Next to Normal

Today marks 2 months and 5 days since the Bohol earthquake and 40 days since Typhoon Yolanda.

We’ve been in the Philippines near a month (just renewed our Visas for another month) and I haven't blogged but once. And for all the shame and “should’s” my mind has tried to press on me, I forgive myself. There is much to talk about, like the immediate culture shock of leaving India and coming to this beautiful, calm island nation, about IDEA, the wonderful organization I feel blessed to be supporting, about working with the deaf community, about the normal exhaustion and overwhelming emotional response of disaster relief work, and there’s more. But I think I’d like to talk about normalcy. After 3 disasters in the last 3 months, the Filipino people just want to return to normal. They want to go back to work, back to school, to be able to live in a house with walls, a roof, electricity and running water. They want to be able to provide for their families and to know where their next meal is coming from. And I believe they will fight and work incredibly hard to make that a reality.

The beauty of the organization we’re supporting is that they are a Filipino organization. They know which of their families live in disaster affected areas – both earthquake and typhoon - and need help. They know how best to find and distribute that help. They employ and educate hundreds of people, both deaf and hearing who live and breathe inside the Bohol and Leyte culture every day. And they know what kind of houses people want to live in so they don’t need to spend weeks or months researching the local culture to build a house model that fits here. And for those reasons, they are the only organization who has begun to build permanent housing. I can tell you that people are pretty tired of living in tents. It’s hot in the Philippines and much hotter under a big heavy tarp or in a “Shelter Box” tent. Of course, people are grateful to have those emergency relief supplies to take shelter from the daily tropical rains and hungry mosquitos, but they are just ready to return to normal. Those families who have the means on Bohol have already started or even finished rebuilding the damaged parts of their houses. But many don’t have that option. In Leyte, too, those who can have gone to the neighboring island of Cebu to get building materials and roofing sheets to fix their homes or had family members who can afford it do the same. I would say that’s a pretty small percentage, though.

The government is also trying to return to normal. When we left for Ormoc City on December 1st, one of the cities hard hit by Tyhpoon Yolanda, little did we know that students and teachers on Leyte were being called back to school the next day. It was 3 weeks after the typhoon, which seems like a lot of school to miss, but most schools weren’t in a state to be occupied. We arrived at the North Central Ormoc High School and the Special Education Hearing Impaired dormitory and were greeted by the Australian navy who had been cutting trees and clearing debris with heavy machinery for the past few days. The roofs on most buildings were damaged and one building nearby our center had the whole 2^nd floor collapse. Students and teachers were sitting in the foyer of the building trying, I presume, to have class. I am surely amazed at the teachers who made it work, as many classes were resumed and I witnessed students sitting in desks and teachers lecturing from blackboards.

So, how long do you sit in shock when everything has been ripped from you? When you have no routine, no safety, no security, no electricity or running water, no comforts. I would imagine that you do everything in your power to scrape together what you can and plug on. Filipinos have indomitable spirits, that’s for sure. I got to talk and play with 25 of the deaf students who did return to school that first week in Ormoc and they just wanted to play, to talk, to cook meals, to have their lives seem normal again. The biggest challenge in that is that, not only did people lose their homes, many lost their livelihoods. In the last 2 weeks relief organizations were racing to bring rice seeds to farmers who might be able to replant before the end of the month, the deadline for a spring harvest. Coconut trees have been demolished and, while people will make a little money selling the downed lumber, so much of this culture and economy is based around the coconut tree, coconut oil, and coconut products.

I’ve been trying to help wherever I can over the past month which has meant a lot of time in the IDEA office as family assessments and house surveys are collected, work orders are made for new houses and home repairs, and fundraising continues to sustain this housing project into 2014. There are also volunteer packets to make and trips to coordinate, meetings to attend, etc, etc. On Tuesday of this week I, along with several IDEA employees and volunteers, attended an all-day training for building sustainable, economical, and safe permanent housing which also emphasized training local engineers, gov’t officials, schools, homeowners and carpenters how to do the same.  Yesterday I spent the day in meetings for the “WASH” cluster, a group of organizations which work rebuilding water and sanitation needs. I’m trying to coordinate the installation of new bathrooms (called “comfort rooms” in Filipino, love that term) or rebuilding of broken facilities and septic systems this week.

I’ve also been assisting Rhonda Hillabush, a full-time volunteer from the US who, with her husband, decided to move to Bohol a year ago to support IDEA. They are our liaisons here and are helping us to better understand the culture and how to step on as few toes as possible while still getting some work done. Apparently, Circus and I have upset a number of people in the past month, but Filipinos don’t believe in direct confrontation or even feedback so no one told us until 2 days ago. Honestly, this is the most difficult culture I’ve tried to adapt to because everyone is nice and agreeable to your face, even if they are seething with hatred towards you inside. And they tell everyone except you. This form of non-communication goes against everything I believe in, but it is not culturally appropriate to tell anyone that or to try to get people to directly communicate with you. I’m thankful we have Rhonda and Brian who will tell us whatever they intercept so we can try to make amends for the things we do that we have no idea upset other people. One helpful tip we just learned, people love to receive food gifts. We will take full advantage of this in the coming weeks.

I’ll be honest, I am not an office person. I get pretty bored sitting in an office all day and need to remind myself to take frequent breaks to walk, stretch, snack, and drink water. I feel my calling to help really is in working with people directly to teach relaxation techniques and various forms of yoga for trauma relief and restoring balance. When I was in Ormoc and got to play games and teach the students (ages 10-28) in the afternoons, that was the experience where I felt I made the most impact so far. So as we figure out where we can best serve over the holidays, I will manifest the opportunity to have more of those experiences and work with people on their emotional and psychological needs. The language barrier – both Visayan and Filipino Sign Language – is a barrier, but I think I can pick enough FSL to teach a yoga class quickly. I was communicating moderately with the students in Ormoc and they were excited to teach me sign. One of my first projects here was to facilitate the Bohol Deaf Academy high school students to make Christmas Cards for their American donor and sponsors. While I felt a bit like a drill sergeant directing 77 student to make over 300 cards in a day, it was sure fun to be around high school kids – and positive, enthusiastic, hardworking, focused high school kids at that – and to be creative and artistic with them.

And, of course, there's Christmas. It's nice to be in a place where you can say "Merry Christmas!" to people without offending them. And interesting to be in a place where Christmas is the only December holiday that is celebrated. Decorations and Christmas music can be found in the malls and touristy spots and gift giving, especially to children, has become a part of the Christmas tradition. I even got to help bake a few hundred Christmas cookies with Rhonda for last weekend's  IDEA Christmas Party with Scotti, another American volunteer, and Reese, a radiant 5 year old. Another way to return to normalcy was for IDEA to offer a great Christmas party full of games, music, balloons (crafted by Circus) and even a visit from Santa and gifts for the kids. We'll probably have a small Christmas BBQ with Rhonda, Brian, Scotti & Josh, Scotti's boyfriend who lives in our cottage with us. Oh, and massages.

May your Solstice be full of newly emerging light, your Christmas a relaxing celebrating with family and friends, and your own traditions bring you comfort and joy.