After the Storm

"After the storm, the sun shines again"~~~ by Anonymous

The Philippines is visited by at least, again at least, 26 typhoons a year! These typhoons are mostly during the rainy season, in the months of May to December. While we are at the midst of the dry season, we are overly waiting for the rains to come because it is always very humid and hot with temperatures always above 30°C, sometimes even reaching 36-38°C in the hottest parts. But at the back of our minds we know that it seldom rains without any typhoon or at least a Low Pressure Area (LPA) or an Inter Tropical Convergent Zone (ITCZ). In clear term, rains are only brought by typhoons!

Rains neutralize our overheated atmosphere, our dry land, our thirsty drying trees and plants, and most specially our tortured emotions and well-being! Huh! And the aftermath of these events, most specially during this very famous "climate change"-- floods and landslides. But there is a newly emerging disaster that happened in the recent flooding--garbage! It has been fully televised from the previous big famous typhoon; garbage accumulated at the Manila Bay area. It was a big deal and expensive, hauling truckloads and truckloads of that garbage. It did not only come from the inland Metro Manila, but also from the sea carried by the waves and deposited on the shores.

Our small beach in our province is also a repository of garbage during the recent small typhoon Ofel. I have seen this only for the first time. Our beach fronts a small bay facing the Pacific Ocean, and the garbage came from everywhere.

 To the left of where i stand. At least the garbage here are mostly biodegradable materials, thanks God not much of styrofoam and plastic.

 Composition: logs, bamboos, twigs, roots, banana trunks, coconut husks, coconuts

 To the right from where i stand: the same composition of garbage, but to my relief these are all biodegradable. Some people get the bigger branches to use as firewood for their stoves, others get the coconuts and bamboos. If only there is an enterprising gardener here, those debris will make a lot of organic compost, very good for gardening.

 At the background are the other islands at the other side of the Batangas Bay. The openings between those islands go direct to the Pacific Ocean.

My most familiar picture of that beach is still there, the colored stones. At least some small patches are still uncovered by the debris. And after all the organic materials are decomposed or eaten by microorganisms, these stones will again be fully visible.

After the storm, the sun shines again!