MikeLigalig.com

I didn't know what to think at first when I stumbled upon six teenagers shooting hoops over the weekend in a wrecked neighborhood of Tacloban, a city that Typhoon Haiyan reduced to rubble, bodies and uprooted trees when it slammed into the Philippines Nov. 8.

As a foreign correspondent working in the middle of a horrendous disaster zone, I didn't expect to see people having a good time — or asking me to play ball. I was even more stunned when I learned that the basketball goal was one of the first things this neighborhood rebuilt.

It took a moment for me to realize that it made all the sense in the world.

Linkback: https://tubagbohol.mikeligalig.com/index.php?topic=76722.0

But as the crisis eases and aid begins to flow, hope is flickering. People smile, if only briefly, and joke, if only in passing. They are snippets of life. They do not mean, by any stretch, that people are happy in the face of tragedy. But for some, there is a newfound enthusiasm for life that comes from having just escaped death.

When a kid with mismatched shoes rolled the grimy, orange-and-yellow basketball my way, I was encouraged to attempt a slam dunk. I opted for free throws instead, and miraculously sank the first two, to immense cheers all around.

My third shot hit the rim, circled twice and rolled the wrong way. The crowd roared a sympathetic "Awwwwwwwwww." There were a lot of laughs.

Linkback: https://tubagbohol.mikeligalig.com/index.php?topic=76722.0

I covered the aftermath of the 2011 tsunami in Japan, and cannot recall a single laugh. Every nation is resilient in its own way, but there is something different in the Philippines that I have not yet put my finger on.

While walking through Tacloban's ruins, I and my colleagues were almost always greeted by kind words. When I asked how people were doing, people who had lost everything said, "Good." Superficial words, of course, but combined with the smiles, and with hearing "Hey, Joe" again and again (an old World War II reference to G.I. Joe), they helped form a picture I have not encountered in other disaster zones.

Perhaps it has something to do with an expression Filipinos have: "Bahala Na." It essentially means: Whatever happens, leave it to God.

Linkback: https://tubagbohol.mikeligalig.com/index.php?topic=76722.0

"So rather than screaming or staring at the wall in a psychiatric ward, you do everything you can. You do your best, then let it go," said de Castro, who helped provide psychological aid to victims of the 2004 Asia tsunami during a previous job with the U.N. Children's Fund.

People playing music or sports in the rubble, de Castro said, "is a way of saying, 'Life goes on.' This is what they used to do every day, and they're going to keep doing it."

"It's not that Filipinos are some happy-go-lucky people and don't care," she added. "It's a normal reaction to an abnormal situation. They're saying: 'I can deal with this. I'm at peace, and whatever happens tomorrow, happens.' ... They need help, of course, but they're also saying, they're going to get by on their own if they have to."

Linkback: https://tubagbohol.mikeligalig.com/index.php?topic=76722.0

Those who have gotten a chance to leave Tacloban have done so, of course, though many will no doubt return one day.

On Monday, I rode on a U.S. Air Force C-17 out of Tacloban to Manila, along with about 500 people displaced by the typhoon. There were babies and pregnant women. Some had tears in their eyes. One man held a doll with stuffed animal-like angel wings. He stared at it intensely, kissing it over and over.

As the plane neared Manila, an American crew member held her iPhone to her helmet's microphone, which was linked to the aircraft's speaker system.

Linkback: https://tubagbohol.mikeligalig.com/index.php?topic=76722.0

faith it is in someone more powerful than us, then.  way to go.

Linkback: https://tubagbohol.mikeligalig.com/index.php?topic=76722.0

Dealing with disaster has become an art, but Typhoon Haiyan was quite different. It was immense, and no amount of preparation could have prepared us to cope with it.

So rather than screaming or staring at the wall in a psychiatric ward, you do everything you can. You do your best, then let it go.

People playing music or sports in the rubble is a way of saying, 'Life goes on.' This is what they used to do every day, and they're going to keep doing it.

- Todd Pitman of AP, quoting Elizabeth Protacio de Castro, UP-Manila associate professor of psychology

Linkback: https://tubagbohol.mikeligalig.com/index.php?topic=76722.0

A man repairs his typhoon-damaged home near the San Juanico bridge in Tacloban City yesterday. ERNIE PEÑAREDONDO (http://www.philstar.com/)

Linkback: https://tubagbohol.mikeligalig.com/index.php?topic=76722.0

More than resilient?



Linkback: https://tubagbohol.mikeligalig.com/index.php?topic=76722.0