Words will never do justice to what I have seen. I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to wrap my mind around it all.
When recounting what happened it is easy to focus on all the negative things because the bad is tangible.
Ruined buildings. Lost loved ones. Persistent nightmares.
It is easy to get caught up in the sensational details of just how awful it must have been during the typhoon. I have a stack of drawings from kids describing the storm. They will give you nightmares without living through the storm.
But there is something that shouldn’t be missed in all the gory details.
There is also so much overcoming of what has happened.
Broken down buildings are everywhere, AND in the middle of the rubble there were always people working to clean it up.
The voids of entire neighborhoods erased was breathtaking, AND in every one of those areas, homes were being rebuilt.
In the short time I was there I saw four businesses reopen within two blocks of our hotel.
Every day more than 20 people were working to rebuild the devastated church at such a rate that their progress was perceptible daily.
People talked about pain AND they talked about how blessed they are.
To see only what is damaged, destroyed, and missing does the Filipino people a disservice.
They might not have triumphed yet, but they are triumphing.
They are so strong. They are so loving. They are so connected to each other.
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