Rainy Season in the Philippines

Today is the 4th of January 2011, Happy New Year everyone!!! It has been cooler,rainy here in the Philippines since December. Rainy season can be good and bad. It's good because it's a good time to plant some specific crops, plants need rain but bad weather happens during rainy seasons. That's when typhoons and storms roll in, it can be really bad like destroy homes, kill people, destroy farms and even can cause landslide.

Right now, as I write this, PAGASA (Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical, and Astronomical Services Administration declared Surigao del Sur (the province where I am) on state of calamity. I just watched the news on TV regarding the areas hardly hit by flood, there's a six year old girl who died from drowning, some houses were destroyed. Classes were canceled in my area. I told my mom that we should be on guard tonight because it's still raining and flooding can happen again.

Here are some of the pictures I took from yesterday's flooding..

                   Elise looking outside, she keeps saying "I wanna go swimming"

                    Elise's friends playing in the rain, flood was not that bad yet

 

The family who lives here evacuated, the water reached their floor. This person standing is a neighbor

 

Two little girls still smiling, water is only couple inches away from reaching their floor. My mom told them they are welcome in our house. Fortunately the rain stopped, water went down.

                                               The river water reached the bridge.

                                                there is a pathway by that wall                               

 

Houses here are on stilts but still flood reached floors. Our house is way higher from the ground than our neighbors', that is why my dad was not very worried.

As far as I know, nobody got hurt/injured by yesterday's flood in my neighborhood. This morning people were busy cleaning up the mud and garbage brought by the flood.

It's still raining at this moment, I'm bundled up with my blanket because it's cold. I guess we will be staying inside the house until weather gets better.

God has been protecting us here, thank all for praying for our safety.

 

Christmas in the Philippines

We've developed some unique holiday traditions. One of them goes back to when I was younger. On Christmas Eve, my mom prepares some simple filipino dishes. We are all gathered together, visiting, and waiting for the clock to strike midnight. That's when we can finally greet each other with a hearty, "Merry Christmas!!" Then my mom and dad will gather us and we pray together. We give God thanks for everything, and after that, partake of the yummy food my mom has for us. We are not into buying "Christmas presents". In the Philippines, putting food on the table is the priority. Only if there are any surplus funds do some simple and inexpensive gifts get exchanged.

Until this past September, I had been away from my family for over 5 years. It is truly a blessing to have spent this time with them, especially Christmas and New Year's.

                        Elise handing 5 peso coin to the carolers, we get at least 3 groups of carolers a night.

                                                   Food my mom prepared

                   this is the first Christmas that we had gifts under our tree

                                           Elise giving gifts to her friends

                                           Elise giving gifts

We also had a church Christmas party, we sang praise songs and after that we had our parlor games and then we shared food..

                                             Elise participating the parlor games

                                                                Snacks after the party

We had a great time here in the Philippines, spending special occasions with family, it could have been merrier if Paul was with us. Wish all of you had a wonderful Christmas..



                                              

First Time Blogger

I have been wishing and dreaming about writing a blog. I have lots of ideas running around my head but do not know how to put them into writings. English is not my first language, I do not have a good vocabulary and I am still struggling with my grammar. Well, it is almost 2011, I need to do something with this urge on writing blogs. I want to be proactive with the things I have been wanting to do. So I'm sitting in front of my computer and thinking "how should I start blogging?" and the next thing I know, I'm on Google reading tips for new blogger.

Okay, now I'm stuck. I don't really know what to say. One of the tips on blogging that I just  read is, write like you are talking to your friend. If you're reading this blog, let's be friends :) and feel free to criticize and give tips. I will continue to learn things about blogging and hopefully, I'll be able to post a productive, thought-provoking, helpful blogs.

Two days before New year's! Happy New Year everyone! Wish all of us will have a prosperous, productive and Godly New Year!