A little bit about myself and my Super Typhoon Yolanda/Haiyan experience:
My name is Genemae, 24 years old and I am from the Philippines. I grew up in Balangiga Eastern Samar, one of the historical place in the Philippines. For those who doesn’t know yet about my country, Philippines is an archipelago which is compost of 7,641 islands(depends on the tide condition) and located in the Asian continent. If you will look into its map, it is located in the Pacific Ocean, the world’s largest ocean, near to the equator that’s why we have a warm temperature and typhoons always happen every year. The biggest typhoon that I experienced in the province was the Super Typhoon Yolanda(Haiyan). It destroyed the whole island and turned the mountains into brown. The streets were covered by trees and you will never see houses that doesn’t have a damaged roof. After the typhoon, there was still rains so we hardly sleep in the night and most of the time, we ended up sleeping while holding an umbrella. Life was tough during that day. I was assigned to cook for our meals and its hard to budget the limited food. The looting is everywhere and the prices of the groceries in the store goes high due to the scarcity of supply. I felt helpless and wanted to cry thinking about what could happen to us if within 1 month, there’s no help will arrive. I have no choice but the only thing I could do is to help my family recovering from the mess and try to make a shelter so we won’t get wet when the rain comes. Our lives just went down to zero that time. This is the most remarkable event in my life that I will never forget and I would want to share this to my children in the future. This made me realize to appreciate and be thankful to every small good things that we received in life and be happy with it.
God is really good! After a few weeks, there were big trucks stopped in my hometown. They are carrying the relief goods. The help came one by one. We slowly recovered from the nightmare. Finally, life becomes better day after day. Thanks to those people who helped us. Thanks to those countries and families who sent us foods and materials that we could use to start again. I couldn’t ask for more. ❤️
Province Life:
Life in the province is simple. We live everyday depends on how much my father earn from his welding business. I came from a big family. We are six siblings, five girls and one boy. I am the fifth and the second youngest. Raising and providing food, health and education for us aren’t an easy job for my parents but because of their hard-work, they able to handle everything together. My mom help my father in finding customers for his business. They use our motorcycle to do a house-to-house canvass. Their target customer were the ones that has concrete houses, which doesn’t have yet steel windows or window grills. My dad give the profits to my mom and my mom budget it for the whole family. What a teamwork right?😊
"There's always sunshine after the rain."
After I graduate from college last July, 2018, I did my review for the upcoming licensure examination for teacher in September, on the same year. But unfortunately, I did not passed. So I tried again for the second time. That was on March, 2019 and I think the result was released around May. I was at church that time when my cousin, Jeremy, was looking at me, smiling then congratulates me, like what is going on? Lol. Then he told me that I passed the board exam. OMG! I passed! I can’t believe it! Yey! :D. I really cried and everyone in the church were smiling while sending their “congratulations” message to me. I looked at my father with teary eyes. I know what it means. All of their hardships with mom was paid off.
2019 was the best year ever. Not just that I got my license but I also got to see my two sisters walked on the isle with the love of their life while me singing with their favorite love songs. Everything was just so lovely:
Cebu-Bohol Tour:
This year, I get the chance to travel to some places in the Philippines. My brother-in-law is planning to build a tour business and he chose me to check the tourist places around Cebu and Bohol and observe if the tour guide that he found online is trustworthy enough to become his business partner in the Philippines, since he is living in Germany. It was an honor that he trust me for that big job. I did my best and documented everything, from the fees, accommodations, pictures, videos, locations, our daily expenses, everything. Of course, the journey wasn’t easy so that’s why, I always keep my communication open to them (brother-in-law and sister). I always update them during the night time after we did all the activities, to make sure that they are always updated in our trip. This are some of the beautiful places and activities that we did during the trip.
After the trip, he launched the Gengen tour website and linked it to other companies to make it more public. They got a customer from Germany, few weeks after. He hired me to be a tour partner of the tour guide that he found in Cebu. The 5 days tour with the customer went well so far. I mean, look at our eye bags.😂.. We have to make sure that before we sleep, our guest is already comfortable on her room. That means, if our guest didn’t sleep until midnight, we should not sleep too.lol.😅 Well, that’s a life of a tour guide and I am learning it. Safety must come first for the customer. 😊
After the first customer, they received inquiries again. Another group of travelers booked on their website but brother-in-law did not accept it because at the moment, we are just starting, learning and still improving. They are just accepting small group of customers for now. Around December, I had an idea of coming to Manila to look for a job and pursue my teaching profession. The sudden plan came around while I am standing in my window in my room and thinking about the things that I want to happen, 5 years from now. The waits makes me feel like I have to do something because life is not getting younger. I chose Manila because there are more job opportunities there and the rate of the salary is higher than in other places in the Philippines. But of course, if I still be given a chance to do a job tour, I would accept it (as part-time). Travelling and meeting new people is something special. It’s about creating memories in your life that you can look back when you get old.
**My journey from Balangiga to Manila: **
It was early January, 2020 when my sisters and their husbands have to leave the province. They invited me to come with them and drop me in Manila before they fly off bound to their home countries. Three of my sisters have a foreign partner. Two are married and the other is a live-in partner. And oh yes, I also have a sister who is married to a Filipino but sadly they are separated now because they don’t get along well. They have a daughter(Jelay-the little girl in blue dress) whom I cared about the most. I wanted to make sure that she have all the love in the world that her father didn’t gave to her.
We went altogether with my family to Tacloban. We ate lunch in one of our favorite restaurant “Mang Inasal” then we went to Romualdez Airport to drop us off. It was kind of emotional leaving the province especially my parents.🙁 I feel like my years of staying with them was too short but I have to grow up and have my own life. Before we get inside to the airport, we hugs each other and said goodbyes. I tried to not make tears but when I looked at my parent’s sad face and teary niece, gosh! My tears had fall. 😪
Moving forward, before we flew to Manila, we stopped in Cebu. We spent 2 days there and 3 days in Bohol. We did some outdoors activities and had a long drive with the motorbike. It was a great adventure! After the trip, we flew to Manila.
Two(2) days after my arrival in Manila, I started looking for work. It took me 1 month until I found a job. It was supposed to be a temporary job for me to save some money that I’ll be using for applying a teaching job in the public school but the pandemic happens so I have no choice but to stay to where I am right now. I work as a receptionist in an engineering company and it’s almost 2 years now. I love my job even if sometimes I feel bore being alone in my table for 12 hours. It’s helping me to keep going and provide all my needs and wants. Life is unpredictable and it’s an adventure to take.
Special thanks to @jordand89 for introducing this HIVE to me. This is a good platform to connect with other people. Hello to @fionasfavourites , @ocd , and @lovesniper . Thanks again for the advise and commenting in one of my videos.😉
I’m excited with my journey here in HIVES. I may not be always around here but I’ll try my best to write more and keep in touch with your comments. I hope to see you in my next blog. Bye for now. Stay healthy and stay safe!😃❤️