DAY 01 Saturday
i woke up around 10 am because my mother was putting her things up on the cabinet. we knew that we’d get flooded, but not to that extent. i texted my cousin that i wouldn’t get to meet her that afternoon. when the flood came inside the house, i even took a video of it, while i was holding my 3-year old nephew. we were 5 in the house at that time - mosha, fasha, marlowe, moi and brix.
in a span of 30 minutes the flood was already hip-high so we decided to go out and save ourselves. only to find out we couldn’t get out of the house. the water inside and outside the house was forcing the door to get stucked. i screamed my lung out for help, and i gave brix to my mother. i did not stop screaming until i saw 3 men went inside the gate and kicked the main door really hard. my mother immediately went out with brix and went with the man who lived at the front of our house. their house had second floor. marlowe and i went back inside to get our bags and documents. then i remembered our celfone a little late cos it already fell. my instant reaction was to save it, at least my sim-so i sank myself down the flood to look for the celfone. found it. and hear hadji, our neighbor say “oh”. he was shocked i think. i wasn’t. it was reflex.
so marlowe, hadji and i went up our roof using our wooden stairs. my father was the last to come up. then we checked the other our mother and brix on the other house. at that time we were all soaking wet.
around 2 pm, our neighbors who had 2nd floor were contacting their relatives. i texted my sister using their cp and told her not to come home and to call 117. i went back to the roof of our house and drank the rain. out of curiosity, i wanted to know if i’d get my thirst relieved from the rain. and it did.
this is the shocking part — from our roof we could see people coming from the right side. i only looked once, and it didn’t leave my mind since then. nakaupo sa roof na inaanod sa ilog yung nanay at yung mga anak nya.
around 4pm our neighbor next door and us decided to go up on the roof of their 2nd floor because flood’s coming in their 2nd floor as well.. i did not know exactly how many of us were there but i know we had a pregnant girl with us, a cat and 5 dogs. we were at least with eight kids. 3 families were there on the roof from that time until 6 am in the morning. we only had rice, sugar and salt as food. now we know what it’s like to make “dildil the asin”. yeah like so grabehhh.. kidding. it tasted so good.. not kidding.
no one at that time can make sudden movements because the roof wasn’t that strong. so we just sat / laid there, feeling almost frozen all night. i was chilling i think every five minutes until my head and jaws hurt so bad from too much “panginginig”. and i was lying down with 2 dogs beside me, only to find out they were galisin. hahahahaha.
i think the flood started to subside at around 4am. my brother and father went down around 5 am. at that time my eldest brother came–he walked from cubao to our house. all night.
i only came down to go look for food. and as expected, looking for food is a dilemma. from day 2 onwards.
DAY 02 Sunday
i only went to jocson (outside our so-called subdivision) but got no food. i only got to buy softdrinks which were the only ones available. when i went back to the house my 2 brothers and fasha were taking out the mud from inside the house. the mud’s ankle high inside, and it’s almost knee-high outside.
at that time i also saw my mother and my nephew. i told them i couldn’t get food so i asked marlowe to come with me to bayan (marikina market). we walked at the side of the river.
there were more than ten cars parked - no, not parked - slammed - that we saw along the way. imagine our clothes got dried from the sun with mud almost all over our clothes. i even smelled like an askal from hugging that puppy almost all night. naawa kasi ako, no one wanted to hold him.
so we went to bayan and saw the whole establishment was closed. they got flooded as well. we walked some more til we got to blue wave and still it was closed. the mall got flooded as well. we had no choice but to go to sta. lucia with our get up (fabulous!). we sat for a while because my knees were shaking. we were so tired but we couldn’t rest for a long time.
we rode a jeepney to sta. lucia, and it was also closed. but we found an open carinderia.
we ate there before we got home with the food. pahirap din ang pag-uwi, there were no jeepneys. we got lucky a truck passed by so we rode at the back.. it brought us back to blue wave. we walked back home. okay, this is how far blue wave is from our house — from makati med to kalayaan (maybe farther).
oh, i forgot, on our way home we saw my sister with 2 of my aunts, my sister-in-law and my cousin. they brought food and clothing and pillows. my ate kept on reminding me now na awang-awa sya nun una nya kaming makita 2.
my relatives went home around 5pm. my kuya, his wife and brix (their kid) went ahead as well.
this is what happened before it got dark: i looked for clean clothes to use after we’d take a bath. and i cleanded our wooden sofa (4-seater) and marlowe’s wooden bed (as big as the folding bed). we used it to rest. the sofa was for us 3 (we slept sitting down), while the folding bed was for my parents.
DAY 03 Monday
cleaned the house. mahirap pa ring maghanap ng ready food.
*this was the usual happening from day 3 onwards: we all wake up around 6 am. my mother would ask our neighbor to boil us clean water for coffee (charged 20 as well as when we’d cook rice). after breakfast 2 of us would look for food while the remaining 3 will clean the house, check out things worth cleaning/saving, and fetch water (until now we still have no electricity and running water). we eat lunch around 2 pm. by the way, tuwing hapon nakikita naming umuusok kamay namin, i wonder why. we stop working at 6 to fetch water for bath. then dinner. listen to radio (my ate had a portable radio for her AM updates) then we sleep at around 10 pm.
DAY 04 Tuesday
a private van brought food. finally help got to our street.
DAY 05 Wednesday onwards
cleaned the house. la salle volunteers got near our area. they brought food as well..
—o0o—
famous last words:
“kanya-kanya tayong injury sa paa.”
