It's 2.03am and Jerry is finally asleep. We are here in a hotel with a few things we grabbed before turning off the power and leaving our house about 2
hours ago. We had to leave Maxine and the kittens behind.
If you've been watching the news you would have heard about the soccer team trapped in Thailand, undergoing an urgent rescue because of monsoonal rains (I think they are already out). Those rains are actually attached to a typhoon known internationally as Maria. Since Friday we've been copping rains here and the house has been slowly
flooding.
Until now, not really enough to be a concern but enough to be annoying. The kitchen totally flooded Friday and then yesterday. And now tonight. Tonight however is a concern. A big one.
I was in bed unable to sleep and about 11.30pm got up because I thought I heard our cat
Maxine calling above the pouring rain. But when I opened the bedroom door water started pouring in. I quickly grabbed my sofa bed and launched it onto my plastic table (come computer desk) and raced outside for the cats (turning the lights on in Jerry's room on the way past).
Outside the alley was completely flooded and poor Maxine was at the door up to her belly in water with one sodden and
crying kitten in her mouth. I got Maxine and baby Veronica inside, shouted to Jerry to wake up, and went back for the other 3 kitten babies.
Band and Gingerman were inside their little cat cage shrieking as the water rushed past. With no sign of Rocky I got them inside too and eventually found Rocky in a crevice behind the cage. The water was rising so fast I was worried they
would have drowned.
Next was Jerry. Poor little kid was asleep on a rolled out sofa bed that was literally floating. I tried to wake him as gently as possible so he wouldn't launch into a panic. Once I got him going we started moving everything to the tiled up area in the front thinking we could sleep there until the rain stopped.
But it didn't, brown water began pouring under the front door as well as rising from the back door. So we piled everything as high as possible (including the cats) and I told Jerry to go and pack. My gut told me to get out of there; the water was stinking of sewerage and sXXX and it was rising quickly.
It's surreal deciding what to take: I only grabbed a change of clothes, the computer and phones, my watch, the old watch case that belonged to my grandfather and the guitar. I looked at books and stuff and went ... no it's ok.
By the time we got out the front the water inside the entire house was well above our ankles. I opened the front door and more water rushed
inside. All our shoes and thongs had floated away so Jerry waded down the side alley where the cats had been (and would surely been dead) and grabbed our joggers from on top of the deep well. Then waded them back to me as I went around checking windows.
I turned the light on my cellphone, grabbed our bags, said goodbye to the cats (who I put as high as possible and left a pile as
high as the ceiling just in case) -- then cut the power. We waded through the shin deep water int the front garden to the gate and managed to get it unlocked in the rain. We walked barefoot to the end of the road and sat at the Barangay Hall putting on our runners. Of course being midnight there was no tricycles so we walked and walked for about a kilometre or so in the rain until we found a group of people drinking outside a bamboo sari-sari store.
Lucky for us outside the store was also a drunk tricycle driver sleeping it off under a piece of plastic. The people at the store woke him for us and he grumbled something in Ilonggo about the rain being selfish, but agreed to take us to the La Paz public market area to find a taxi.
He did a fine job too,
because the roads were flooded and the water pouring out of La Paz Plaza slid that tricycle everywhere. I was really impressed he went the distance and didn't complain at all. Jerry said I must pay him more than the standard 14 pesos so I gave him 400. They both smiled.
From there we walked another few hundred metres in the rain to a taxi who took us to a hotel we know in the city.
I've been staying there since 2014 -- the first time when my friend and fellow volunteer Heather Binnie was gravely ill in the hospital across the road. From that time on, almost every time I've come to the city I've stayed there. AUD$21 a night for a nice bed, room service, aircon and hot shower. Yes please.
In time Jerry came into my life and stayed there too. Oh he loves it.
We are so well known to them now, we still go there once a week and have breakfast. Naturally it was the first place we thought to go. We knew we could turn up at 12.30am with no booking and no problems.
Jerry cried when we first arrived. For his cats. And then for the scooter I bought him last week and his white teddy bear. But I told him things will be fine and I'll go back
tomorrow and clean everything up, and rescue the scooter. Then think about our move. Yes we have to move house. The landlord will meet us there tomorrow, but he has already said that we can't stay there now because it's no longer safe.
The problem seems to be 2 x concrete roads that were built up on either side (and above) the house and finished not long before we moved in. Now the
water is just pouring in and can't escape quickly enough. What a shame.
So friends, that's neXtDRAFT 31. The Flood. I truly don't feel upset, I feel quite calm and clear about it all. Jerry is finally asleep it 2.44am and at 6.00am I'll wake him for school. From the hotel it's not too far from his school and I'm sure they won't mind him not wearing a uniform
tomorrow.
I'll post updates to the blog and Facebook.
Till next week.
Melxx
PS: I already had a few
things posted in neXtDRAFT.
PSS: sorry no Stamps for the Visayans update this week.
In July 2016 I was back in Australia for mum and dad's 50th wedding anniversary. Jerry had only been with me 6 months and this was the first time I had left him. Poor little kid cried every night and I ended up changing my flight and returning to the Philippines a week
earlier.
This little video is of us together a few hours after I reached the house, he's looking through his toys. His English is so good now it's hard to remember the time when he didn't know any English at all.
He still has all these toys and loves most especially 'Whitey' the big
white bear. Oh and the wings from our friend Jane.
