How did you spend your Christmas? [An Update on the Super Typhoon Odette Donation Drive]

I was shocked when I arrived in the office a day after I published my last post. I'm overwhelmed up until this point. My last post's reward is now valued at $681 or roughly ₱ 17,000 (Author Reward). At first, it wasn't meant to be a donation drive post, I just want to share my experience of the super typhoon but seeing how you guys poured in love and support and knowing that there weren't much damage in our house (as mentioned in my last post as well), I decided to make use of the rewards to buy ready-to-eat food mostly canned goods for the affected families in Brgy. Tal-ut and Brgy. Valencia, both are mountain Barangays in Carcar City.

Be the person with the bigger heart

If there's something this state of calamity has taught me, that's to be grateful and kind, to share what you have if you have anything to share, no matter how small. My family, my sister to be more specific, wasn't immune to the wrath of the super typhoon. In fact, their newly built house, yes, newly built house in Valencia looked like a mess when we visited it. Imagine spending more than half a million (based on my rough calculations) gone in less than a day. They haven't even spent three months in their new house; it's not even 100% done yet. Imagine how heartbreaking that is, the idea of starting from scratch all over again. 😩

_{This is my older sister's house in Valencia, Carcar City. 💔}

But we chose to share and think of those who are in worse situations than us. My sister works as a freelancer and his husband in a local company in Cebu. Although it might take a few months to rebuild their house, they will soon have funds to do all the necessary reconstruction. I have a day job that's way supportive all throughout this recovery process. I'll talk about how my company helped me some other time.

The spirit of giving on Christmas

I woke up early on December 25, 2021. Main roads are cleared now so I went for a 5km morning jog. Before lunch time, my sister, brother-in-law, the kids and I went to a nearby supermarket to buy the goods for donation in the mountains. I used my personal funds in buying since there's urgency in giving out the food donations - without food people will starve. Government has ben responding relatively slow and without private institutions and individuals going the extra mile, people will go without food for days.

_{We had to line up before we could enter supermarket. Good thing it only took us less than five (5) minutes to line up.}

When Cagayan Valley and Tuguegarao were hit by a strong typhoon in 2019 which led to a massive landslide and flashfloods, I was able to raise more than ₱ 100,000 ($2,000) to buy canned goods which were repacked and distributed by a friend of friend in the area.

This time tho, I really told myself to start a donation drive but the signal has been intermittent or worse, no signal at all. I told myself I should reach to my friends outside of the affected areas, friends in Davao, Cagayan de Oro and Manila. The problem is I'm mostly at home (in Carcar) and as of this writing their is intermittent signal, no electricity there. I only get to have electricity and strong signal when I'm in the office (which is 42km away from home). Anyway, I'll be reaching out to those friends once I'm permanently back in the city after the holidays.

_{So grateful there were still canned goods I could buy in the nearest supermarket.}

Going back to the supermarket. I was constrained with my available cash. The days after the typhoon when electricity was nowhere to be found anywhere in Metro Cebu, I know people who lined up in ATMs at least half day (that's 4-5 hours) just to get cash. Luckily our office's headquarters is adjacent to a bank and we lined up for only two hours just to secure cash. Our payroll tried their best to give cash for our pay last week just so we wouldn't line up again. I reached out to my teammates who need cash so I can let them borrow while making withdrawals were burdensome. And the net of what was borrowed and what I used for personal needs was the money I used to buy the goods for donations. I don't carry a lot of cash with me.

_{Lines in the cashier weren't too long so we finished buying before lunch.}

Repacking with a little help from the kids

We went home and immediately packed all what we were able to buy. Thankfully the supermarket doesn't put a limit to the number of canned goods I can buy. Other supermarkets put a ceiling to make sure people won't hoard essential goods and products.

My 9-yr old nephew and 6-yr old niece were too eager to help in repacking the goods. I think good parenting really pays off. My sister is very keen in making sure these two grow up supported and love in all ways possible. I have to say that it's really showing even at a young age.

I was able to procure 100 cans of beef loaf, 100 cans of sardines and 50 packs of noodles. For the noodles, the shelves were almost empty, just glad there were still few packs left for me to buy. Hoping they'll restock soon so I can buy more.

With your donations, I was initially able to provide 50 food packs to almost 45 families. There were families composed of 7-8 kids and 1 relief pack wouldn't be enough so I had to give them 2 packs. I know it wouldn't last them a week but at least, they wouldn't be hungry on Christmas Day.

Time to distribute

We went up to Bryg. Tal-ut and Brgy. Valencia at roughly 3:30 in the afternoon to start distributing the goods. It was my first time taking the route after the Super Typhoon Odette. So everything I saw was new and shocking to me.

Here are some photos I took of the most miserable situations after Odette passed by our hometown:

During the distribution, since we only had 50 packs. I know it wouldn't be enough if we give to everyone. So I had to assess the situation and gave only to those who couldn't afford. We had to go house to house without being too obvious while we were distributing. Our relief goods must reach to those who were awfully hit by the typhoon. That's the main goal.

_{The kids were with us to help in distributing the goods.}

Leila and Joaquin were with us. The two helped distributing the goods. At some point, Joaquin even complained that the bag I asked him to carry was too heavy but he continued helping anyway. 😅

We were on the last part of our distribution when we saw this house wrecked in ways totally devastating to anyone's heart. It ain't accessible by four wheels so we had to walk a few meters to reach it.

_{My sister navigating the way to the ruined house}

This is the house, if you can still call it a house. There were a couple of houses in this particular area and most of them (except the cemented ones) look like the photo below. 😣😭😩

The brightest Christmas

We may have spent Christmas without electricity, without cellular signal/receptions but kindness, especially the spirit of Bayanihan which refers to a spirit of communal unity and cooperation shined bright amidst these dark times.

I will give another update for the 2nd wave of my relief ops to another mountain barangay in Carcar City.

_{Some of those who we were able to receive the food packs last Christmas}

If you think you are financially capable to give, please give. If not, please extend help in any way possible. If you have excess water, please offer water to your neighbors; if you have generator, please let your neighbors and friends charge important gadgets.

I still have a lot of rewards to spend on buying food, I hope our local grocery will soon allow usage of debit card. I don't really mind using my own money for the meantime or maybe now that I'm in the city just for today, I'll try to line up later since I'm also running out of cash.

Thank you everyone for helping me in this endeavor to ameliorate the effects of Super Typhoon Odette. Although I couldn't perfectly describe how the recipients of the donations felt when they received the donations, I know they're happy and felt at ease knowing they have food to eat that Christmas Day. From the bottom of our hearts, thank you everyone!

I'll keep you posted for Wave 2. Keep safe and have a wonderful New Year's Celebration in advance! 🥰😊

P.S. Any tip, upvote and reblog of this post is greatly appreciated. Your help will surely reach those who are in dire need of it. Thank you! 🥰