A hero out of a storm

She was a hero, despite her budding age at 12. She waded the flood, braving the strong current of waters, proudly holding up the Philippine flag. A hero rises from the mad storm Juaning, hitting the northern part of the country. She is Janella. The petite girl from Albay who save our national symbol.

What happened to her after that?

We saw in the news how the plight of her family. Their house was totally swept by the typhoon. They have nowhere to go to shelter on.

She returned the flag to the school. She received several accolades from the school authorities. In fact, a large picture of her heroism was displayed in the school premises. How proud this little girl was. By saving the flag, she became an instant hit worldwide.

She deserves an honor, even in Malacañang for her mighty deed.

In a television program yesterday, a cement company provided her family construction materials to build their home. A local university in her place, gave her a scholarship, an answered prayer of her grandmother who always wanted Janella to finish her education. On top of that, a livelihood package to start another  hope, much to their surprise was handed to them.

The little thing she did born huge things for her and her entire family.

I was teary-eyed to see her inspiring story. I can only hope this country has more Janella's within, waiting to surface in both happy and sad occasions.

Darkness

Darkness. It is the absence of light. It is manifested in black color. The color spells uncertainty and great fear for most of us. Absolutely, no one likes to live in darkness.

We experienced darkness for twelve hours lately. A widespread   brown-out hit the entire block where we lived due to   the accident,   which claimed the life of the jeepney driver. He wasn’t able to escape the aged-old acacia tree falling down for an unexplainable cause.

Interesting stories about the incident became the hot topic of the curious passers-by and residents. I could hear them talking about the spirits abandoning the tree, transferring to another equally giant tree adjacent to a school. Some people blame the rains, making the tree’s foundation vulnerable.    

The room was dim and dark. A tiny light passes through the small window visible from the rooftop. The lonely candle which I lit at past six in the evening continues to glow. It was comfortably placed on top of the television set.

At first the evening heat was just manageable. But as hours passed and the night goes deep, the warmth inside the room seems unbearable. I was liked cooked in an oven. I was even tempted to undress to compensate the ever growing heat. If anyone does see me, it could only be totally black figure.

I tried to entertain myself just to deviate my attention of the agony. I sometimes go out to breath fresh air from the rooftop. From there, I could hear the grinding of the chain saw, the light illuminating above to clear the debris and the linesmen fixing the electric lines.

The brown-out caused much inconveniences to us. We will miss the early night news. We will miss our favorite primetime drama series. Everything run by electricity are unusable.

Why female names?

Nang Juaning, she is our only neighbor back in the nineties, when our family secedes living with my grandparents to start a new home. She is Litang, my cousin’s classmate in the law school. Her is Bebing, the now gray-haired neighbor who never expected to settle down not until she’s in her mid 30s. And still many others.

These names are also used to name abnormal weather conditions. Female names in general. They are widely used by our authorities to describe storms and typhoons.

But why female names?

This question remained unanswered until today. I couldn’t find a valid and concrete explanation why our storms and typhoon have feminine names. I came across with an opinion which explains it. Storms are unpredictable, they change directions rapidly. He said females behave the same way too. They are fickle-minded. They change decisions quickly. She says yes now but after a few minutes she says no.

Maybe the writer, I could not exactly remember his name, have a point. We cannot predict how it behaves.

Typhoons are strong. Once it hits the ground, devastation occurs. Houses unroofed. Trees and plants bowed down to the ground. It has power and strength.

When we speak of physical strength, men are stronger than women. Why isn’t it named on the male specie, on that analogy?