Michi Photostory

I'm thankful that we have a small solar battery charger that we can use to stay connected for several hours. My husband designed and assembled it five years ago. We can use it to connect our modem, small fan, and charge our phones. And because of this, he was able to work and my son and I can watch Netflix while waiting for the electricity. 

I'm thankful for leftover foods and easy to prepare dish because we had something to eat. It is hard to cook if there is no water supply. Good thing that I still have stock of disposable paper plates, spoons, and forks para wala ng hugasin. We already have a water drum so even we don’t have water supply we have something to use but of course, we are saving it because we don’t know when the electricity will resume. My husband also saved some water from the rain so we have something to use for the bathroom.

Six years ago, when typhoon Glenda badly hit our place, it took them 44 hours to restore our electricity. So we thought na matatagalan pa magkaelectricity so nung humina na hangin at ulan and paubos na ang battery namin, we went to my in-laws para makiligo and makicharge ng laptop and powerbank. By the time we arrived, I saw one of my FB friends posted na may electricity na sa amin. Thank God that brownout did not last for so long. 

Before 6AM, I decided to prepare for our breakfast and no more water supply. We only have 3 buckets of water plus 3 bottles (5 gallons) of mineral water to survive. No telephone lines and internet and our phone wasn’t fully charged except for the iPad (prepared ang anak ko at nagcharged). We used one cellphone of my husband to check for news on FM radio. Thank God for the pocket wifi so we could check the news online. We found out na Signal 3 na nga kami and the eye of the storm was in Cavite. 

I was praying hard for God’s protection and I was glad when the wind calmed around 10AM. I was thankful that our house was fine, and our tree and plants were ok, though halos maubos na ang dahon. Some of our neighbors were affected, natanggalan ng bubong, nasira gate and naputol puno. At 4PM we decided to go out. We went to the gas station para magpagas and bought some snacks at McDonalds.








Seeing the aftermath, I remembered my experienced last July 2011 "Typhoon Juaning", no electricity, water and internet and my husband was in Shanghai so ang hirap. I was thankful na kasama ko siya ngayon. I felt na matataglan pa ang black out sa dami ng natumba na puno so I cooked everything inside our freezer, drank the opened fresh milk, ate the yogurt etc. And that time parang nagsisisi ako na naggrocery ako, imagine I need to cook 1kl of hotdog, 1kl of chicken, 1/2 kl of tapa, 1/2 porkchop, 1/2 liempo, pack of bacon and sausage. I just cooked chicken adobo and fried everything. #buffetbreakfast.

Anyway, I was glad that after 44 hours we now have electricity, water, phone lines, and the internet. Life is back to normal now. I just realized that no matter how I plan or prepare, I’m still not in control. Now I’m planning to buy a water drum for future use, more batteries for the flashlight, rechargeable radio/light, powerbank, and more candles. I will stock more paper plates and disposable spoon, fork, and cups. Yan ginamit namin para wala hugasin. Ito na lang natira sa candles namin buti na lang nagkakuryente na. 


Just to make me feel good, iniisip ko na lang na wala ito sa mga Yolanda survivors. At least kahit walang electricity, water, landline and internet we’re staying in our house. How about you?