Typhoon Ondoy/Tropical Storm Ketsana

I've been pondering this post for a few days now. I was in the Philippines this past weekend when the typhoon came through. I don't know how to express this in a way that will help you understand and help me process...

I knew going to the Philippines that this is their rainy season so I took my rain jacket with me when I left on my trip last week. Little did I know just how useful the rain jacket would be and yet not really enough. At breakfast on Friday morning it was mentioned that there was a typhoon off the coast... by Friday night there seemed to be a pretty steady rain coming down. Saturday morning was our much anticipated project visit. It had rained all night and was still raining as we boarded the bus. The rain was a steady down poor as we made our way to the Compassion Philippines office to pick up some field staff going with us.

We arrived at the project and I could see that some sections of the road we were on were completely under water (kids were using the street as a swimming hole. The first thing we did when we arrived at the project was to go on home visits. We split up and due to the rain it was determined we'd take the motorcycles with side cars. Pretty exciting actually. On some of the roads the water was coming up into our side car because it was so deep. Our home was the closer one but it still took us 15 minutes to drive to the visit (I'll talk about in a different post). As we traveled back to the project we ended up taking a longer route on some of the major (6 lane) roads as some of the streets we'd taken earlier were now too flooded to drive through. We returned to he project soaked and found out the other home visit group had actually seen a house collapse. This is about the time I realized the typhoon and rain and flooding were serious.

We had lunch at the project and then it was time to head back. Most of the field staff did not get back on the bus with us as it was discovered the roads back to the office were already flooded and our bus would not make it there. As we traveled back to the hotel I saw people walking with bags of stuff who had evacuated and were trying to get to emergancy shelter. I saw abandoned cars, flooded roads (people wading through waste deep water) and waves in the water as we'd drive through. The rain had not let up yet and I didn't know how long it would continue or how much more this city could take. It continued to set in just how serious this was.

Back at the hotel I turned on the TV to see footage of just how the water was affecting people. The news station was showing live footage of people being rescued from the roofs of their homes and lots of footage of people wading through water who had evacuated and now needed to find a place to go. Some of the field staff was stranded at our hotel and I'm glad I had a chance to help them. I wasn't sure we'd make it to the airport in the morning and if we did, if our flight would still be running.

In th morning as we drove to the airport we could still see pools of water but we could also see how he rushing water had tipped over large cement road blocks and we saw 100s of people (4:30 a.m.) that our van driver told us had been stranded and likekly spent the night on the street.

I'm glad I was in the Philippines when this happened. Far too often I don't really understand what's happening through out the world and unfortunatley sometimes I don't take the time to understand. Being back makes me wish I was still there and could somehow help, but instead I need to pray. Please pray for the Philippines staff who had to evacuate their homes and the children/church partners who may be affected. Pray the next storm that seems to be coming somehow avoids the Philippines altogether I don't have such great pictures but here's a couple.

No Laughing Matter

I'm not a pet person, at least not the kind you keep in doors (there are 3.4 dogs that I like and a couple cats depending on the day and their mood that day). Ironically, I house/pet sit a lot (I like the extra income and staying at someone else's house feels like a vacation). I tell people it is because of how responsible I am.

Well, this week I am dog sitting for a coworker whose on her honeymoon. I had never been to her house before and never seen her dogs but when she called me last week and asked I didn't hesitate a bit to say 'yes'. Monday when I got to her house the cat was super sweet and I knew straight away that he wouldn't be a problem. I dropped my load of stuff on the living room floor. I have yet to master a simple house sitting formula and bring way more than I need, including a bag of food that I usually end up bringing back home with me...completely in tact. I opened the garage door to my dogs for the week. I let them out of their kennels (more complicated than you think since one of them can escape his so his front door is pinned against the garage wall).

The dogs are much bigger than I had imagined. I'm a little scared. I don't show them my fear and rush them out to the backyard. Later that night I feed them, let them out a couple more times and decide it's time for them to go back in their kennels and go to sleep. They are not in agreement. The boy dog gets a little rough with me (in hines sight, he is probably just playing cause he's a puppy) I hold it together till I get them back into their kennels but once inside I freak out. I shed a few tears (cause sometimes that's what panic does to me) and then I pulled a truly brilliant move. I texted the happy couple to ask if someone else could take care of the pets (I was envisioning an entire week of me crying every night and not looking forward to it). Reminder this couple is on their honeymoon and after like 4 hours at their house I'm ready to give up. Long story short I did not give up, I brought in reinforcements.

My friend joined me the next night. She likes dogs and does really well with big dogs so I let her do her thing and wouldn't you know that night was 50 time better than the one before (and I didn't shed a tear). Wednesday night, very similarly to Tuesday night, my friend came over again and played with the dogs and let them jump on her and it was wonderful. She'd be back for several hours on Thursday afternoon too.

Thursday morning started very normal. Alarm rings. Roll out of bed. Drowsily navigate my way to the garage. Let dogs out to backyard. Gather water dishes for fresh water. Grab door handle from garage to house...panic. Door handle doesn't move. Door is locked. I am standing in the garage in my PJs at 6:30 a.m. (luckily I put some flip flops on) and I am locked out of the house (all other doors and windows are locked). Don't panic, maybe their is a key hidden in the garage. Didn't find one. Maybe I can pick the lock. Not so much. Half hour passes and I decide I'm going to have to befriend a neighbor and call a locksmith.

I could give you all the hairy details with a play by play of how many times I cried and all that loveliness but I'll just give you the hard facts. I befriended 2 neighbors (knocked on 4 doors though), called two locksmiths, went through 1/4 a bag of dog treats trying to distract the dogs while I tried backyard doors and windows and spent 4 hours in the garage in my PJs.

It turns out my helpful, doggie loving friend locked the garage door handle out of habit. I take responsibility for not checking that door and have learned a big lesson from this. When I am dog sitting my morning routine needs to start with going to the bathroom and gathering my cell phone (just in case it is several hours before I come back into the house from letting the dogs out).

I'm also going to stop telling people I'm a good pet sitter because I'm responsible...