Pre-Yolanda

Below article has been in my drafts since typhoon Yolanda hit my country and I should have posted it on that day but when I heard on the news of the devastation the typhoon has brought to my countrymen, it had torn my heart to bits and pieces and it didn't leave me any nerve to do so.

I didn't have any intentions of posting this but I wanted myself to be an example to the many who doesn't take precautions seriously. 

Based on the article below, which I wrote before Yolanda came, you can see how I make fun of the situation. This SHOULD NOT be the case.

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November 7, 2013, Night

Typhoon Yolanda has been in the news for a week and was predicted to be so strong it'll break history. PAGASA advised everyone to be cautious and be prepared. It'll hit Cebu city so everyone's frantic  - except me. Why with typhoons I've had experienced since childhood, this is NOT new to me. 

2 days before it'll come, everyone I know was busy preparing for it. There was a shortage of candles and flashlights in the city due to an overwhelming demand on it. People were flocking to the store and get whatever they thought they could use. Meanwhile, I was minding my own business which includes doing nothing. It was until my sister give a mouthful on me that i was starting to consider doing the same thing.

So, to stop my sister from nagging (which I hate on so many levels), I went to the grocery store (JY Square) near our place right after work and bought things that my sister had asked me to buy. BREAD is on top on the list in BOLD letters! 

When I entered the store, I immediately noticed the crowd. It was like Christmas arrived earlier and everyone was in a rush. I noticed that in every baskets that the people were bringing, there were always bread, big or small. Living in a country where rice is the staple food, that was new to me. Being slow as I've always be, this wasn't enough as a clue to me as I danced my way to the bread corner.

Once I reached my destination, and saw that there was only one pack of bread that was left in the bread racks - 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th shelves was already raided - I was slowly grasping the idea of receiving a life's lesson from my YOUNGER sister once I reached home.

As if my demise was not enough, I would be witnessing on how this woman would cut the last thread that linking to the hope of bringing home a bread. When she touched the pack, that was when I knew it's time to panic. "Such a harsh world I live in", I minded that very moment and I wasn't even joking!

I really believed that she would get the bread as I stood a meter away from her, totally given up. I even took a photo of how she'll pull the last thread of my "BREAD" hope.

So imagine my feelings when she decided to dropped the bread and put it back on the rack. Believe me, I didn't know panic buying until then.

For a sec, my heart just stopped. And if my life is just musical, I would sing my way to the bread. SlowMo and all. I never had such a strong feeling for a bread in my life I almost cried my way to the cashier. 

I held it like a virginity - that once i took loose of it, someone will snatch it out of me and i couldn't take it back. Yeah, that bread make me emotional.

So pictured out Scrat and his acorn in ice age - that is me and my bread on my way home. Such a strong feeling I had for that bread i could have married it.

That was so the "hunger games" and the odds was surely in my favor.

PS: that night, my mother was calling incessantly and was threatening to denounce us if we (me and my sister) would not leave the city and be in our hometown (Oslob) for the typhoon. So, we're in Oslob now and tomorrow would be the time when the beast is coming. PAG-ASA said southern Cebu wouldn't be hit that bad.