luck of the irish

March 17, 2011 (Happy St. Patrick’s Day)

The back of this guy’s shirt said something along the lines about volunteering reducing stress. Maybe so, but what about all the stress it does cause? After all, I was somewhat stranded as I read his shirt.

This morning as I was waking up I got a text from C: LEYTE DIVISION CLASSES ARE SUSPENDED TODAY DUE TO HEAVY RAIN…(she doesn’t really text like that, it was a forward). So I texted Ma’am to make sure this was me too. Then lazily went back to bed. It wasn’t raining then, and when I finally did start moving about it still wasn’t raining. I had some Peace Corps errands and other things I wanted to do, and I figured I’d head east and get them out of the way. So I went to get on a Jeepney hoping things would work out. There was one and I climbed on in. As I sat there I saw jeeps zooming by the other way so I figured that flooding wasn’t affecting travel. We get moving and the conductor makes an announcement, I couldn’t understand much (I swear my language progression would be better if Filipinos didn’t feel the need to all talk at once). The only words I picked out were diretso (straight), Santa Fe, airport, tubig (water). No one on the Jeepney was upset or got off so I thought it weird but stayed on (the jeeps never go near the airport). Half way to the Santa Fe I noticed they were saying Santa Fe la. Apparently they were only going to Santa Fe.

I paid up, got out when everyone else did and followed everybody through town. Santa Fe la indeed. The road was washed out. So there I stood amongst many other stranded passengers. It started to sprinkle and I pulled out my umbrella. These three girls came and gathered around my umbrella. One was a nurse, the others were students wanting to work on some research papers. We talked and watched, and knew nothing of what was going on. A giant Region 8 Disaster Risk and Relief Truck came through, they shouted at the workers, the workers shouted back and then they left. I watched around for a while, and then headed back to find a jeep or something. A giant Coca Cola truck hollered at me stating they loved me and wanted to know if I wanted a ride. I ignored them and walked on.

I waited in front of the school, read that guys shirt, chuckled to myself and waited for anything to happen. A huge bus came through from Alang Alang. The nice Filipinos tried to get me a seat, but at this point I was only going to Tacloban if I could guarantee a ride back. Then a random Campetic Jeepney came by (Campetic is in between Palo and Tacloban, I take those jeeps from the mall to catch Alang Alang Jeepneys home) people filled in, I asked if they were going all the way to Alang Alang and went on home.

To nothing. I ran across the street in the rain and got an egg (I love that I can buy one egg, I love even more I can buy it from the electric parts store) and had a dance party while I made myself some lunch. I’ve read most of a brand new book. Listened to some Podcasts. Taken a nap. Danced some more (it reduces stress you know).  It hasn’t stopped raining since I got here.

Erin Go Braugh, I guess.

 It rained all night, it is raining now. I texted about school. My teacher said there is class but no students so stay home. Texted around, and travel is back on course. Which is good, I didn’t like that feeling of not being able to get out if I needed to. What a crazy week. I came in to town to get things done and also because of curiousity. I wanted to see what it looked like beyond Sta. Fe. C said they had waist high water. Along the road there was still a lot of sitting water. In one part of my trip where the road is a good 20 or 30 feet above the barios it was lined with furniture and appliances, as well as pigs tied up to the side of the road. I'm very lucky. Alang Alang got just as much rain but seemed to be able to handle the water better. Other places not so much.