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CHRISTMAS IS USUALLY a big celebration in the Philippines but for many homes on the islands this year, it has been cancelled.
Despite the magnitude of their struggles and the everyday fears they still face about the past few weeks, the feast still weighs on the minds of residents.
GOAL aid worker James Kelly spoke to one family which survived the devastation of Typhoon Haiyan with their lives – but who had lost everything else, including their homes.
“With a young family, Christmas is also weighing heavily on Sonia Garrido’s mind,” the Limerick native told TheJournal.ie.
“It’s normally a big celebration over here. She told me that Christmas at her house is always based around food and church services. Every year, she cooks many different types of food, but with no money to spare, 25 December will be just another date on the calendar this year.”
The Garrido’s concrete house collapsed moments after they heard the walls cracking in the middle of the typhoon on 2 November.
Sonia, her 70-year-old disabled mother, four children aged between 12 and 17 and her baby grandchild took shelter in her mother-in-law’s house in Jaro, located just west of the city of Tacloban on Leyte Island.
More than 90 per cent of the buildings in the village were completely flattened by the typhoon. Sonia believed they would be safer in the concrete house, as opposed to their own, which was made of less hardy materials.
“On the face of it, it seemed like a sensible decision, but they hadn’t reckoned on the power of Haiyan,” continued Kelly.
“When the typhoon was at its fiercest, they heard the concrete walls cracking under the pressure. They made a run for it, carrying 70-year-old Nenita, who is disabled.
Seconds after they left the building, they heard an enormous crash and watched in horror as the structure completely collapsed. They saw this happen from no more than 10 yards away.
“Luckily they scrambled to a neighbour’s house, where they saw out the remainder of the storm.
“Despite losing their home, it could have been a whole lot worse. They could have stayed in the house and perished. Any member of the family could have been hit by flying debris while they were exposed out in the open. As it was, the baby, who was just 27 days old, was drenched to the skin by the driving rain during the trip from one house to the other.
He was shivering and shaking when they got him inside. His mother, Lorly, and the rest of the family were genuinely concerned that he wouldn’t survive, but he made it.
The family are now hoping to rebuild their lives and their house now has three walls and a partial roof again. It’s far from ideal, but it is giving them some protection.
Image: Mark Stedman
Although they have some form of shelter now, the situation that Sonia and her family find themselves in is typical of millions of others across this country.
They have no possessions, no money and no way of making an income. The family had been working off its coconut farm, harvesting and selling the coconuts locally. The typhoon wiped out every tree in the region. Although the trees will be re-sown, it could take up to seven years for them to bear their first fruit, meaning that Sonia will have to find another source of income.
“She said she might try doing some laundry for her neighbours, or maybe growing vegetables and selling them in the local market, but in truth, she has no idea,” said Kelly following a conversation with Sonia.
The mental struggle following the storm is also taking its toll on the damaged areas.
Kelly speaks of seeing people struggling to survive.
“You can see the little children when it starts to rain, you can see the fear in their eyes, that what they thought was the end of the world but managed to survive is coming back for them.”
(YouTube: GOAL Humanitarian Organisation)
James Kelly is from Limerick and is part of GOAL’s emergency response team in The Philippines. See www.goal.ie
Single people have it tougher in society – if housebound that becomes worse. Good to see an article on this issue.
Oh please, give me a break. It was a bit of snow FFS!!!!
@Ciaran Fairley: You read that whole article in less than three minutes? Impressive.
Tell that the someone living alone who was recently bereaved.
@Glenn Caulfield: I seriously doubt that two days of snow was a significant additional stress factor in that case.
Snowflake seems an apt word these days
@Dara O’Brien: oh aye I’m sure you both know way better than the fully qualified pyschotherapist. Her point isn’t that snow can cause significant stress and loneliness, but magnify stress and loneliness that’s already there.
@Dara O’Brien: I myself suffer from depression and found a lot of the points in the article rang true. I personally could not leave the house for 4 days with poor conditions as i live rurally rather than the 2. Just because you have no empathy or understanding for those who suffer with their mental health doesnt give you the right to start attaching more labels to people. If youve nothing nice to say and all that
@Neal Ireland Hello.: It took you longer than three minutes to read that? Worrying.
