On the Ground with Jim Cook: Images and Observations from the Philippines

Part Two

After witnessing the terrible impact of Typhoon Durian, it was a most pleasant diversion to stop and meet my 6-year-old sponsored child, Jonnalyn, and her mom here in Legaspi. She’s a charmer, and we had a nice chat, although my “strangeness” did make her understandably a bit shy. The staff had also made it possible for me to visit the sponsored child of a family friend in Kansas City. The friend was concerned about her child since the typhoon…as were many sponsors. After a brief visit with her and her mother, I was on my way.

The Chief of Programs for the Legaspi group, Angie, mentioned that the problem with Typhoon Durian was the amount of rain it brought. She had heard it dumped “half a year’s rainfall” in six hours. I looked up a year’s rainfall for this area: 133 inches. About 65 inches in six hours?

I’m not sure if that’s possible, but I do know that in 1998, over a few days, Hurricane Mitch dumped about 70 inches on Honduras, the only other place I’d seen anything like what I was seeing today. And it would take an incredible amount of water and speed to move the large boulders I was seeing…so, yeah, I think maybe I’ll buy that it was a half a year’s rainfall in six hours.

We then traveled to an area nearby called an “evacuation center.” This is where many of the sponsored families who lost their homes had been relocated on a temporary basis. There I saw many people living in tents, but more encouraging was what Children International’s contribution of approximately $200 of plywood, two-by-fours and corrugated sheet metal could do for a sponsored family and how that could become a surprisingly good shelter.

The other thing that surprised me was the spirit and positive attitude I saw in the people in this center. People whose lives had been changed forever in a nine-hour period.

One of the sponsorship program’s “volunteer coordinators” named Ambet showed us around. She is a delightful woman…so sweet and smiling…so typical of Filipinos. She, like so many people I met there, was effusive in thanking us for all we’d done. On the contrary, I thought, it was these people who had done so much…not the least of which was to once again humble me in the presence of such quiet strength.

Almost everyone we met had a dramatic story to tell. One couple had lost two children, ages 10 and 15. Once again, something I can’t even imagine. Angie also mentioned how, in the hours and days after the storm, it was so heartrending to see people staggering around with black eyes, bruises and lacerations inflicted by this killer storm.

Another young man named J.R. had suffered an injury that had left one leg in a permanently contracted position. Fortunately, he is scheduled for surgery, which our staff coordinated. That, I expect and hope, will be a happy ending, some painful physical therapy notwithstanding.

We then traveled a couple hundred yards to the site of where we hope to build 120 homes for those now living in the evacuation center. The local Governor had stated that the goal for permanent relocation should be the closest available safe site. Zaldy explained that Children International in Legaspi agrees with this goal—so he had identified some land nearby which the owner made available at a most favorable price.

Zaldy was excited because it has electricity, water and best of all, the people will not feel displaced…they will remain in their same neighborhood, surrounded by familiar places and people, able to continue jobs they had before the typhoon. Too often, we see people relocated to distant areas where they feel very alienated…causing them to return and become “squatters” in their previous location, preferring familiarity to comfort.

Here, they will enjoy both. Along with a new house, assuming we can find the money to build them.

After visiting a few other families, Zaldy handed us off to his counterpart in our Tabaco agency, Pio. Pio’s the new guy on the block as far as Filipino CI directors go, having “only” been with the program for three years. But he’s doing a great job, and once again underscores the value of injecting a fresh perspective and energy into a program.

Pio and a few staff took me to the newly completed community center outside of Tabaco. On my last visit in 2006, construction was underway but a long way from finished. It was inaugurated last September, only to have the first typhoon visit it a week later. Then Durian came calling in November and really did some damage to it.

But they’ve rebuilt where needed, in many ways better, and it looks great today. The children and their parents who were there when I visited spoke of how much they loved and appreciated the new center. It was beyond their dreams, they said.

