David and Goliath
Saturday, October 17, 2009 @ 12:40 PM | 0 comment(s)

16 September 2009, Friday.

This day was Lalaine’s birthday. I was invited to come for the celebration. I decided to go because it would be unethical to decline her invitation, and I was free this day. After classes, I headed straight back home to drop my things off. Though we still have an event in our school, I did not stay. We had ‘Sagip Kaeskwela’ relief operations in our gymnasium. We were not really obliged to stay, so I did not.


While taking a tricycle to her house, I had the chance to watch the streets, houses and people. Everyone looked so busy, and everything seemed out of order. Maybunga area was greatly affected by the typhoon. The ride went slow. At the end of the street, there was a long line of people. Sweaty, tired people, waiting for their own pack of relief goods. I then realized, from the look on their faces, how hard it was to have something for their stomachs, to still live, to survive. It was my first time to witness such a thing.

As we went even slower, I had enough time to stare and observe at every corner, at every person’s face. I saw a man and a child drying papers under the sun. They looked like torn pages from books. Poor students. There was also a little boy, with only one leg, clinging on his crutches for his dear life. It was just heartbreaking to see this children suffer at such a young age. At one side there were big piles of papers and anything worth recycling. At this side, big mountains of garbage and wastes and pieces of broken things. Disappointed parents and starve-looking children were everywhere. I saw two of them sitting on plastic chairs, looking rather hungry and unhappy. There were also grown up men and women, all busy with recovering. You could see from their faces that they were devastated because of the tragedy. All of us were.

But though their situation was nerve-wracking, especially those living near the river, they could still manage to smile, to have a laugh, to be happy, to hope for a new beginning. They survived, and they were grateful for that.


It is true that we should learn to shrug things off, to never give up and to not be hopeless. Things come and go. And this is just one of them things. We are tough people, and our faith in God makes us even stronger in times like these. With Him, the love and support from people, this will just be a Goliath; we will be David. And the Davids end up winning, right?

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