Saturday morning… the rain typhoon Ondoy (international code name Ketsana) brought was relentless but it didn’t sound unlike any other storm. Rain on the roof, no thunder, no lightning. Only the sound of our cat, making a huge racket, running back and forth at the back of the house, howling and caterwauling. I idly heard my mom tell my dad to check on the cat. The last time it did that, flood water had risen to fill its water bowl. My dad went to the kitchen, and stepped on ankle-deep water. In a deadpanned voice, he said, “Ma, baha nga.”

That brought the rest of us on our feet. I hurried to the kitchen and helped haul up chairs, and my brother who was dressed to go meet his girlfriend (who lives in Marikina) at the mall, stared in disbelief as the water steadily rose.

At first, it was a mild annoyance. Tsk. Baha. We started hauling pails of water from the kitchen in the hopes that it won’t rise and reach the other rooms. We live in a bungalow for crying out loud, so flood water in the kitchen threatens the rest of the house.

Then, water started coming out of the drain in the bathroom, and that was when we thought, heck, why bail water out? Let’s just let it flow from the drains out to the garage since it looked like our house was built on a slope. So we wiped, swept, bailed and waited for the water to lower while our things were all lifted on top of tables and chairs and beds, and we were annoyed but laughing, telling each other that God only gives people challenges that He knew they could handle.

When the water finally stopped flowing and we started drying our floors, my dad switched the radio on and that was when it hit us that our “challenge” was nothing against what was happening to the rest of Pasig and Cainta.

Our subdivision rests right smack in the middle of the two. Our mayor is Mon Ilagan, but we’re nearer the center of Pasig than we are Cainta so I always thought of myself as a Pasiguena. I was born and raised there. So when you hear news that the places we need to pass to get anywhere and everywhere from our place was flooded with seven feet plus of flood water, it hits. Hard.

We were suddenly in a flurry of text messages. I sent several messages from my friends from a phone that was dangerously close to losing battery charge. Two of my closest friends, Allan and X, live in Marikina, and I received messages from them that they were at the house’s second floor because the first floor was flooded up to the neck. I told them to go to an evacuation center as soon as they can. The rain didn’t look like it was going to stop soon. My other friends checked in. Kat was cozy in her third floor unit but the streets outside was flooded and her dad was stranded. Chie was also at their house’s second floor. My other friends haven’t replied which multiplied my worry. Then, Allan texted me to say that he and X’s family had already been evacuated and was in a school. Then, the power went out.

We didn’t have electricity for 24+ hours, and food was running dangerously low (especially since my brother was a bottomless pit), but Sunday morning, my mom went out to the store and bought canned goods and noodles. The streets at the ends of ours are ankle-deep in flood water, and, according to adventurous neighbors, the streets near our subdivision’s gates are hip-deep. Our neighbor switched on his car radio and we listened to the extent of damage to Pasig, Cainta and Marikina.

When I think about how we were complaining about something as mundane as ankle-deep flood water, I realize how shallow it was. I had body ache and a few hours of inconvenience when other people lost everything they ever owned.

Then I heard Kuya Kim on the TV that there’s another storm that will enter the Philippine Area of Responsibility two to four days from now.

Pero sabi nga ni Jim Paredes: “The Filipino is a 4wheel drive–slow on the highway but resilient through rough roads, floods. We will overcome.”

Bring the rain.

Please click on this link to see how you can help the victims of Ondoy.

EDIT: Just found out that you can also donate to the Philippine National Red Cross via PayPal through Txtpower.org. Click here for the article.