In the aftermath, trees, billboards and electric posts were felled by the treacherous gusts that blew like a boxer's punches. Hours of no electricity extended into days. Without electricity, the pumps in our housing complex were useless, leaving us waterless too. Yet this is Metro Manila, and these were really no big inconvenience. The malls were up and running on generators. These commercial edifices were more than willing to placate the boredom, heat and material needs of the urban dweller. The planes were flying as soon as the clouds thinned over the airport and its environs. The next day, I was actually able to commute to to the office without any major hitch. Metro traffic was back with a vengeance (buses made a killing while the MRT was offline). As far as I was concerned, the Globe signal never went off even at the height of the typhoon. Lastly, one significant factor that alleviated major discomfort in our place was the absence of floods, the perennial scourge back in Bicol. No muddy floor to clean up, no damaged furniture and appliance to repair.
After Rosing back then, with extensive damage to city infrastructure and utilities requiring about a week to fix (or wait for reprieve from nature, in case of flooded areas), our semestral break was extended to seven more days (oh joy!). It was impossible to be bored. The flood had shaped a new landscape of mud and sand that was conducive for play. We drew figures on a mud dump like what we did once on still-wet cement. There was even one poor boy whose body figure was embedded on the mud because the bullies made him fall flat on his face (and we thought we'd see that only in cartoons)! It was exploration galore! Rosing was so strong it took with it the remaining clouds in the region, leaving us with sunny blue skies by day and clear starry heavens by night. Our group of friends became instant astronomers as we identified constellations, stars and planets, and even spotted the occasional meteor and high-altitude plane or satellite. During the hot and humid days, we would seek shelter around the trees that withstood the typhoon or inside makeshift tents put up by our neighbors who had the misfortune of living in low-lying areas where the flood had not receded yet. I must have learned a handful of card games that time (which I eventually forgot until I encountered them again in college). The most monumental discovery of that time was a stash of comics found in one of the tents. Because of this discovery, we, pubescent boys and girls, even formed a "Midnight Society" wherein we met at a fallen tree by the bank of the Naga River whose waters were deep and fast-flowing (the source waterfall suddenly appearing as a white strip on Mt. Isarog, 15 km. away, the gentle stream swelling to a raging river up there). We didn't meet at midnight, we preferred the hot and lazy mid-days and afternoons. In the first place, we didn't share scary stories; instead, we eagerly perused and commented on the contents of the comics descriptively entitled Desire Komiks.
Now in Manila without electricity, the metropolitan life lost its essence. This brought up the opportunity for bonding among neighbors, over beer perhaps or some guitar-led sing-along. Unfortunately for me, I was not in the neighborhood of my childhood neither was I a child anymore. In the aftermath of Milenyo there were no more monumental discoveries, no new landscape to play around with. I had lost the childhood innocence and compulsion for fun. I was bored. After I had brushed up on my meager piano-playing skills, after I had completed my small reading list, what else was to be done? I realized that making music for me now is playing MP3s on my computer, and reading is blog-hopping and Internet surfing. (Thankfully, I still relish writing on paper, and my cursive is still presentable enough; else I might not have come up with this long entry.) The blackouts were less of adventure and more of inconvenience, the fallen billboards, trees and posts were less of a curiosity and more of a source of concern and condemnation. Is this what "adulthood" and "sophistication" do? Damn.
Good thing there was the humdrum of work to distract me, extract me even, from the misfortune of circumstance. For the succeeding days without electricity and water, the corporate building was my refuge. There I ate, drank, brushed my teeth, surfed the Net, and do all those things that needed water and electricity. Except for bathing, though; the P100 daily water rations back home covered for this.
After nine days of no electricity and no water, we were becoming restless (see the "grimy" details in the next part under "rants", I just wanted this part to be light and nostalgic). And I guess the powers that be had sensed this restlessness and had feared of its consequences. By night, there was light and water. The neighborhood was bright and loud once again. The TV was back with a vengeance, the multicomponent was back with a vengeance, and most especially, the videoke was back with a vengeance.
Other parts of the series:
1 2 3
Labels: environment, nostalgia
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