Typhoon Pedring overflowed Manila Bay

I just saw this pictures today shared by a friend on Facebook. And it was a big surprise! It's probably the first time a typhoon floods Roxas Boulevard, Manila. I got the same feeling when Ondoy hit the North 2 years ago. I live here in Cavite, which is 14.1 kilometers away from Manila Bay. We've moved here 3 years ago to escape from the polluted and populated city. Our parents, siblings and relatives live there, thank God they are okay.

I usually write my blog here in Filipino but since I also want to share this to my foreign friends and students, I decided to write it in English. These past few days, internet connection was so bad and I missed a lot of classes not to mention triggered my asthma to attack. Many things happen all around the world which seems to happen for the first time. And this is one of those. In my 32 years of existence ( Venus Raj? eheheh) , this is the first time I've ever seen a storm flooding the famous Roxas Boulevard. It looked like a mini-tsunami to me.

What's amazing is, the people who were able to enjoy it, not thinking about the danger it can cause their lives.

What's not new, is the SMILE that you can see on the Filipinos faces amidst the disaster. Stupidity? I think not. Among the few great things about us, Filipinos is that, we are POSITIVE and we SMILE our problems away. " Bayanihan" or helping others is natural for us. I remember, just yesterday, my Japanese chatmate asked me, "why are you so kind?"... well, I know for some people, kind gestures especially thru internet is too good to be true and it might have a catch. With a smile, again, I told him, I'm really like that and as proof I showed him my website with some pictures of me and my foreign students who came here to meet me in person. Back to the storm. Well, today is a sunny day, Roxas Boulevard is back to normal. People seemed to wake up after a bad dream. My asthma is gone, too, for now. However, the weather forecast says there are 2 typhoons coming soon. How do we prepare? First, we PRAY. Then, we prepare an emergency kit with all the things we'd need. We prepare of houses, etc. And we prepare ourselves.

I think that, natural disasters are like traitors. But still, I believe that if we dwell in the house of the Lord, we'll be safe.