Resiliency of the Cebuanos

25th of January 2022

It's been 5weeks since Super Typhoon Odette hit Cebu. And we just got our electricity and water back since the blackout. We don't have internet yet, but it's okay, we'll wait until it's fixed, although I hope it won't be too long to get fixed.

Update: It's now mid-March and we still don't have our fiber internet back.

Odette hit Cebu last December 16, 2021, and it's the scariest I've ever been, much more than Super Typhoon Yolanda. It's probably because Yolanda did not landfall in Cebu, while Odette made it's second landfall in Cebu, thus it was even more devastating than Yolanda.

16th of December 2021

I was so worried that the glass wall and door of our house would break down and hurt us inside. We all stayed and slept in our living room because it was much scarier at the second floor where our bedrooms are.

Praise God, there were no damages to our properties, only the mini garden got devastated but apart from that, we're all good. We're very lucky that we didn't have to worry about fixing the damages. And I can now say that our architect and engineer (contractor) made a very strong house being able to withstand the supertyphoon. We only had leaks, and it was really minor compared to other houses here in our subdivision that were located at the top-most area.

These photos were taken by my husband inside the subdivision the morning after the typhoon.

No water and electricity

We had no electricity and water since then. And immediately on the 17th, people started going out to buy water. Few days after the typhoon, the price of drinking water skyrocketed, so was the price of anything solar, and people were lining up at the gasoline stations.

Before, I couldn't imagine how we'll survive without water and electricity in our house for more than a month. But we did it! I remember my husband was the only one who could go out during the first few days after the typhoon because the roads were semi-blocked, and no cars can pass through. He bought disposable plates, spoons, forks and cups so that we wouldn't need to wash what we used for eating or drinking.

Great buys before the typhoon

It was a great timing that before the typhoon hit Cebu, I was able to buy four big fans. I had to fan my baby to sleep every day and every night. It was so useful because it was so hot here in our country! And we also had solar powered lamp lights that we bought months ago. We used it as an additional lamp light outside our house. It gets super dark at night, but with those lamp lights, we looked like we had our lights turned on in our house. And I'm so grateful that we had these things during the weeks we didn't have electricity, it made our lives a little bit easier. It was so difficult having to take care of small children while in the midst of pandemic and no water and electricity, too.

Self-standing Mosquito Net

Sven would always have new mosquito bites every day because we had to open the door in our terrace at night to let the cool wind in to our bedroom, and that also meant a lot of mosquitos. Brandon also slept with us in our bedroom because it was much cooler than the other room. But I read somewhere that mine and Sven's bloodtype are the mosquito's favorite. Sven and I are always swarmed with mosquitos, but not much for Brandon and John. It took us a month to find a solution. I have always thought of a mosquito net but it didn't occur to me that self-standing ones are available. We bought one a little bit late into this journey, but we were able to enjoy sleeping at night since then.

Generator

We also got ourselves a small, household generator, just enough for us to be able to charge our laptops and devices, especially, since we were suppose to be back to work first week of January. My husband also looked for a way to charge our Promate Geenrator power box using solar energy. All of these were used to charge our small, rechargeable electric fans, our devices, and our work essentials.

Diesel

When the roads were unblocked, we went out almost every day to fetch water from a different city and also to eat out, because we want to avoid washing the dishes when there's water shortage. There came a point were people would post how long the lines are to gas up. But luckily, my father was able to ask for used diesel at work, I'm not very familiar with the specifics, but it was not super dirty that it looks black, it was still golden. And he gave us 25L of diesel, so we didn't have to worry whenever we need to go out to fetch water.

Bored and got nothing to do

At night, Sven slept early during this period, as early as 5-6PM. So when he was already sleeping, I got nothing else to do except watch over him and fan him when the rechargeable electric fan ran out of battery. So my husband suggested that I download Novelfull app and download novels so I can read them at night. And I was so glad I did what he told me, even without internet, I enjoyed this period because of all the novels I've read.

Proud taga-Cebu

I'm not the only one who felt really proud as a Cebuano. A lot of people realized this, too. We were all very resilient, patient, and disciplined. Of course, there were instances where people fought over water, or wherever there were queues. But overall, I think we all did a great job being patient and disciplined. We waited in line, we followed instructions (malls would only allow you to buy one solar item, and you cannot hoard), we looked for ways to solve our problems. No water? You'll see people posting on social media where to get water, or which gasoline station to go to. We were being part of the solution, and we did not just wait for ayuda nor asked Nasaan ang Pangulo?

This facebook post just says everything I want to say in a more detailed and carefully-thought of manner. And as I said earlier, I'm not the only one who felt it, we were resilient, we looked for solutions and we didn't wait for help to come, we'd humbly accept any help given, but we did our part, too.

Contractors helping Cebu

We are very grateful to electric companies, and contractors all over the Philippines for coming here in Cebu to help us have our electricity back. Without their help, it will take so long for us to have our electricity. They are our heroes who worked overtime everyday.

Grateful for the initiative

I really appreciated my husband's initiative during this horrible time. He would look everywhere to get us water and food. He looked for solar panels so we can charge our devices, looked for a mosquito net, even helped my parents in Maguikay, he asked them what they needed, actively helped our families and did so much more. He made sure we were comfortable.

Holiday Season

Every Christmas and New Year since we got married, we would always go to my parent's house in Maguikay to have dinner, then go back home at 8PM because of the kids. Needless to say, we celebrated Christmas and New Year without electricity and water. And when we got home, we just slept through the night. It was weird to be sleeping at midnight during Christmas and New Year, but what could we do?

Why wont Shopee/Lazada let us order?

And as Filipinos, we're known as people who will just laugh at our problems. It's difficult to translate a Bisaya joke to English but please bear with me. Cebuanos would complain to Shopee and Lazada why there weren't any deliveries or why we can't shop, citing that a supertyphoon only passed Cebu, but we didn't lose our money (so, we should've been allowed to online shop).

Omicron?

Furthermore, since almost all Cebuanos forgot that there was still a pandemic, everyone, in one way or another, had to go out to fetch water or buy necessities. So, around mid-January, new jokes/memes were spreading in our newsfeed.

The message was like, non-verbatim, Paghuman sa "Bangon Cebu," karon, higda napd ta kay gipanghilantan. (After "Rise up, Cebu," now, let's go back to bed because we're all sick.)

Yes, almost everyone we know got sick! It was probably the Omicron variant, it spread really fast but the symptoms were not as scary as the Alpha and Delta variants. We got sick, too. And I am so grateful that we were only sick for a few days, and we had recovered quickly.

Another meme came out around this time saying that the difference between a flu and Covid is that you got a swab test.

This has been a really long post because it also took me a long time to wrap this up. At that time, I wanted everyone to know that everything was fine, but it was still a very stressful period for me.

Stress

I do feel uncomfortable if I can't take a bath, or if I don't cut my nails short, or if our place is messy and dirty. I mean, I can tolerate it for a few days, but there's a negative effect on me. And I got stressed more when I couldn't work properly, especially, when the internet is no good. I feel like my work integrity was jeopardized. I was told to focus on my family, but I also know that I cannot skip work for a long time, we had to move on. It was really stressful and I was taking it out on my toddler. I asked helped and had online consultation for anger management because I felt really bad that I am always getting angry at my son.

Lately, it wasn't as stressful as before and things had been better for me and my family. I am grateful that we survived although we are still waiting for our fiber connection to be restored, things are slowly getting back to normal.