So I finally got some sufficient signal to be able to open my PeakD account and upload this article while queueing, but not enough signal to upload more photos 🥲. I couldn't do that back home and I apologize if my updates seem late and grammatically under-optimized. I only write through my phone these days (and yes, I still rely on my mobile data) since most charging stations here only allow essential devices like phones and powerbanks, and less likely laptops and tabs.
Started writing: December 25, 2021 (Christmas day)
So I finally got to have the time and the energy to write about how my family and I spent Christmas bisperas. I started the day late, I guess it was because I spent the previous night trying to reach for signal to communicate with my loved ones outside the island.
I was supposed to meet a friend that day and do my now usual routine of looking for charging stations prior do in Christmas shopping.
I never expected everyone to still want to be persistent with their holiday plans after the typhoon ravaged the city but I guess people are really trying to get a semblance of normalcy despite everything that happened.
So Christmas shopping it is.
If I had known the stores were already started becoming sold out as early as 3 PM, I wished I didn't stay up late the other night trying to scout for signal. But I couldn't help it, the signal is usually best near midnight while standing nearby my house's gate. There are no more streetlights and there are already plenty of news on looteries, muggeries, and robberies happening in the city recently, which makes staying nearby my house's gate at midnight risky. I guess I spoke too soon about the lack of evidence on "Ija-ija, ahu-ahu". It was only just a matter of time before people become increasingly desperate and baser instincts kicked in.
The ordinary long queues in ATM machines, gasoline stations, and watering stations, are now made all the more exacerbated by the long queues in grocery lines and food shops. There were so many people EVERYWHERE. It's as if people from all the neighboring towns came to Tagbilaran in preparation for Christmas.
And I, still traumatized by my last attempts of queueing in line which lasted for hours, decided to order takeout for my family instead. Despite that though, navigating through the thick crowds are anything but easy. Good thing a friend I was supposed to coordinate with for a donation drive offered to help me with Christmas shopping, and good thing there was only four of us at home, I could at least afford us a nice meal.
If here in the city, we only have to brave through the long queues and ATM machines, gasoline stations, and watering stations, now made all the more exacerbated by the long queues in the grocery line and food shops, it makes you think about the state of those on the opposite side of the island.
At least here in the city, while there is still ZERO electricity, I still got to attend Simbang Gabi with my grandmother, and still got to enjoy a cold slice of pizza afterwards in the candle light. Most people on the other side? Not so much.
It's very difficult to process all the emotions of what is happening in where I am.
I think everyone affected can relate to vasalating between being grateful for being alive and safe, and then not so grateful and teary-eyed for all the collateral damage and the long way to recovery, and then guilty for complaining and having to queue for 8-10 hours for basic necessities, and then desperate for some silver lining in the kilometers-long lines my brothers and I are queueing in for, and then annoyed at line cutters or the lack of movement within those queue lines, and then frustrated for being unable to contact my loved ones, or running out of data, or running out of phone battery, and then envious of those whose states are better or those who are more privileged like it's as if some bloody contest of who got more affected than who, and then angry at situations that pose more inconvenience at our currently already nagkamuliki state, and then worried about our own safety from looters, and bandits and those who try to take advantage of the lack of lighting in our area, and then thankful somehow, because there are still people who choose kind over everyone's own baser instincts during this state, that there is still food on our tables despite the very long queueing lines to acquire it. This December is one huge potluck of unexpected intense emotions and I just wish I'm painting a more accurate picture with this post.
At least here in the city, the center of trade of the province, trade still exists. I can't imagine how it must be in the least known places of East Bohol like Bantigue and Butan, Ubay, Inabanga, Carlos P. Garcia (Pitogo Island), wherein people are not getting anything at all. I only know from friends and social media posts from people who have already started sending help and it's not pretty:
Bohol is already lacking representation enough as it is compared to its more urbanized and more known counterparts. How much more in those places wherein there is still zero signal and due to that, are succumbing to digital isolation?
So that's why I am currently scouting for donation drives that are aggressively targeting those areas.
Things got slow since the last time I posted because I had to prioritize my family's needs first, and I had to take some time to do my own research and crowdsourcing for legitimate donation drives that will really reach the far ends of the more desperate and dismal places of the province.
So far, I only know of one Donation Drive specifically addressed to Bantigue and Butan and am currently coordinating with them.
The thing about Bantigue and Butan is that they are little islands off the coast of Ubay, and there is no source of fresh water on the island. Everyone there is at the risk of dehydration as Ubay itself is also in a dismal state.
I highly encourage you to directly send your donations to the link above or you may upvote my previous post or this post, as a portion of it will directly go to their funding. It might get a little delayed as I still have to process things from my end like make online transactions that will require better signal to transfer the funds to the multiple different accounts.
Aside from these two, I am also looking for donation drives of other affected municipalities like as Carlos P. Garcia, Ubay, Inabanga, Bien Unido, Cataban and little islets of East Bohol like:
I am currently looking for donation drives SPECIFICALLY TARGETED to these places, as I am pretty sure they will be the least prioritized due to the remoteness of their location. Will let you guys know how things will work out in the next weeks to follow. There's still a long way ahead of us.
HIVE FOR EAST BOHOL!
Ended writing: December 27, 2021
Roxanne Marie is the twenty-year-old something who calls herself the Protean Creator.
She is a chemical engineer by profession, pole-dancer and blogger by passion and frustration, and lastly, a life enthusiast. She is on a mission to rediscover her truth through the messy iterative process of learning, relearning and unlearning. Currently, she works as a science and research instructor in her hometown, Tagbilaran City, all the while documenting her misadventures, reflections and shenanigans as a working-class millennial here on Hive.
If you like her content, don't forget to upvote and leave a comment to show some love. It would be an honor to have this post reblogged as well. Also, don't forget to follow her to be updated with her latest posts.