Pio and crew also took us to visit some families whose houses were damaged or destroyed in the typhoon. Again, I was impressed with what they were able to construct with $200 and “sweat equity,” as they call the work provided by the families themselves. I say $200 – but when I asked Pio to confirm that they spent an average of about $200 on materials for what I was seeing, he corrected me by saying they only spent an average of $192! Okay, I was being recklessly imprecise. We have emphasized accountability so much over the last 20 years, I should not be surprised at such a response.

We then saw two “multi-purpose centers” that had been built since the typhoon. Unlike the larger community centers, these small centers serve fewer children and are much more modest.

But don’t tell that to the volunteer mothers who are running them! They couldn’t be prouder of these simple but effective delivery centers. Here, doctors and dentists can visit and perform their exams and children can be fed while others write letters to sponsors. Also, gift distributions such as Special Hug and Christmas gifts are delivered at these centers.

It was great meeting those moms, even though they invariably offered some of their “local flavor” dishes for a snack. Little wonder I wasn’t needing supper after the visits of the afternoon—nothing like leaf-wrapped rice or fried banana to spoil an appetite!

Adjacent to the last center was a school in which 80 percent of the children are sponsored. I met with the principal, who first thanked me for our past support and then appealed for chemistry and biology textbooks. I promised to see what I could do and am confident I (WE!) can do something to meet that need.

As it was late in the afternoon, the children had been dismissed from school but most were still playing and socializing on the large playground. Someone suggested a picture, and one of the volunteer leaders shouted across the playground for all the sponsored children to come get in the picture. I knew terror at that moment I saw myself being stampeded by hundreds of well-meaning students! I urged Juvy, the photographer, to shoot quickly and she did. Crisis averted.


After a few good-byes, we headed back to Legaspi. On the way home, we were near Mount Mayon and the many streams that drain its slopes. It is a beautiful sight from about any perspective, but I concluded, after what I seen on this day, that it is a natural beauty best viewed and inhabited from afar…and those families who put their roots down too close to that beauty can pay a price as steep as the mountain herself.

For more photos of Jim's visit to the Philppines, check out his photo album and listen as Jim talks about his trip.

On the Ground with Jim Cook: Images and Observations from the Philippines

Part One

The Philippines. I’m back. It’s hard to believe that it’s been 21 years since my first visit (check out the photo below), to this nation comprised of over 7,000 islands. It’s also hard to imagine that I would make as many trips here as I have. I lost count a few years ago at 25.


I just arrived yesterday in Manila. I’m now at the airport again, about to make the quick (45 minute) trip to the Bicol region, where we sponsor nearly 40,000 children in and around the cities of Legaspi and Tabaco.

The Philippines, the country where we have the largest number of sponsored children, has always been a favorite visit destination of sponsors. The U.S. presence, with military bases here until a few years ago (Clark Air Force Base and Subic Bay Naval Base), kept the Philippines in the forefront of the U.S. consciousness. Also, I reflected that when I first visited, the prominent role the Philippines played in World War II was a far less distant memory than it probably is today.

One thing about the Philippines: it’s a long, long way from the United States. From where I live in Kansas City, it’s about 26 hours of travel, door to door. It’s kind of tiring.

But it’s worth it. The Philippines is a beautiful country, full of really nice people. Sadly, many of these really nice people are living in really awful poverty, and that’s where Children International and our sponsors come in. Sponsors have been making a huge difference in the lives of the children and the families we’re helping…and the communities…and in some cases, entire islands and villages.

I really look forward to flying to Legaspi. Our staff there is led by Dr. Zaldy Abainza. Zaldy’s tenure with the organization exceeds mine; I vividly remember meeting him on that first trip 21 years ago.

Another reason I look forward to Legaspi is to once again see Mount Mayon, one of the most beautiful (and still active) volcanoes. It is a near perfect cone, rising dramatically from sea level—from the sea itself, in fact!—to a height of over 8,600 feet.

The volcano’s benign beauty belies her somewhat capricious and unpredictable behavior…her eruptions can be deadly.

Legaspi and Tabaco are also known for being in “typhoon alley,” and this well-deserved reputation is seemingly reinforced annually. In fact, one of the primary reasons for my visit is to see damage from a series of typhoons about seven months ago. These typhoons, led by “Super Typhoon” Durian (a super typhoon has winds in excess of 150 miles per hour), scoured much of the Legaspi area and, to a slightly lesser extent, Tabaco.

