After days of repacking relief goods—yes, noodles, lots of canned goods, rice and lots of bottled water—we went to barangay Landayan, San Pedro, Laguna. We distributed the goodies we packed to the residents cramped and packed at the auditorium of the barangay. This relief organization was organized by the Asuncion Perez Memorial Center as part of the relief operations of the United Methodist Church in the Philippines.

At least, I realized that those gigantic auditoriums have special purposes apart from the usual basketball court and as venue of school and community events.

Here are a few lessons I learned from that episode.

Yup! that's the truck I drove!

1. It’s tough driving a manual transmission 6-wheel Mitsubishi Canter!

Rev. Cerrie Francisco warned me about it! But I was just too stubborn to back off. Well, not exactly. There was simply no driver but me! So I had to polish my skills in driving a manual transmission vehicle and a Canter at that! It’s simply the biggest machine I’ve ever driven in my whole life!

Thankfully, we didn’t encounter any accident. I didn’t run over any cow, chicken or kid along the way. It’s just that I had to stretch my arms after going home.

2. Young people can be mobilized pretty quickly for relief efforts.

Ate Jenny, Manang Chita, Earlie and I were amazed at how quickly young people responded to the call for volunteers for the repacking of relief goods. We’ve had a couple of youth from Razon UMC, from St. Peter UMC, from the Southwest and Northwest District of PAC. We also had fun together! And lots of eating, too!

3. The effects of the floods are very real!

If you have any doubts on the impact of the floods in the lives of people, we have half-a-meter reasons to raise against you. You should have seen the waters in the neighborhood of Landayan. People were actually using boats to move around the barangay. People’s belongings and properties—both the rich and the poor were drenched in floodwaters!

4. Evacuation centers are crowded.

There are simply people everywhere! Almost every nook and cranny of the auditorium had a family “resident” already. Not surprisingly, they don’t have much choice of sleeping quarters, and they barely have enough portable toilets around. I expect the place to get dirty soon enough!

5. Barangay officials must be supervised when distributing relief goods.

Just to make sure that the relief goods really go to the people who need it, donors must oversee the distribution of relief goods. This is also a means of “humanizing” the relief efforts. At the very least, people in evacuation centers would feel that donors are sympathizing with them and care about their physical and emotional needs.

And if ever El Kapitan decides to give away the goodies to his friends and compadres, the donors could certainly prevent that!

6. Favoritism may still rear its ugly head!

When we arrived at the community, some people started ranting at us, saying that the officials only handed out relief goods tickets to their friends and acquaintances. Some of them also asked for special favors and wanted us to give goods directly to them. Well, that would undermine whatever system is there to distribute the goodies.

7. It’s never enough!

When I wasn’t driving and just loitered outside the Canter, some mothers went near me, asking me for some tickets, ranting about being pregnant and their inability to get tickets for the relief goods. I told them repeatedly (again and again and again, they were so persistent!) that as much as we want to help all of them, we simply can’t because of the limited resources we brought!

Sigh. I thought, if we could only have more goods to give…

Evacuees have so many needs—clothes, new home appliances and equipment they need, shoes and slippers, underwear, food, and most of all, hope and the willingness to stick it out no matter what.

Those of us who are able should try to give as much as we can without dehumanizing them. We just went there for some relief operations. We may have given them food for a day. But they need help in rebuilding their houses and their lives!

It’s never enough. In these times, when we’ve done what we could, we try to do more and anything we can’t do, we lift up to God in prayer.

Here are a few pictures we’ve taken from the relief operations.

Flood! everywhere

same flood, different angle

Cramped living quarters

More relief goods needed for more people!

more picture moments with the volunteers!

picture moments with the Brgy. Landayan officials and relief ops team