Contrasts

Every day, another restaurant opens up somewhere, the traffic normalizes a bit, almost all piles of garbage and debris have disappeared from our street, there is even city electricity every now and then and we can switch off the generator, people are talking about the fact that parts of the mall have reopened, teachers and children in the school tent are celebrating a Christmas party, and there is even a Christmas tree in front of the city hall, made from colored bottles collected from the debris, and the first emergency medical aid troops are able to leave again.

At the same time in Tanauan, people are living in tents and other emergency shelters, the whole city is still a devastated landscape, there are maybe three walls left standing of the school that used to be here and part of one collapses suddenly while we are visiting. 750 children used to be in school here before the storm surge triggered by the typhoon literally erased the neighborhood. Today there are around 200. One teacher tells us that seven have died, and one of her colleagues. As tragic as that sounds, you almost wish it was true, because in view of what you see around you, you can hardly believe that the other 543 all managed to escape alive and are today living with their families or relatives elsewhere.

Rawis Anibong still almost looks like two weeks ago when I was here for the first time. Besides the charging station for cellphones, now some small kiosks are selling basic goods, and dozens of truckloads of debris have been cleared, but still you are absolutely stunned every time you see the destruction and the huge ships that are now standing meters away from the shore and the people who have started to inhabit them. I catch myself thinking how life must be day and night on a tilted floor.

Four Directors of UNICEF’s National Committees are visiting, and when I see their overwhelmed reactions to what they see here for the first time with their own eyes, I only notice how much I probably have already gotten used to the apocalyptic impressions. These colleagues have already seen a lot in their lives, but even they wipe away the tears. “Where would you start?” they ask, and yet the people and the helpers from all over the world have already started five weeks ago…

And then you walk through the streets and people you have never seen before walk towards you, take your hand and just say „Thank You“, and the children in the child-friendly space tent laugh and sing and draw and write. A few days ago I discovered a couple that obviously saved a photo printer from the water and set it up on a table in front of their destroyed store. I print a few copies of photos I had taken a few days before and bring them to the children at the Astrodome evacuation center. The enthusiasm is fantastic, once they spot themselves on the photos. Almost surreal joy when you look behind them and see the surroundings they live in.

It is simply dramatic. And every time you get a little bit the feeling that the situation normalizes, the next best person tells you his or her story, and brings you back to the ground. This typhoon has not spared anyone. And those that lost their belongings are the lucky ones.