Philippines Amidst Calamity

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Hey guys, we all know our country Philippines was so much devastated by Bagyong Ondoy (Tropical Storm Ketsana) which took place last Saturday, September 26, 2009. The storm which all people thought as just another ordinary one turned out to be massive and deadly. Clearly most of the victims were unprepared for its coming. Water level reached up to two storeys high.

I was so blessed to live in a place where we don't experience the same calamities that other places in the Philippines does. As of the latest toll there were 240 people who died, many more were still missing while nearly 380,000 people have sought shelter in relief centers. Watching the news on the television broke my heart knowing that so many children in their young lives have unfortunately gone through this kind of horror.

Amidst this catastrophe, we as Filipinos proved that we really have the heart to give and offer help to our Kababayans in any we can. It’s just so sad to know that private sectors seem to be more responsive in giving the victims relief assistance than our government itself. There are some people who even took advantage of this despicable situation. Bagyong Ondoy showed us that a calamity doesn’t choose to affect common people only but even the affluent ones.

God bless those people who have done heroic acts to save lives of other people despite the danger they were facing and knowing the possibilities that doing such thing may also cause their end. Those people who died during rescue operations must be given honor for their bravery. In times like this, true friends are there to help us.

What could have been done to eliminate so much damage on the affected Greater Manila areas? Is this a sign of "Global Warming"? Another Storm (Tropical Storm Parma) was said to hit the Philippines about 800 miles (1,280 kilometers) southeast of the Philippines late Tuesday. Let be Bagyong Ondoy be a thing of the past and let it not happen again. Let's all pray for the safety of our family, our friends and all our people.

Hannah Montana Fanatic

It's kind of embarrassing to admit that at my age, I'm so hooked with "Hannah Montana" LOL. It started with just a glance of some episodes while my kids are watching it on Disney Channel. I haven't really focused before not until I manage to watch a full episode. It’s really funny plus the fact that at the end of every episode there’s a lesson to be learned.

The series focuses on a girl who lives a double life as an average teenage school girl named Miley Stewart (played by Miley Cyrus) by day and a famous pop singer named Hannah Montana by night, concealing her real identity from the public, other than her close friends and family.

I’ve seen most of the episodes from Seasons 1-3. My children specially my 9 year old son almost memorize the scripts of every character in the TV series and my 3 year old daughter is starting to memorize it too. I bought a DVD of Hannah Montana which is played everyday over and over again.

At first, I was only following the series, but now, I’m also following even the updates of their real lives specially Miley Cyrus and Emily Osment. I have learned that Miley and Nick of Jonas Bros where once lovers but broke up on 2007 December, Miley got a new boyfriend Justin Gaston who appeared on Taylor Swifts Music video of “Love Story”. Miley and Gaston Broke up after Nick and Miley’s reconnection that took place during the Kids Inauguration this 2009 and was humored to be back on each other’s arms when spotted jet skiing in Tybee Island, GA where Miley was shooting her latest movie.

See, I’m really into them hahaha…..I’m even following them on twitter LOL. Recently, I’ve been busy and got no time to read but hopefully I’ll be able to make it up on new gossips about them hahaha.

Kidney For A Living

Late last night while working on my assignment, I watched National Geographic Channel. The show was all about taboo and Philippines was one of the featured countries with such belief. Actually what was featured for me is not some kind of a taboo. It's more of survival. People tend to do anything to survive from poverty, from problems.

There's a place in the Philippines where most of the people sell their Kidneys to black market for them to earn money. Yeah that's true, I couldn't believe they actually did it. For sure, those people are helpless and could not find other ways to earn money. Some of them actually do have jobs but their wage is not enough to support their family.

Picture from CBSNews

Doctors said that taking the other kidney may cause some long term effects which are not beneficial for human. The operation itself is a painful one. It takes time to heal the wounds. After the operation most of them can't go back to their old jobs especially when it includes physical strength such as lifting heavy objects, so they need to find another job that is much lighter and easier to do. Selling their Kidney is just a temporary financial relief.

It was even mentioned that this act was even legalized by the government before and I thought that was so ridiculous. Currently the government banned the selling of kidneys after seeing the negative effects. The government must take care of this; they should create more bills that people would benefit in a long term. Instead of corrupting people’s money, they should rather give it to the poor. Anyway when we die we can't bring our money with us.

At Last- I did it!

I'm already drained after writing my very fist post "Reminiscing Nihon". That was just the first part and was thinking of sharing my second visit but I'll do it soon if I have much bigger time. I was just lucky to have a break from work with "Mr. Doug" today. He sent me an email and read it earlier that we'll have 2 days off. He's transferring to Tennessee from Florida. At least I'll have enough time to do my other assignments. Tomorrow's Saturday and I only have few more hours left to finish my weekly limit. Well I'm done here now I need to do my chores.

Reminiscing Nihon (Nagashima Spaland, Japan)

I remember the first time I went to Japan. It was like 5 years ago. I was amazed of how clean the streets are, no traffic, and shopping malls without security guards checking your bags all the time at the entrance. The sun sets at 7P.M and you can hear birds chirping outside your window. Leaving my Family back home in the Philippines was the saddest part of my life. You wanna go home but it's not like an hour drive and you're home again.

School kids walk their way to school in line with a leader and they are all wearing a yellow cap, this will make it easier for drivers passing by to see them. High school girls wear very short skirts just like Sailormoon, they look very cute in their school uniforms. They are allowed to ride bikes since bikes have a different lane intended for them so it's not dangerous at all. I even use a bike to wander around the city.

During Sundays when my brother-in-law is off from work and kids were off from school, we spend the day traveling to wonderful places and enjoying the whole day not forgetting to eat Yakiniku. I won't forget going to Nagashima Spa Land on winter time and had my first snow experience. The resort has all the jaw breaking rides not to mention the longest roller coster in Japan. I don't know if it still holds the record at this time.

Part of the resort is an Onsen where all of us were bathing nude. Kinda embarrassing for me since it was my first time. Of course men and women are separated. The whole resort is a wonderland. I just hope that we didn't go there on winter coz I'll die of hypothermia. We also visited other interesting places. I learned how to use chopsticks and speak Japanese language in a very short period I stayed in Japan. The one thing I refused to do was to eat sashimi, I tasted once but never really like it. Commodities in Japan seems to be very affordable as long as you have a job, you'll never die hungry. People of Japan are lucky enough to have a very nice country.