@Anomander: hahaha exactly what I was thinking.
I loved the peace
@Ashling Fenton: I loved the peace too
The is a flip side for those of us for whom dealing with people is an absolute chore, time to actually relax without having to make an excuse, time when you can leave the mask off and save your energy without the relentless oppression of people telling you to cheer up because you’re not projecting a mindless obliviously happy persona and messing with their fragile superficial perceptions
@Brendan Gordon: Totally…I went out on Friday and people were out walking their dogs in the snow, there was little or no traffic on the roads as people weren’t hurrying to get to work or to school, people seemed happy to get away from the rat race for a few days.
@Fifty Shades of Sé: because people were walking around my estate instead of driving, I connected with neighbours I barely knew I had.i remember as a kid walking to the shops with my mam. She’d stop every few minutes to chat with neighbours, it used to drive me mad. I’m convinced that the car culture we have nowadays contributes to social isolation and lack of community spirit: now if you need a pint of milk you hop in the car to drive a couple of hundred meters down the road, go to the self service And you don’t even interact with shop staff. And yes , I do it myself.
@Dermot Lane: Very well put, economic and technological advancements over the past two decades have certainly lead to a seismic shift in culture towards communal interaction, the price of progress however can be the sacrifice of good values.
Times like this people turn to God…..as answer to the emptiness….
@John003: how does that work? If a few days of time dragging slowly and in terminal boredom is enough to induce depression, surely eternity would be a nightmare?
@John003: Really. Which one?
@John003: Peace be with you brother
It’s not all that bad it’s a bit of snow and you can’t get out for a few days hardly the end of the world now is.
I a biker 365 days of the year and i haven’t been able to get outside the gate yet but the world and all it’s madness will still be there waiting for me whenever I do manage to get out.
At this time 2 years ago we had the recent Dublin level of snow in the west. Being west of the M50 and west of Shannon, did not make the news so these issues were not talked about. It was, as the first comment reminds us, a bit of snow.
Very good article, isolation be it self imposed or circumstantial has long term detriment to mental health well being along with stress and anxiety. The past week more than most in recent times has highlighted the benefits of community interaction and human contact can counteract such problems, maybe when looking for solutions it’s time to get back to basics.
Very good comments. Very relatable.
It’s great if you’re an introvert though or so I hear :)
The doctor would have been well served if she added those navigating homelessness in family hubs, emergency accommodation, and on the streets; and those living in fear of losing their homes to VF, respossession, or extortionate rising rents to her list of those whose daily stresses are amplified by the isolation they bring…on a daily basis, along with the emptiness of endless time…. no matter what the weather.
People also need to learn to be alone with thier thoughts, to easy now distract yourself with social media if have 2 mins to spare, guilty of it myself.
Love to travel and part of reason is I’m unplugged and have time alone with my thoughts. That can actually be a joy rather than a problem if allow yourself engage with your inner self rather than seek external distraction.
Realise some have genuine isolation, and that needs addressing, but for some is self taught and can be Untaught
People belonging to big happy families where there’s a bit o’ land, a horse or two, a jeep and no one can even spell “rent,” wouldn’t know which end of the gas/electricity meter to put the coin in. Would that be the thing you use to measure the tyre depth? The same folk who laugh at mental illness and marginalised lives and think human trafficking is what the lollipop lady does.
Their frame of reference blinds them to the misery other people go through and, understandably, the same happens vice versa. Hence so much living in a parallel universe. It’s all bollocks really, all we can try and do is make the best of a bad job…
It says a lot about us as people if we can’t handle a few days indoors
Ooops when I said “from experience” I meant experience of loneliness DEFINITELY not prison. Lol
I think it was George Bernard Shaw who said “There is nothing worse than an endless holiday. I know from experience to quote tihe guy in Shawshank Redemptiin who says “the nights here are long….. time can stretch out like a razor blade” am not sure if it’s word for word but it sums loneliness up aptly.
I can only quote from Shawahank Redemption when the guy described his feelings of loneliness and isolation “prison time is slooooow time….in here time can draw out like a blade”
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