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By Ian Harvey Bartolome

I will never forget that fateful day.

Ondoy became the great equalizer on earth. Rich and poor were literally and asking for the same help. People living in posh villages as well as in squatters colonies felt the same cold water and strong torrents. You can no more separate one life from another as a drop for the water.

It was the morning of September 26, Saturday, at around 10, I was driving with my grandmother and my two aunts going to Bocaue.

I thought it was just an ordinary typhoon, like the ones that come and gone, but I was wrong. And what happened next was a complete surprise.

While driving along McArthur Highway, the water level drastically changed, I drove until I reached a gasoline station near SM Marilao. Then from the place where I parked the van, I was startled with what I saw –a vast ocean-like McArthur Highway! Nothing in sight but a somewhat deluge ready to engulf everything around including my second hand vehicle.

We stayed inside SM trying to kill time - walking and eating while hoping the water outside will settle down the soonest possible time. I thought we will be homeward bound by 6 pm but until 7 the flood outside is still rising.

At around 9 the water stopped rising, but the flood reached 6 feet high! And this all the more made me worried about my relatives that are left in our home in Meycauayan.

It’s almost around 12 midnight, Mc Arthur Highway was still not passable. Finally at 5:30 in the morning, the water settled down a bit, we decided to go home when we learned that the water was almost knee-level.

I was welcomed with another shock when we reached home - there were vehicles in the road covered with mud, houses that were totally destroyed and what made me feel more perturbed was the sight of people walking in the streets trying to recover their things that were washed out by the flood. I wanted to cry because wherever I look around the house, I can only see water. Our house is filled with flood and most of our valuable things were now gone. Everything my family has worked for including the hope of retrieving the last ounce of optimism I chose to keep.

But what really struck me was what my mom quoted: “Mas mabuti na ‘to dahil buhay pa din tayo –mga gamit lang ‘yan napapalitan,” she quips enthusiastically as if trying to cheer me up and  trying to lighten up the whole situation despite what we went through.

For a while I mused and decided to myself my mom was right, everything in this world is transient; impermanent. What matters are the things that will stay such as – family, the people you cared most about and this life we have.

This thought inspired me to get on my feet and help our neighbors who suffered more than what we experienced.  Together with my mom, we helped our neighbors clean their places and scrub all those mud out of their houses.

At the end of the day we were beaten exhausted, but we felt unusually elated being able to help others, and it was indeed a fulfillment for me.

Ondoy has reconnected everyone, it did not dampen the spirit of the people who want to help and lend their hands to others just like what I did.

And I didn’t do this for fame, not even for anything in return. It was sheer joy and pure concern, and hearing someone say ‘thank you’ is enough reward to make me smile.