Yesterday was quite a day for me and my family! Yes, it was 12/12/12, the last “repetitive” date until the next century, but our day involved a lot more than that. Actually, we spent the past 5 days or so preparing for yesterday!
It all started on Saturday, last weekend. I got the idea that I wanted to do something to assist the victims of Super Typhoon Pablo. The death toll in the Davao region is coming up toward 1,000 now, and I just felt the need to do something to help those who survived. One guy like me, and even if you add all of my family, we cannot have too big of an impact on the tens or hundreds of thousands of people in our region who were impacted by the super storm. But, we can have a big impact on the people that we come in touch with, individually. On top of that, if we pull in the help of many of our friends on a project, the impact we can make will multiply.
So, on Saturday, I posted a note on my Facebook account saying that we would be going to Compostela Valley, a province that was hit hard by the storm, to bring food, water and clothing to the survivors. I told everybody that if they wished to assist with this relief effort, they could send me donations, or if they bought any of my books, I would donate 100% of the profits toward typhoon relief. The donations really rolled in! It was amazing, I got about 10 times what I expected. Donations are still rolling in, even though the effort has already been completed! With those late donations, we are thinking we might make a second trip, or possibly we would apply those to our LiP Christmas drive (this relief trip was NOT our Christmas Drive this year, it is a totally different thing!).
Wednesday started off early, we all got up at about 4am to get ready. We got so many donations that we had to rent a truck, and we loaded that up in preparation of our trip. We had about 60 cases of water, lots and lots of cases of crackers, boxes of clothes and also other items that were brought by Randy C, of the JourneyToSamal blog. Randy came along with us to help, and he really was a big help, and a great person to visit with on the drive! Thank you Randy, I really enjoyed having you.
Article continues below pictures, click on the picture to see a large image.
We pulled out of the house by around 6am, and headed north to the Compostela Valley Province. It was about 2 1/2 hour trip. Our final destination in ComVal was Monkayo, which I had heard was hit quite hard by Pablo. What I heard was correct, the damage was really mind boggling. Buildings were blown to rubble. Roofs disappeared. Other roofs were seen in places where there no houses, we had no idea where the roof had blown in from. The people were desperately in need, though.
We would drive around until we would see a small group of people who looked like they needed assistance. We tried to avoid big crowds as much as possible, because we just were afraid that we would not have enough to share it all with the large numbers of people. But, even if we found a small group of victims, we stopped, and within 1 minute or so, there would be huge crowds of people surrounding us, waiting for assistance. Sometimes those crowds would grow to as many as 100 people. Somehow, we always had enough to spread around, though. When the crowds would get big, though, the people would sometimes get a bit unruly, fighting with each other for the relief goods that we were handing out. In those cases, we just had to leave to find a place where the crowd was smaller, and less desperate (not fighting). It was quite upsetting sometimes. Sometimes, people who did not seem to be in need still wanted to take items. We did our very best to distribute the items to those who truly needed the things. I can’t say we were 100% successful on that, but we certainly did our very best.
Here is a video of one of our stops:
All in all, this trip was a wonderful experience, and very rewarding. We took one of our children with us, Aaron. We were going to bring Jean too, but she was unable to take a break from school yesterday. We decided not to bring our other kids, though, because we had heard that there were a lot of bodies and such scattered around up there, and we did not want our younger kids to be upset by this. As it turned out, we saw nothing of this sort, it would seem that this must be all cleaned up now, so we could have brought the kids if we wished to. We were happy though, to take the precaution. If we go again, perhaps our other kids will come along, we will see.
For anybody reading this who also donated to this cause, you have my most sincere thanks for your donation. I can attest to you that these people were badly in need, and still are. Your kindness and generosity in this effort are really a big deal to me, and to those who have a little bit of food and water because of what you gave! Thank you so much!
It was an exhausting day on several levels. I truly appreciate you, Feyma and family finding room for me to come along.
I think we did the best we cold under the circumstances. Even though we had a truck load, it went fast.
The people were very thankful, and a couple of instances in particular really touched me. The older lady that was all alone, and whose house had been leveled couldn’t have been more grateful though she only got water. There were tears in her eyes and she kept saying, “thank you, thank you”.
Hi Randy – Thanks for all of your help yesterday. I think that the trip was emotional and also very heart-warming at the same time for all of us. Every year when we do the Christmas Giveaway, I always remember certain touching events like what you mentioned. It was a good day.. for us and for the people that we gave items too!
That’s an excellent thing to do Bob and everyone involved…the only thing, I must have somehow missed the invitation to contribute.
Yes, there will always be people who put their “want” before their “need”, showing up humanity’s weakness, but the fact that you have helped so many people is a wonderful and generous thing. I too would have found it upsetting to see so many people whose lives had been disastrously affected.
Well done to everyone involved, I applaud you.
