Woke up this morning with this

a closer look would show this

Manila and its nearby regions are stricken by typhoon, Pedring.

Classes and work are suspended and I would normally rejoice whenever these happen. However, our experience with typhoon Ondoy two years ago brought a lot of changes in my family.

It was a typical rainy Saturday morning. We were aware of the typhoon's existence but everything went the same for the family. We were complacent because our place never had a history of flooding. I woke up late, had late breakfast, lunch with my family and lounged for a DVD marathon. We ignored the continuous rain because we felt we were safe. Afternoon came and flood started appearing outside our house. Flood came so fast and when evening came, the level of flood inside our house was already as high as my waist. 



That evening made the longest hours of my life. My entire family didn't sleep. We waited until the flood subsided. Thank God for not prolonging our misery. At around 2 am, the flood was gone. We were left with the aftermath of flood. Stained walls, soiled floors, garbage, damaged furniture were the common surroundings in our community.

Ondoy changed my family. There were a lot of lessons learned from the typhoon.

As I woke up this morning, part of me was praying that typhoon Pedring is not another Ondoy. It's 6:22 pm and while I am checking my students' papers and nursing a cold :-( , my entire family is glued to the news. Weather reports say that the typhoon will soon depart Manila....Hopefully, the weather will be better tomorrow.