Children coping with disaster
When she turned eight last year, Joy (not her real name) asked her parents for a kitchen toy set she saw at a mall.
For this year, though, she wants people to set aside their differences and to stop fighting.
“Gusto ra ko wala nay magaway ug magsinumbagay.”
Joy and her twin brother will celebrate their ninth birthday on Tuesday at the Naga Central Elementary School.
This, however, will not be a typical classroom birthday party.
Instead of classmates and friends, two families who also lost their homes and belongings will witness the twins turn anoth- er year older.
Joy’s family is one of nearly 400 families temporarily taking shelter at the school following the massive landslide that struck Sitio Sindulan in Barangay Tina-an, City of Naga last Sept. 20.
Her family has been sharing the classroom with the two families for 10 days, but yesterday was the first time she joined the other kid evacuees for afternoon play.
“I was bedridden for several days because of an upset stomach after I gargled water when I brushed my teeth,” she said in Cebuano.
Although strangers to each other, the kids easily agreed on a game of catch-ball. When they got bored, they used a football goalpost as a makeshift monkey bar.
Joy silently observed the other kids, trying to blend in while occasionally sniffling.
Her older sister and twin brother had told her to go out and have fun while they watched over their youngest sibling. Their parents were out to buy medicine for their mother who is suffering from tonsillitis.
Joy admitted feeling homesick, especially when weekends meant doing chores and then eating sinigang on their wooden dining table.
“Sa una kapuyon ko manghugas og plato, pero karun gimingaw nako ana. Hasta pud panglimpyo (I used to get tired of washing the dishes, but now I miss it. I also miss cleaning),” Joy said.
The family dining table was her favorite.
It was where she decided to become an elementary school teacher. It was also where she and her siblings made their homework, played house, ate and celebrated special occasions.
The table was buried under the rubble, along with their other memorabilia.
There might be no family table and chocolate cake or roasted chicken to lay on it on their special day, but Joy is happy that their family of six made it out of the calamity alive and together.
“If my birthday wish comes true, I want my mother to get well. I’m already happy that we are all safe and sound,” she said in Cebuano.