Christmas in the disaster zone: Candles, noodles, family

MANILA, Philippines - As Australian soldiers took a break from cutting felled trees with chainsaws, schoolchildren in a village in Ormoc, Leyte bade goodbye to their foreign visitor yesterday by singing, “We wish you a merry Christmas.”

Yuletide cheer does not come easy for victims of Super Typhoon Yolanda. But people in Ormoc’s Barangay Libertad are happy to see their elementary school reopen, even if only two classrooms can be used.

A month after Yolanda struck, power is still out in much of the disaster zones, but water has trickled back to households in Ormoc and other typhoon-hit areas in the Visayas. Clearing of rubble and rebuilding of homes are providing jobs to the displaced. And people are starting to think of Christmas.

Lavish celebrations obviously are out of the question. As barangay worker Lolita Candaza put it, “Set aside na muna yung bonggang Christmas.”

But Candaza, 54, is looking forward to the holidays. “We will celebrate Christmas with candles, with canned goods, noodles,” she told The STAR yesterday in Tacloban. “What’s important is we’re alive. What’s important is family.”

Her husband Rogelio, 51, worked in the coconut wine or tuba industry and the widespread destruction of coconut trees has rendered him jobless. But Candaza remains on the payroll of the barangay and prefers to look on the bright side.

The mother of seven sat in a tricycle with some relatives and friends yesterday outside the field hospital set up in San Jose district by the Australian Medical Assistance Team shortly after Yolanda struck.

Candaza’s niece Janina, 21, was recuperating in the hospital, in a tent ward shared with about 10 other patients with leg and foot injuries.

Janina was on a motorcycle with her boyfriend last Wednesday when they met an accident. She was on her way to the city to take the pre-board examination to become a policewoman.

She was still dazed and weak yesterday when Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop, accompanied by Ambassador Bill Tweddell, visited the field hospital and chatted with some of the patients.

Outside, Candaza waited to accompany her niece in the transfer to Bethany Medical Center in the city.

Another patient in the ward, Eden Gade, 41, broke down after talking with Bishop. Gade had taken cover behind a wall from Yolanda’s powerful winds, but the wall was blown away, hitting her leg.

Emergency treatment in another hospital failed to save her foot and then her leg, which had to be amputated when she was brought to the Australian field hospital.

One of Gade’s seven siblings, who flew to Tacloban from Manila, sat by her bedside. They said they would be happy to have any meal for Christmas.

Candaza was more optimistic, telling relatives yesterday to prepare the day’s meal requested by Janina: nilagang baboy, or soup of pork boiled with potatoes, which would be eaten with rice and bananas.