If you've watched some of the news lately, you'll have heard about a devastating landslide in a small town in the Philippines (for info, click here or here.)
Please pray for these townspeople, and also pray for miracles. I've had a lot friends who've called or asked about it and wondered about my family. I don't have any family on Leyte, but nonetheless, I know this catastrophe touches all Filipinos.
It's moments like this that I want to impart some insight into my Filipino culture that few realize. Disasters--especially natural ones-- are a part of... er, better yet, has formed Filipino culture and it's a cross we bear. Whether it be mudslides, typhoons, volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, flash floods, disease outbreaks, drought, terrorist bombings, or war, these are all part of life in the Philippines. In the States, we face a few hurricanes every year (last year, of course, is the exception), but for the Philippines, they face a dozen "Katrina" storms annually.
It doesn't mean we're callous or insensitive to the needs of disaster victims; in fact, it's quite the opposite. We're very compassionate and our empathy greater because we know... it could happen to us, and we know that it has happened to us. Despite our own struggles, we'll forage for that extra peso, a sack of rice, or bundle of food to provide to a friend or relative who's suffered tragedy.
In the lifetime of any Filipino, there will be great tragedy to endure, but there will be many more great things to celebrate. I see it through my own grandmother, my only surviving grandparent. She fled the brutality of the Japanese during World War II with young children in tow, struggled to feed them by washing clothes, mourned the loss of two husbands, several children, most of her siblings, many friends and some grandchildren, and has probably survived more typhoons, earthquakes, and floods than you or I have IQ points... combined! But, she has had many more reasons to celebrate... children who love and adore her, well-educated grandchildren who are better off today than she would've imagined, hectares of fertile, crop-producing land, prosperous business ventures, hundreds and hundreds (literally!) of godson and goddaughters, healing many of the sick through herbs and massage, and the honor and respect of her community.
Let's always hope for the best and pray the God of miracle's will be done!
