MEDIUM RARE
Super-PRRD has a solution to Taal’s tempestuous temper tantrums. He’ll show the volcano how tough he can be, by eating the ashes as they fall and pissing into the lake. A myth in the making!
The eruptions – the volcano’s -- are no longer merely phreatic or even magmatic, because it looks like war now, or the last day of end times. Earthquakes every few minutes, causing fissures in the road, cracks in walls, collapsing houses, trees bending under the weight of black soot. Blackouts, strong winds, darkness, dust and ash covering every surface including birds’ feathers and puddles of water changing into an eerie color. Animals drowning or dying of hunger. Pets abandoned. The worst is yet to come, but hopefully not: balls of fire, tsunami, explosions as powerful as an H-bomb. People in panic, people in despair. They want to stay home but it’s not safe. They need to run away, far from home but who’ll feed them, protect them?
Has donor fatigue set in? After the earthquakes down South last October, followed in quick succession by typhoons Tisoy and Ursula, fires in crowded neighborhoods in Metro Manila during the holiday season, and now this, this almost biblical event of many events – how much more can DSWD take? God does not have to speak, He’s letting Mother Nature do the talking.
Going home? Coming home? The predicament arises whenever disaster looms. Homeowners are afraid to leave their worldly possessions to the mercy of looters, their farm animals to the elements. Reporters talk about families who, after forcible evacuation, sneak back home to salvage their belongings, unmindful of the dangers of doing so and how they put at risk the lives of volunteer or uniformed rescuers.
When all this is over, what heavenly joy to be back home, safe and sound, to be once more warmly cocooned in one’s comfort zone, home sweet home, be it ever so humble. While all this crisis/emergency/catastrophe is ongoing, two PN ships have set sail on a 25-day voyage to bring home as many overseas workers who are willing to give up their jobs, their second home and adopted country in the Middle East. Not the easiest decision to make, but isn’t that why we call ourselves resilient?