The first thing we saw when we landed was a broken airport, with glass and brick walls blown out. All that remained was the skeletal structure, with tapes and canvas demarcating where we should wait.
On the road to the city of Tacloban, all we saw was destruction. Before I had arrived, I had imagined only damages to wooden huts and slum areas, but I was wrong. Concrete and steel structures were destroyed as well.
The waves had washed a few ships ashore, crushing houses and their inhabitants.
It has been a few months since the disaster, but the survivors are still trying to rebuild their lives. The fortunate ones still have their ruins... barely-there walls and improvised roofs. Others live in tents, small crammed quarters that cannot endure the coming rainy season.
Jobless, homeless, cut off from the grid and still reliant on food relief, the people barely eke out a living. They scavenge for water, and any item they hope can be of use.
But hope always comes in the most unexpected forms. A group of singers from Singapore traveled to the Eastern Visayas region to sing for the people.
Belting out the most popular songs with nifty dance moves, they soon got the crowd cheering.
Relief supplies were given out and promises of further help were made, but nothing got the people more excited than the songs. Food may fill the stomach for a day or two, but boosted morale inspires the soul to fight on for many more days to come.
As media turns its fickle attention to other fresher news, the people here risk being forgotten. But the people of Eastern Visayas face many more months and even years of slow reconstruction. Let us not forget them, and do our utmost to support the survivors of Typhoon Haiyan.
Please contribute to the Maximum Life Campaign, a dollar-for-dollar donation drive to help the brave survivors.
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