Recovery

Every thing's now back to normal, at least for me and my family. Several hours that typhoon Milenyo stayed in NCR translated to several years of reconstruction and recovery. During the typhoon last Thursday, I never thought it would have these grave effects because it ravaged for only several hours. But it turned out that the short while Typhoon Milenyo was here, claimed almost 200 lives and billions of pesos in damage. The widespread brownout caused by the typhoon would take Meralco months to fix. I heard in the news that the typhoon's impact would take years to normalize especially for root crops, livestock and fisheries.

Grandma Dahls texted that there are still no water and electricity in their place in Bay, Laguna. Their basement house, covered with mud last Thursday, is being scrubbed clean. They got eight men to work on removing the mud and three women helpers to clean all the clothes, books, furniture, equipment among other stuff. She is obviously heartbroken.

Generally, our family and loved ones were still fortunate. In fact, I personally feel blessed to have friends like Wanda and Jukey Celino who welcomed us last Friday night while there was still no electricity in our place. Since they were at the heart of Makati, business hub of the country, power was immediately restored to them Friday morning.

They also have a baby, Alonso Joaquin, who was 1.5 months younger than Lois. We stayed with them Friday night till Sunday morning, sharing the same bed, the same meals and exchanging stories about our babies and our work. (Ok, more about theirs for they were all in IT and I'm a part-time building admin.)

Our whole stay was warm and cozy. We even went to Rockwell Powerplant to have lunch and celebrate Alonso's 6th month bday. We almost forgot all about the typhoon. Even Nanny Mhagie and their two helpers bonded together. They were so funny strolling around the mall with arms intertwined!

Alonso and Lois were friends too. Both babies were in a good mood all throughout. Alonso would worm-like crawl towards the seated Lois and they would babble together, each producing unique sounds. A squeal from Lois, bubbling noise from Alonso. It was operatic-like listening to them because Alonso's voice is deep and big while Lois' is soft and tiny. Oh, it would be nice to see them grow up together!

Alone yet numerous
Back at home, Lois now understands that she's left alone at times, and protests it. She misses us instantly once she realizes she's all by herself. She cries, sometimes alarmingly. Her shrieks are clear messages that she wants attention. Her nanny mhagie calls her 'Nina', the country's soul siren, whenever she shouts those high notes of frustration. Sometimes, when I'm busy, I try to keep her occupied by giving her toys. She loves those with parts big enough to chew on. I guess gritting on her toys helps relieve the pain of her two upper front teeth cutting through. When the toys look new to her sight, which means anything including household items she hasn't seen in the past three hours, she could play with it for long. I think about 15 minutes! Banging, shaking, eating, and passing from one hand to the other, rolling over with it to see if the toy looks the same from another view. She could be so engrossed inspecting her toys that she could cover the whole bed wrestling with it.