The winds have started to subside and the rains are down to a trickle. Typhoon Frank has passed Metro Manila and is now wreaking havoc in Central Luzon. Hopefully, it would decide to leave the Philippines' AOR and go to South China Sea soon.
The strong typhoon brought with it thousands of gallons of rainwater; various areas of Mindanao and the Visayas were severely drenched and it has been raining in Luzon for two days now. Reports indicate that Iloilo was hardest hit with the Governor being quoted in the local radio as saying: "Iloilo is like an ocean.This is the worst disaster we have had in our history."
Dozens of lives were lost due to the storm. A looming disaster by way of a sunken ship has been keeping the radio stations busy. The fate of the passengers of the M/V Princess of the Stars are still undetermined. The ship was seen upturned off the island of Sibuyan in Romblon and a handful of survivors were seen but the whereabouts of the rest of the 700 passengers and 120 crewmembers cannot be ascertained yet.
We spent the day looking out our window and watching roofing materials fly off; the electricity went out early this morning and we have no TV, no DSL.The radio provided information though. Provincial Governors Salceda and Panlilio were both interviewed and seem to be adequately prepared for any calamity that may happen while Vice President Noli appeared to be in control as the President is in the United States. I was hoping to hear our Governor on air too but this was not to be. The Provincial Disaster Coordinating Council of Batangas was on the job though as we heard that it was providing hot meals to the stranded passengers at the Batangas Port.
Oh, the radio also provided entertainment. We heard the President getting irked while talking with the Admiral from the Coast Guard. They were talking in English and apparently the meanings of the simple words used were not faithfully comprehended forcing the President to gradually raise her voice in exasperation. (As I have said so many times before, we Filipinos can be at par with the world's best in speaking the King's language but what hinders communication is our listening comprehension. We talk yes, but we fail to listen.) The news reporters who were watching the video conference were asked to leave the briefing room so that they would not hear the angry words anymore. End of entertainment.
I am now enjoying the luxury of electricity. The TV is on again, the computer and the Internet access are back. I can now blog, my son can finish his Science homework and my daughter could update on the latest Disney Channel program. I will watch the evening news with a fervent prayer and hope that the Philippines would be alright.
Sunday, June 22, 2008
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
Teaching Children Well
My ten year old came back from school with a Science class homework. Surprise, surprise, the topic was the Seven Environmental Principles. It was comforting to realize that the school was starting them early on this matter. Of course we had to do the assignment together and what I did was to open the PEMSEA website (http://www.pemsea.org/) so that she could read more on the topic. It was PEMSEA and its various programs in Batangas that opened my eyes to the lifelong pursuit of the study about the environment.
The first principle is NATURE KNOWS BEST. As the site says "This principle is the most basic and in fact encompasses all the others."
It could not have been said better. The foundation for learning about the environment rests on two things: first, it must come with the understanding that we should respect nature and its processes, and two, we must realize how humans have failed miserably to do this and in fact we have come close to davastating Mother Nature.
Thank you so much for the Grade School and its curriculum that places a heavy emphasis on environmental study.
The assignment became a work in progress then. Since Monday, we have had a mini-lecture series on the Seven Principles, Batangas Bay and the emissions of the vehicles caught in traffic at Katipunan Road. Homework time has never been this enjoyable, what with your daughter eagerly plunging head-on into the subject matter. (To think that Science has been her least favorite subject matter for the last 4 years of Grade School!)
I just hope that we could continue this. Children learn mostly from school and if this learning could be ably supplemented by parental concern, children would know more and get to love what they learn about.
The first principle is NATURE KNOWS BEST. As the site says "This principle is the most basic and in fact encompasses all the others."
It could not have been said better. The foundation for learning about the environment rests on two things: first, it must come with the understanding that we should respect nature and its processes, and two, we must realize how humans have failed miserably to do this and in fact we have come close to davastating Mother Nature.
Thank you so much for the Grade School and its curriculum that places a heavy emphasis on environmental study.
The assignment became a work in progress then. Since Monday, we have had a mini-lecture series on the Seven Principles, Batangas Bay and the emissions of the vehicles caught in traffic at Katipunan Road. Homework time has never been this enjoyable, what with your daughter eagerly plunging head-on into the subject matter. (To think that Science has been her least favorite subject matter for the last 4 years of Grade School!)
I just hope that we could continue this. Children learn mostly from school and if this learning could be ably supplemented by parental concern, children would know more and get to love what they learn about.
Friday, June 13, 2008
Rains and Traffic
Last Wednesday my children experienced their very first downpour here at Quezon City. Not that rains are new to them, but that was their first time to see the effects of a heavy downpour on traffic in Major Metro Manila streets. For more than an hour, the rains poured at Loyola Heights, drenching Aurora Boulevard, Katipunan Road, Esteban Abada, Xavierville Avenue and all the streets in between.
All vehicles that happened to be there at around 3:30 p.m. had to endure heavy traffic for the rest of the afternoon. From the vantage point of our room, we saw slow, slow, moving vehicles until way past 7 p.m.
The experience was an eye-opener. My son and his friends stayed in a car for about an hour. Considering that the distance they were supposed to travel was less than 2 kilometers, that time spent in the car without their DS Lites and PSPs was next to eternity.
I was a passenger in a car then (which was better than being the driver of the car) and all througout the time I was sitting there, I amused myself by imagining how all the school bus drivers were coping in the environment of a closed vehicle full of irritated school children. The jeepney, taxi and tricycle drivers surely lost a lot of opportunities what with being stuck in the same place for an hour.
Dinner was take-out food. I did not have the energy to cook anymore and knowing myself, I would have not cooked well that night anyway. That left me some time to watch the evening news with their reports on the Quezon City floods.
Again, the floods in an urban setting was a new experience for my kids and another future opportunity for me to blog about.
All vehicles that happened to be there at around 3:30 p.m. had to endure heavy traffic for the rest of the afternoon. From the vantage point of our room, we saw slow, slow, moving vehicles until way past 7 p.m.
The experience was an eye-opener. My son and his friends stayed in a car for about an hour. Considering that the distance they were supposed to travel was less than 2 kilometers, that time spent in the car without their DS Lites and PSPs was next to eternity.
I was a passenger in a car then (which was better than being the driver of the car) and all througout the time I was sitting there, I amused myself by imagining how all the school bus drivers were coping in the environment of a closed vehicle full of irritated school children. The jeepney, taxi and tricycle drivers surely lost a lot of opportunities what with being stuck in the same place for an hour.
Dinner was take-out food. I did not have the energy to cook anymore and knowing myself, I would have not cooked well that night anyway. That left me some time to watch the evening news with their reports on the Quezon City floods.
Again, the floods in an urban setting was a new experience for my kids and another future opportunity for me to blog about.
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