"The Doctor's Secret to a Lifetime of Clear Skin" by Drs. Katie Rodan and Kathy Fields has been my company during the days after Yolanda. I was lucky to fish it out of the flooded water.
It is a 30-page book written by the creators of Proactiv. I love how the book reminds you of things you already know but choose to forget. It contains some tips and tricks to keep acne away from your face.
This is my favorite. "A pimple is not simple." Hey! Just a simple zit can ruin your whole day and once you get scarred it will stay for life!
You can get a copy of this book for every purchase of a 30 or 60 day Proactiv Kit from SM, Watson's or from their door-to-door delivery.
If you want a lifetime of gorgeous skin, you better read this book because even if you are a beauty guru there are somethings you just don't know. Trust me!
I even managed to use some of the advice after the typhoon. Oh those countless miles I've walked under the heat of the sun and the days without water to wash my face.
The storm came at 4:30 am, 30 minutess earlier than expected. We knew that Yolanda has arrived because the wind was not just whistling as usual. It was howling like it never howled before...like a banshee. The glass window panes were shaking.
Dante was fretful as he worriedly looked at the trees swaying outside our window. I immediately grabbed my camera to take pictures for this blog but my camera easily clouded up because the wind was blowing in our direction.
I went to the other room facing the coast to check on my
mother but the wind was shutting the door closed. When I did manage to open it,
I can hear the wind making sipping sipping sounds on our room...slurrp..slurrp...slurrp. It was very scary. My mother was pushing against our broken door with all her might. I told her it was a
futile effort and to just leave the door alone. Nobody can fight against the
expected 300 kmh wind. I told her to come with me to the other room where the
wind was not as strong but she would not listen.
Kuya Alvin who has evacuated with his family on the first floor of our
building came up a few minutes later and told us that Choie, who owned the building is
worried about our safety. He urged us to go down before the wind
worsened. We said that we are doing fine upstairs and there is no need
to go down.
A few minutes later, Batotoy, a local surfer, came up and pleaded for us to go down because the strong wind that was blowing outside is not yet the full brunt. In the midst of our conversation, we saw him being pushed by the wind. Luckily, he managed to grab on to our drum filled with water.
Seeing the wind's strength, I do not want to risk my 5 year old daughters safety. I felt that with the poor visibility, strong winds and flying debris, we were safer up on the third floor. I remembered an article I read online after the Bohol
earthquake about the triangle rule. So I told my daughter to hide in the corner
of our house with her bug out bag.
We can hear the glass windows breaking
like someone was throwing stones on it. The ceiling looked like it was being punched
in so we knew it was going to collapse if the wind gets any stronger. I then
tried to go back to get my mother but even with Dante’s help, we could not open
the door to the other room where my mother was.
Yumi was screaming and praying to God, “Jesus, do not
let me die!I do not want to die yet.” I went to hug her tight while Dante
stood by our back door. He really wanted to go down to the ground floor despite
the wind. Confused and not wanting an argument, I went with him. We were just a
few steps from the door when I lost grip of Yumi’s hand. Dante was pushed by
the wind to the wall. Thankfully, he managed to grab an electric wire. I on the other hand was tumbling and slipping, unable to stand becaus eof the strong wind.
Amazingly, Yumi just calmly walked back to the door. When the wind slowed
down a bit, I was able to scramble to the door. The gypsum ceiling has already
fallen. Thanks God for the perfect timing!
We went back to our hiding place and braced ourselves against the wall. The room was already flooded with one inch water. We sat inside a plastic clothes container and wrapped Yumi with her favourite
blanket; ironically, it was the one with the Noah’s ark theme. I saw a piece of
gypsum ceiling and dragged it towards us. I held it up with my left hand to
cover our heads while my right hand hugged Yumi. I screamed to Dante to sit
beside us because it was safer there.
When the wind was already roaring and deafening I began to pray for our safety. I knew that He has saved me
a lot of time before and He will also let me survive the storm. However, I also
knew that there is a possibility that the wall that protects us at that moment
will collapse and we will all die. And so, we also prayed for God to take our souls to heaven. Yumi and I accepted Jesus Christ as our Lord and Saviour again. We knew that God was the only one in control of the situation we were in at that moment. We prayed for Him to send his angels to cover and protect us. And indeed, we felt peace and serenity in our little corner as the storm passed us by.
I prayed to God for our safety.
The day before the storm while I was panic buying for things
we might need. I saw a beautiful doll and thinking that I might run out of money before Yumi's birthday on November 26, I had to buy it.I also
thought this is the best way to check Yumi’s ability to resist temptation, like
the marshmallow test.
Anyway, as I was thinking of our imminent death, I slowly
crawled my way to where the doll has flown and gave the doll to Yumi. Even if
we all die, at least her last memory was holding on to a beautiful doll. I told
Yumi to open it up but she said she does not want it to get wet. She just
hugged it while the wind around us blew.
If the wind was supposed to arrive at 5pm then arrive at
Guian at noon, I felt that by 9 or 10 am we will all be safe so I was
frequently asking Dante the time. 7:00am, 7:20am, 7:40am. The third time around
I found it funny that I was asking the time every twenty minutes.8:00am, 8:20am...
