A walk with my camera

5 years have passed since Haiyan put our lives in shambles.  The memories are still fresh, but we move on.  Life goes on.

Shoot, said the boy, and I happily obliged.   It’s been a while since I’ve been out on the streets taking photos, and this is just what I needed – a confidence boost.

A few months ago, our local government launched a campaign claiming that Tacloban City is home to the happiest people in the world.  Considering that happiness is fleeting, so maybe they’re partly correct, but happiest?   For sure this boy riding a scooter is happy.

Home of the happiest people…

I asked a friend who avidly defended the controversial PR campaign to visit the settlement in Sabang District known to locals as “Seawall”.  He said he was going to visit the area to prove that people living there were counted among the happiest people in the world.  Since I haven’t heard from him, I went there to see for myself if things have changed.  Barely, but given that this was the 5th year anniversary of the great deluge, people weren’t really celebrating.  I’ll have to come back some other day.

I have always been a subscriber to keeping things simple, and for the past years I have shunned the annual commemorations which have been getting bigger and fancier, and at the same time marginalize that sector of society that was hit the hardest.

This photo of a man lighting candles for the loved ones lost during the typhoon is as real as it gets.  No fanfare, no spotlights, no media circus and all that hoopla.  In short, no politicians were around.  The dearly departed are very well remembered, but the living have been forgotten.  Such is the irony of life.

Rest in peace.

Silent night.  Sad, sad night.

A birthday candle for a second life.  Many weren’t as lucky.

One day this little girl will understand why candles are lit every 8th of November, and know about the family members she will never meet.

Boboy, Calay, Paks, Doming, Lilia, Beyoy…. the list goes on.

They will be remembered until this generation passes on.

Candle lights and city lights.

The seawall.

Meanwhile, on the main street, more candle lights.

Boys playing with fire.

I said goodnight to the furry shopkeeper on my way home.

4 days and counting….or is it 5 days? or 6?  Seems like I’ve lost track of time and still there is no end to the downpour.  2 typhoons in December and 1 early this January; it’s like we’re back in January of 2015.

With visibility this low and temperature even lower, I should’ve stayed in bed….

…and miss all the activities that happen only during a heavy downpour.

I don’t know if there’s an English word for “tatsi”, but I’m guessing there’s probably none.   The game is closely similar to playing marbles except that coins or bottle caps are used. Yep, we played in the dirt back then and had a blast. Too bad a lot of kids now prefer gadgets over street games that they miss out on the beneficial microbes in the dirt that made those of us who had eaten dirt immune to minor sicknesses.

This could be the last time I’ll see children playing in this flooded highway. Repairs were supposedly done today and it shouldn’t flood anymore.

Imagine if I decided to stay in bed…

Can’t stop beach lovers from taking a dip, even in bad weather.

There isn’t going to be a catch today. Even fishes like to stay in bed on rainy days.

It’s definitely been a long while since my last post.

These photos have been sitting in water for 6 months now.

It’s time to dig them out from the storage bin and brush them up for show….

..and then line them up for delivery.

Not sure when the next post will be; I haven’t been taking photos lately.  I’m still looking for inspiration and waiting for something to drag me out of bed on Sunday mornings.

165 kilometers from Tacloban is the municipality of Guiuan, Eastern Samar.  Another 24 kilometers from there, the pilgrimage site that is Sulangan.

While everybody else was at the church, I just couldn’t let the opportunity pass without taking a tour around the place by myself.

As with most coastal villages, the main source of livelihood for the people of Sulangan is fishing.

The fishing activity here doesn’t start early.  It is past 6am and the boats are still parked on their stilts.

And off they go at 7.

And that is all the time I had.  I’ll have to come back on my own next time.

____

This is the first long club ride of the year, and here I am at the halfway point – roughly 85 kilometers from where we started.  This is where I had to wait for the truck to come pick me up; suffering from cramps on both legs is not the way I wanted to finish.

I was back on the bike on the last 32 kilometers of the trip after a much needed rest.  The whole trip took about 11 hours, stops included.  The route is very scenic with enough climbs to make it interesting.  We’ll organize a bike tour someday, hopefully soon.

All photos were taken with my iPhone 5. I’d take a camera over any phone camera any day, but there’s no better camera than the one at hand.  I miss my Lumix LX5.

Today I went fishing….

..not fish for the dining table, like what these boys have fished from the nearby rice fields..

..but this kind of fish.

They also go into a bowl.

if they’re lucky enough to find a new home.

For now, this is life in a tiny bubble.

Can you imagine what it is like to live in a plastic bag, pondering whether it is half full or half empty?