Haiyan aftermath: Ken’s story

 TACLOBAN CITY, Philippines – Ken Nodado is a 22 year old tricycle driver who saw his house crushed by two ships after typhoon Yolanda.

KEN NODADO, TRICYCLE DRIVER: Dito kasi sa lugar namin, masaya dito kapag Linggo. Nakasanayan dito ng mga tao pag Linggo na mag happy happy, parang day-off time, parang family day rin na buong pamilya nagsasaya. Ayan ang masaya dito eh. (Here in our place it’s really happy on Sundays. Everyone in this area got used to the fact that when it’s Sunday everyone had fun.)

 Early morning on November 8, 2013 Ken’s house was crushed under two ships. This is his story

KEN NODADO, TRICYCLE DRIVER:  Noong humupa na yung ulan hindi namin akalain na ganito pala ung, na ganito na sa paligid namin. Yung bahay namin titignan ko sana, pagtingin ko may malaking barko na. Inisip nalang namin kung paano kami makakain nung araw na yun kasi wala kaming naitabi na pagkain. (When the rain stopped we didn’t expect our area to look like this. I was going to check on our house. When I checked there were two ships already on it. We just started thinking about what we could eat that day because we didn’t save food before the storm. )

Sa ilalim niyan kuya, may motor. Hinukay ng mga kaibigan ko. Tinigil nila kasi may katabing bangkay. Gloves ko! Ito ung gloves ko noong nagdradrive ako dati. Saktong lokasyon ng bahay ko dati, noong di pa nagbabagyo. Dito, sa ilalim na ‘to. Dito, itong lugar na ‘to. (Under that ship, there’s a motorbike my friends dug up. They stopped because they found a dead body there too. This used to be my gloves before. This is the exact location where my house used to be before the storm, right underneath there.)

Yung takot na parang, parang alam mo yung parang nanghihina ka dahil yung paligid sobrang sira na lahat. As in ‘di mo alam kung paano magsisimula. Noong mga panahon na yon mga 1 week after may kumakalat na balita na may mga NPA daw na nagsibabaan. Tapos mga Badjao na nangloloob sa mga bahay at nangunguha ng pagkain. Doon ako nagkadesisyon na pumunta sa Manila kasi natakot din ako sa pwedeng mangyari. (It’s the kind of fear that makes you really weak because you see everything around you and it’s destroyed you don’t know how to start again. During that time around one week after the storm there were rumours that were spreading that there were NPA members that went down from the mountains and that the Bajao were breaking into the houses to get food. That’s when I made the decision to go to Manila, because I was scared of what could happen.)

Ken left for Manila with his family.

He received P10,000 in donations from his friends and relatives With the donation he bought 10 cellphones to sell in Tacloban for three times the price he bought them for in Manila

KEN NODADO, TRICYCLE DRIVER:  Magisa lang ako umuwi. Yung pamilya ko nasa Maynila lang, ako lang magisa sumakay sa bus. Araw-araw naglalako, naglalakad ako ng mahigit dalwang kilometro araw-araw mula alas-nueve ng umaga hangaang alas-singko hangaang sa naipon na ang pera namin. Umabot na ng 90,000. Nagdesisyon kami bumili ng tricycle. Ayon yung gamit ko, ung tricycle yun ang nakakatulong sa araw-araw ng pangkain dun namin kinukuha.  (When I went back I left my family in Manila. I was the only one who road the bus. Every day I was selling. I was walking more than 2 kilometers every day from 9am to 5pm until we were able to save P90,000. We made the decision to buy a tricycle. Now it’s the tricycle that helps us get our daily food.)

Para sa akin, hindi kami dapat magantay ng tulong galing sa ibang tao. Kasi yung tulong na yan eh, hindi namin alam kung kailan lang yan, o kung hangaang kailan magbibigay, o hangaang kailan sila magtutulong sa amin. Dapat magisip din kami ng plano kung paano kami mabubuhay sa araw-araw. Kapag makaisip ka ng plano kung paano ka mabuhay, paano ka makahanap ng makakain pwede pa yan pang habang  buhay. Yung tulong, hindi mo alam baka bukas, mamaya o susunod ng mga araw, wala na. Samantala kung makaisip ka ng magandang plano, kung nakaisip ka ng magandang negosyo, pwedo pa maging successful iyan sa aming buhay. (In my opinion we should stop waiting for help from other people because we don’t know how long help will be given. We should start thinking of a plan on how we can live day to day. If you can think of a plan of how to live and find food that could last you a lifetime. The help we are getting now can disappear anytime but if you think of a really good plan or business you can be successful for the rest of your life.)  – Rappler.com