MAKILALA, North Cotabato — “We are living in a plastic house and my books are wet and I’m getting used to it,” said Nicole, a grade-6 learner of Malabuan elementary school here.
Nicole’s parents Jose and Miguela are farmers from the village of Lacobe in Malabuan. Their house was among those partially damaged by the series of earthquakes since October 16.
Nicole described their temporary shelter as ‘plastic house’ with 3×3 square meter space covered with laminated plastic, situated few steps away from Malabuan barangay gym which also serves as the evacuation center for evacuees from the nearby barangays of Villaflores and Bato.
The Malabuan Gym is one of the 25 evacuation centers in North Cotabato presently accommodating 4,766 families or 18,816 individuals.
Nicole’s father said that their house was still standing when they left on October 30, but every partition sustained cracks after the quakes. Hence, her anxiety as saying, “I don’t know If it is still there standing. I already want to go home and stay there because it’s too hot here and children are getting sick,” Manong Jose said in the vernacular.
All he wanted was somebody knowledgeable about building structures to find out if his house is still structurally fit so they can go home. “Lahi gyud kung sa among balay mi magpuyo (it is different when we are in our house),” Banga lamented.
Watching the family eating their lunch inside the tent, one can see how resilience is mustered in order to survive living conditions at the evacuation site.
At the moment, they still have enough of the food they received from various donors and the government supply, according to Manang Miguela. But the biggest problem is the intermittent weather condition which added to the series of aftershocks.
The mother was teary-eyed when she narrated that Nicole cried when there was heavy rain as her books and school materials were drenched with rainwater coming from all over. “Nalouy ko niya, gigakos ko niya ug ang iyang mga notebook pero ang uban libro nabasa gyud. Gitago niya iyang luha, kay kabalo siya nga mohilak sab ko,
(She embraced with her notebooks but other books were really wet, she tried to hide her tears because she knows I will cry).
Nicole and her mother hang the books in a plastic rope inside their so-called ‘plastic house’, so she can use it the next day in school. The classes in Malabuan elementary school resumed last Monday. They hold classes inside a tent just to cope with days when schooling was interrupted.
Meantime, seeing Nicole and her parents in an emotional hurdle with their situation, they too blurted how disturbing it is to feel in constant fear that the jolts may strike anytime, and the grim reality of people getting sick each day at the evacuation site is also haunting.-Editha Z. Caduaya/