Jim
Hi Jim – This time, I decided to make the invitation to contribute on Facebook instead of LiP. I had never done that before, always such things had been on LiP. I just wanted to give a different community the opportunity, and also see how it did. Also, I don’t like to keep coming back and asking people to contribute all the time, which is why I generally limit it to December only, and also why I decided to give Facebook a try this time. Also, many of my Facebook friends are also readers here anyway! Anyway, not a big deal, I did get a lot of donations, and some very sizable ones at that!
Thanks for your kind words, Jim!
Ah I see. I find facebook quite stressful at times because of the volume of stuff that is presented, much of it being unstoppable junk, so I’m afraid that I have “hidden” the posts of all but the people I interact with very regularly; hence I missed it.
Well, I guess you will launch the XMAS appeal very soon, and I will certainly contribute to that.
Again, well done to all involved.
Hi Jim – I launched the LiP Christmas Drive about a week or two ago. You can see it here.
Hi Bob,
Great job–you folks saw an immediate need and reacted quickly. Credit to you and your family and Randy C. for getting involved with the actual dynamics of putting together such a mission, and the many readers who contributed through their purchases. I’m sure that your efforts were much appreciated by many struggling survivors.
Thank you Queenie, I can say that the people there really needed the aid badly. The devastation there was quite severe. The numbers of people who would rush to get something from us was mind boggling. We enjoyed doing it, though.
How much all up?
I am sorry, Chris, I don’t really understand what you are asking me. How much I got in contributions? How much I spent for this stuff? The answer to both is in the thousands of US Dollars. Beyond that, I don’t want to make this about money.
Well done Bob !!!!
Jack
Thank you very much, Jack.
Bob..
you did a great job.. helping needy people its really amazing, one more thing the humanitarian doings is truly seen to your heart and to Randy C may the God Bless you both and to your family… wish alot of donation coming so you can continue helping people’s primary needs. Good luck to your good intention for the filipino
people.
Thank you, Anne, I appreciate that.
Bob
It’s so sad seeing the mass devastation everywhere. Seeing the smile on there faces after receiving water and crackers made the trip a complete success and really gave you a great feeling inside. Unfortunately alot more help is needed. Hopefully aid from the Philippine Government will reach them soon and take care of there basic needs. Have a nice day
You are right PapaDuck, there is a lot of need in the area! No matter how much you bring, it will never be enough.
God Bless you and your family, Bob.
JB
Thanks Jon, you would have done the same if you were here.
This is a true blessing that you did such a thing! It is great to see someone helping those in need. Thank you for doing that and sharing it with us. When the wife and I move to the Philippines in the new year, we are going to be setting up a Christmas drive, including a visit from Santa for the kids. We are looking forward to it.
Anyway thanks again for sharing.
Thanks, Bilko. I enjoy doing this kind of thing, and we do such things on a fairly regular basis, albeit not on the scale we were able to do this time. Good luck to you, if you do this you will find it very rewarding.
Bob, family and Randy,
I personally thank you for your kindness to our fellow men who are in need. People are people regardless of the race and color. We are one in the eyes of the Almighty Father. What you have instilled your children, the love and kindness for other people is the ultimate teaching a parent can share their kids which they will carry unto the next generation. I am praying that my only kid will have this heart….a loving and a sensitive heart to feel the pain and the need of others. God bless all of you! Maligayang Pasko at Manigong bagong Taon!!!!
Thank you Dine. I appreciate your kind words.
Once again you and your family and friends did a very nice thing and I’m sure you made a bigger positive impact than you think. it’s really nice to hear a lot of people donated money
and from what you’ve said some were really sizeable ones and that’s great and definitely a big thank you for all who donated regardless of the amount, One thing that is clear though and that it still takes individuals like you get people to pull together and rally for a good cause so for that a big thank you !
Hi Robert, thank you very much for the nice things you said. One of my hopes is that these kinds of efforts will help create a little more positive image of expats in general here in the Philippines.
You’re welcome Bob. I’m sure your efforts do not go unnoticed and I think
expats do have a positive image over there but I know what you mean.
take care !
I just read that the death toll is now over 1000. How dreadful; it’s great that people such as yourselves are willing to do something to help the survivors.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-20745450
Indeed, Jim. With the numbers still missing, we will likely see a death toll in the area of 1500 – 2000. Very sad, and similar to Sendong last year.
Hi Bob
We have 4 people from Compostela Valley who had their home destroyed staying with us for xmas. It has been a shocking ordeal for them and we are truly humbled to provide a little happiness for them during this period of grief. Today they will go to Samal with my family for a swim and tomorrow go home. I cant bring myself to ask them where is home now, i can only think that they will go back to try and rebuild on what is left on their plot. so sad…..I do hope the victims of pablo are not- forgotten now the typhoon is old news as they face a long period of recovery in some cases many will never recover i fear, keep up the good work bob
Wow, how nice of you to put them up during Christmas, David! Good job on that.