Typhoon Haiyan: Day 17

By Ernesto Cullari

Janine Cinseruli and Kimberly Perkins of Seagrass Restaurant, 68 Main Ave in Ocean Grove, are sponsoring a benefit dinner on behalf of Street Kids Philippine Missions on Wednesday December 4^th at 6pm. Tickets are $50 each, cocktail hour is from 6pm to 7pm. Act now, there are only 35 more dinner reservations left. Artist Roddy Wildeman has donated a magnificent piece for auction that was inspired and constructed from debris and found wood following Hurricane Sandy. To register for the dinner Online add Ernesto Cullari on Facebook.

We all remember what it was like to live through Hurricane Sandy and the days that followed without heat or electricity. The long lines for gas and food were humbling. My friends and I would boil water and pour it in with cold bath water whenever any of us needed to wash up. We wandered about in the dark with flashlights and battery operated radios. Hot coffee and cooked food was truly splendid. We helped each other by using Facebook to figure out which stations had gasoline or who needed clothing. We rescued each other.

A year later many of you are still recovering from construction or dealing with insurance companies that don’t want to honor their obligations to you. Now take everything you experienced, every hardship and every setback and put yourself in the position of someone living in the Third world, a place like the Philippines. The islands are so vast and numerous, it could take many years before their government reaches them with significant help. By then it will be too late.

I went 10 days without electricity following Hurricane Sandy. What takes 10 days here could realistically take 6 months where my mother is in the Philippines. My mother Lee who operates Street Kids Philippine Missions, an orphanage filled with 27 children and teens in Bohol, has estimated that it could take 6 months for electricity to be restored to their part of the island.

My mother reports that lines for clean drinking water, a badly needed necessity, are 3 hours long. “Everything is 3 times as expensive now because all the store operators must use gas or diesel generators to keep the refrigerators and lights on,” she said. They must wash their clothes by hand and hope that their clothing can manage to dry before becoming mildewy from the Philippine’s intensely humid climate.

In spite of their hardships and the devastation that surrounds them, my step dad Matt writes with joy and optimism:

“15 days now no electricity. Bed times are a lot earlier. It gets dark before 5:30pm… so eating is in the dark. I can stick a lot more things in their food that they might normally pick out. 🙂 I’ve found a solar company here that is coming to give us an estimate.

Our youngest, Angelo, is reading now. During the long absence from school we held a reading contest with the kids. We didn’t include pages with pictures but almost all the kids read more than a thousand pages, some read more than 1,500, and Marwen and Michelle read more than 2,000 pages. And everyone wrote two pages their favorite book and what they liked about it. What’s more is that many of the kids are still reading cause they’ve found it enjoyable.

One of the boys, Jefferson, contracted Tuberculosis from his father when he went home. Now six of the boys tested positive. I know it seems strange for Americans, but here they don’t inoculate for the disease. This is a blessing in disguise because Dennis was found to have a tumor in his chest and this would have gotten worse if left unnoticed and untreated. God works in ways that are bewildering to us. We have the girls tested this Saturday.

We have prayed and decided to take on more kids from the hardest hit area of Leyte Island. We don’t know who they are yet, but we hope and pray that they’ll adjust well here and come to know the Lord!”

My mother Lee and Matt are in the process of trying to take in 5 children who lost their parents in Typhoon Haiyan. The added expense comes out to about $12,000 a year. Please join us in supporting them and the 27 orphans that they already care for.