As the wind slowed down, we picked up our bug out bags and slowly ambled our way out of our room and passed by the room where Mama was staying, we were not able to find her. We assumed that my mother must have been the woman we heard screaming earlier and she must have already been blown away by the wind. So we ducked our heads and slowly walked down to the second floor.
We saw a big crowd. There were almost 20 people inside the room. Most of them were children. Some of them were neighbors who has managed to escape by breaking their roof and crawling towards one of the open windows on the second floor. One of them even have a 2 month old child with her.
The people who were in
the first floor told us how the water rose up from ankle level up to
the ceiling in a blink of an eye! They used the clothesline to hang on
to then stepped on up some vaults to reach the stairs. They men had to
go back to get their grandmother who managed to step up on the kitchen
sink.
P.S.
Just seen these videos now. I'm still catching up with the world.
No photos. As mentioned earlier, I was robbed a few days after the typhoon.
I am at Cebu right now. I only learned the date and time today when I went to the nearest internet cafe. We have just arrived after a 24 hour open air ride with one of the Philippine Navy's ship.
When I stepped out of the ship, I was in tears. There were lots of volunteers who were there to address our basic needs-food and first aid. Imagine receiving a loaf of Gardenia sliced bread each and overflowing mineral water and coffee. We didn't see it in Leyte. They even have an evacuation center prepared for us. We saw the Lion's Club, some ROTC volunteers, the DSWD and a lot more. They gave us sooo much well-cooked cooked that was not straight from the can.
If you have eaten the crunchy half cooked rice on the Philippine Navy ship and endure the almost 6 hour line to get it. If you have experienced sleeping al fresco on the wet floor of the ship on a very cold and rainy night or sun bathe then you know what I am talking about.
However, I am still thankful for the people who helped us especially Choie Cabrera's family. For without them I will still be in Tacloban living in fear and scavenging for relief goods at daytime.
I wish I have photos to show you but while we were sleeping in our storm torn house, a thief ran through my things and stole my tab, camera and last money which I was supposed to buy a bike because I was already worn out from walking in search of relief goods.
I will chronicle my memory here as best as I can remember starting tomorrow. I will search for pics from my friends in Tacloban. Perhaps you will see someone familiar. Maybe I survived to tell our story.
It is 10:30 pm here at Tacloban and while I'm tapping on my keyboard, the wind is whistling outside, gently warning me of the super typhoon that is expected to arrive tomorrow at 5am.
We are already at signal number 4 and everything seems ordinary. I believe we Waraynons are used to this kind of wind and rain. However, the news and social media feeds are painting a grim scenario. This might be the reason why we fear the storm.
Jam Tan took a pic of the locals panic buying. There is a running joke that the rich are panic buying while the poor can only afford to panic.
I had been panic buying for 3 days already. The first day I went to buy food supplies. Last night Dante and I needed to water, flashlights, candles, duct tape and plastic bags to wrap the paintings with. My last run was to buy paper plates and plastic utensils just in case.
A preemptive evacuation was done yesterday. This is a photo taken at the Astrodome last night: (Credits to Mayor Alfred Romualdez' FB account.)
Early this morning the neighbors were cutting down trees and trimming branches.
The weather was calm and peaceful. (Is it what they call the "calm before a storm"?) Mr. Sun even took a peak from the clouds once in a while.
Guess who are in Tacloban right now?
DILG Secretary Mar Roxas. (Credits to Mayor Alfred Romualdez' FB account.)
My friend Nikko Bacason said that CNN has sent a corespondent named Andrew Stevens to cover the super typhoon here in Tacloban.
Atom Araullo from ABS-CBN is in town too as well as a reporter from GMA. A friend posted a pic that they were covering at the McArthur park. However, I can't seem to find the pic on my newsfeed.
This must mean serious business if all of these people whom you just see on tv flew out just to witness this phenomenon.
Jim Edds (is he a storm chaser/hunter whatever?) tweeted a pic of the waters behind McDonald's in downtown Tacloban. The water has already risen so I guess it is flooded there already right now.
Growing up in V&G, I know how a little rain can cause flooding. Now a signal number 4 super typhoon would probably make that subdivision a giant lake! Here's what my friend Kyle has been doing-elevating everything. If you come from V&G you are an expert in this field already.
Emmanuel Lim took it up a notch. I knew he will. He has been with Red Cross since ....forever. And since V&G's floods can reach up to 4ft in height, life vests are badly needed.
Here's a photo posted by Jonray Matoza. Tie everything up!
Vice-Mayor Jerry Yaokasin is kept busy.
The Mayor is even busier. Looks like the Mayor ain't gonna get some shut eye in the next 24 hours (Credits to Mayor Alfred Romualdez' FB account.) And what rotten luck, there was a fire earlier in the evening.
If you are in Visayas, keep safe. (Could this be caused by H.A.A.R.P?)
BBC says it is the biggest typhoon ever. So help us God.
