So as my Facebook status said last night, it's been a tad wet here. I am probably in the safest place, here on the ship (especially now that all the dry dock holes that were made in the bottom of the ship have been filled in).
Subic Bay (where I am right now) was formally the site of a major ship-repair, supply and rest and recreation facility of the United States Navy located in Olongapore, Philippines. The Navy Exchange had the largest volume of sales of any exchange in the world, and the Naval Supply Depot handled the largest volume of fuel oil of any navy facility in the world. Today Subic Bay is mainly an industrial and commercial area. It is also a small piece of the western kind of life and haven in the poverty of the Philippines.
But just outside of the Subic Bay guarded gates and over the bridge is Olongapore. Olongapore is a real reminder of what the Philippines has been like. People living in shacks, stilt towns over rivers, young children begging etc etc
But, we are sat here in Subic Bay, Philippines with a state of "calamity" being declared in parts of Manila (a four hour drive from here) and other areas close to us. Olongapore is flooded along with many other areas. It is the middle of typhoon and monsoon season which seems to have taken it's toll on the Philippines this year. To see and read more, take a look at the following website: http://news.yahoo.com/photos/monsoons-pummel-philippines-slideshow/
I have just been looking through my photos of the ships visit to Manila in February just gone and it worries me. I met people who lived in houses on stilts ON the river. I worry how they are coping. I am sat here in dry, warm clothes. A dry, warm home and I don't have to worry about losing my belongings or where my next meal is coming from.
So this was the village that I visited. I really wonder if it is standing.
Photo from the news of what parts of Manila is like today.
Ariel shot of what a shanty town in Manila looks like tonight.
People I met in Manila.
Where are they sleeping tonight?
1 comment:
Those pictures really bring across the point... much to pray for.
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