How we've survived Ondoy

The sister woke me up, shrieking "ate, gising!!! pray daw kayo nina Nanay, umaakyat ang baha!"

Pray kami ni Nanay, kami, that's because the sister fumes up whenever she engages in religious rites. Bwahaha! Peace, Louraine!

I got up, took a quick bath, got dressed and joined Nanay whose praying in our terrace. The water is already crawling up to our garage little by little. Lord, please, let the rain stop, and don't let the water come in to our home. Mahirap pong mag-linis ng bahay, we don't have any helper around, so all the hard labor will be tossed at me. Spare my pretty hands from getting dipped in those murky waters. I'd rather wash 1,000 plates than clean the floor contaminated with tubig baha. Please Lord, I beg you!

Minutes after intensely praying, the water slowly subsided, it was at around past 1pm. Lord, thank you so much!

It is written that prayer can move mountains. Now I've seen that prayers can move waters, too!

The rest of the afternoon flowed smoothly. Well, at least inside our home. But reading and hearing from the news about the families who were stranded, helplessly seeking for help above their roofs, the motorists stuck for hours in the traffic is just so devastating.

We spent the rest of the afternoon playing with our favorite toy, Gaean! Getting manicure and pedicure (for the mother and the sister), while I explore the wonderful world of tweeting with my dear adiks.

Come 6pm, Vangie, my sister in law, learned from their landlady that their house has been submerged by rain water. Nanay, Vangie and I went to their house in San Pedro to check the place.

Nanay parked the car outside, and said she'll just wait there (sabi na nga ba e, all the hard labor tossed at me, and at Vangie as well). I was wearing my plueys when I went to their house. Along the way, I felt water getting in. Homaygod! Ang bowts ko, butas! Goodness. Ang tubig baha, getting inside me! I panicked. I wanted to shout, pero what for? I took the boots off (while in the middle of the flood) and changed into slippers. Homaygooood! My feet submerged in flood water!!! I cringed, I can't breath, I thought I was going to faint (exxag, but true, nahirapan talaga ako huminga!). Imagine all the germs, bacteria, animal wastes, human wastes and other contaminants. Lord, why me? sniff sniff... But then, I thought, I could offer this suffering, di ba? Lord, enough na yata itong pambayad sa mga kasalanang nagawa ko. And also, I'm doing this out of luv! If I didn't love my niece that much, I wouldn't do this! True enough, love gives us courage. Mga bagay na akala ko hindi ko kayang gawin, nakaya ko! One thing I learned tonight, the hard way.

When we got at my brother's house, I am still thankful that the water was only an inch deep. But we still have to secure the appliances (electric fans and washing machine), we don't know if rains will still prevail during the rest of the night since they'll be with us until Sunday.

I immediately scrubbed my legs and feet when we got home. Washed them 3 times! Relief!

Tonight, I pray for the families who are still waiting to be rescued above their roofs, for the little kids shivering in the cold, for the people stranded in traffic.