was also going to buy some lights, to make the house really pretty. But even though we do not even have a Christmas star, it is OK, because we are still together” says Josephine.
CAREs emergency response: CARE is working with partners to deliver emergency relief in three areas of the Philippines: Leyte, Samar and Panay. Our target is to reach 200,000 people with food, shelter, other assistance, and help communities recover in the months and years to come. One month after the typhoon, CARE had provided food to more than 40,000 people and shelter materials (shelter kits, tarpaulins and kitchen sets) to more than 20.000 individuals. Over the coming months, CARE will provide assistance in rebuilding livelihoods and longer term shelter. Click here to read more.