In its scouring, it obliterated or damaged the homes of many sponsored families. Now, Children International is not an emergency relief organization. We help children, each of whom has a special and distinct sponsor, day in and day out in a way that makes living in poverty a bit less difficult and much more hopeful.

That being said, as one member of the Board of Directors said at a meeting shortly after the typhoons: “These are our people who lost their homes; we have to do something!” I recall heads nodding around the room as the Board designated $1.5 million from our Endowment Fund to provide immediate emergency assistance to the many sponsored families who found themselves with nothing.

In addition, we received some excellent corporate donations, notably from the Fresh Produce clothing and CrocsTM shoes companies, which we were able to ship expediently to those in need.

Many concerned sponsors also sent additional contributions for special purchases that also went a long way toward making recovery faster for so many that were hurting.

So…that’s one big reason I’m here. I want to see for myself the typhoon destruction and what we’re doing to address it.

I landed in Legaspi and met with Zaldy and Pio Salvador, the director of the Tabaco agency. Pio made Children International history with his cell phone and text messaging in the aftermath of the storm!

My plane landed in the middle of a torrential downpour—it was interesting crossing the tarmac with the airline-issued umbrella doing its best to keep me dry…in vain, unfortunately. But Zaldy and Pio felt like I brought the rain and I was dubbed a hero for doing so, as it was sorely needed in the rice paddies in this heavily agriculture-dependent region!

After reviewing the plan for my visit, I ducked out of the rain and into the hotel, eager to get going in the morning.

***

My first full day in the Bicol area began with a glance out the hotel window to check on Mount Mayon…and it was beautiful to behold. The plume of smoke it was emitting and the rings of clouds adorning it were rose-colored in the early morning light. I snapped a picture that I hope turns out.


After a quick breakfast in the hotel, I met up with Zaldy and some staff and we headed over to the Children International office. The office is in one of our new community centers and it is good space, much improved from the cramped quarters of years prior. The center had just been opened when the typhoon of last fall hit, testing some of the construction. It held up remarkably well, but the roof was damaged and has since been repaired.

We traveled a short distance to see where the river channel from the lahar flow (lahar being the mud and sand and rock from previous volcano eruptions) devoured everything in its path. Everything included a lot of houses, only apparent now by seeing the tops of them, the rest having been filled in by the simply unimaginable amount of “stuff” that came roaring down the mountain on the tragic day back in November.

Besides the enormous quantity of the volcanic black sand and gravel, I was taken with the number and size of boulders that were also carried down the mountain – some as big as Volkswagens.

I talked to an enterprising young man at the scene who was selling postcards of various past eruptions of Mayon and the recent typhoon aftermath. He mentioned that he had been living nearby and lost his mother and a sister. A story I would hear too much on this day.

As we looked up the now-wide volcanic, black sand and gravel river channel, Zaldy pointed out a house. Only the top floor of what was a two-story house could be seen. He said that below that house, after the typhoon, a person’s moaning could be heard for a week. Rescuers dug frantically trying to get to the sound.

At this point in Zaldy’s story I was really hoping for a happy ending…I didn’t get it. They never found the person, who became another of the 600 victims who were buried by the lahar racing down the mountain and were just never heard from again.

Looking at it all, I tried to imagine the sheer terror and horror one would have experienced while witnessing it. My imagination isn’t that good…or bad. But it had to be the most violent, noisy, world-twisting, hell-on-earth that any of the survivors and the ones who died, had ever seen.

That’s all I have time for now. In my next post I’ll talk more about Durian and the way it has affected our sponsored families.

For more photos of Jim's visit to the Philppines, check out his photo album and listen as Jim talks about his trip.

Perseverance

The Aycocho family is one of over 8,000 Filipino families with sponsored children who received aid totaling $4.1 million after Typhoon Durian destroyed communities in Legazpi and Tabaco late last year.

Watch as the Aycochos rebuild their home and their lives.