Articles in All
Mango Shake at Alejandro’s
Much as it pains me to say it, it is raining heavily outside. It has been raining all night, and my first task of the day was to push the floodwater into the bathroom. The floodwater is currently rebuilding. I’m also vaguely ill. Worrying facts of life in post-typhoon Tacloban.First day of the new year was not exactly a barn burner. I slept until 11 …
Newspaper Article about Body ID at Suhi
Not to be a broken record, but it rained – hard – all last night. I woke up to a flooded room again and my first task was to take a towel and clean up. There is always so much water that I can’t just mop up the water. I use the towel like a squeegee and push waves of water toward the bathroom. Luckily, …
The Generator Runs at Night
The year is stumbling and groaning and shuffling to its end. At least it feels that way here in Tacloban as the rain comes down for hour after hour, day after day, even week after week. Considering that the ocean itself rose up and engulfed the city in seawater not long ago, it seems a bit harsh of the sky to be so unremitting in …
Carlo and the Japanese Journalists
I’m not sure if I woke up as the curmudgeon or the invalid. Maybe I’m still both. I woke up to the tinny and endless sound of horrible music coming out of Guapo’s cell phone. (I’ve recently learned that the young muscly and fashionable guy with the cell phone is referred to as Guapo or “Guaps” by everyone here.) The music got worse and worse …
MSF and Antibiotics
I DID go to the Medecins Sans Frontieres medical center yesterday, and it was a very good thing that I did. This sickness is not just a passing thing. I’ve been SOOOO sick. I’ve clearly picked up a nasty bacterial infection in my gut. What drives me crazy is not knowing where I got it from. Which dish was contaminated? At which restaurant? Which glass …
Dealing with Illness
I think I’m still a curmudgeon today, but I’m so weak that the curmudgeon is not surfacing very much. I don’t have the strength to be annoyed at anyone or anything. I appear to be an invalid. I was sick throughout the night – stomach cramps, enough gas to lift a hot air balloon, and chills. I don’t know if it is anything that needs …
Christmastime in Tacloban after Typhoon Yolanda
Despite a very pleasant Christmas Day, I woke up a curmudgeon on this December 26th. I went out to have a cup of coffee at a place that had recently re-opened, and I was annoyed immediately outside my room’s door by the horrific tinny sound pouring out of a young man’s cell phone. This young fellow works at the hotel and has his fancy smartphone …
Day 47 Super Typhoon Yolanda – Suhi Body ID Site and San Roque
Despite the threat of rain yesterday (a threat that has become constant in Tacloban in this, the next in a long line of “rainy seasons”), I got on my bicycle and rode out to Suhi – the site where, presumably, the BPI is processing dead bodies to identify them. The initial part of the bike ride – that from Tacloban to the turn-off to the …