Diary of a Relief Worker

This post is from Winnie Romeril, a Red Cross volunteer deployed to the Philippines. Impressions at 4 a.m. Entering Day Two I can’t sleep. My mind is filled with vivid images from yesterday. We drive through miles of lush green rice paddies punctuated by graceful white herons. Occasionally we see people working the fields, cows finding shade under storm-felled coconut trees, the brightly-colored Philippine flag twisting in the hot, humid breeze. It looks deceptively refreshing. It is not. The heat here is impressive. We stand in the sun for hours with the Philippine Red Cross volunteers organizing and carrying out the relief distributions. I sweat off my sunscreen in minutes. Reapplying it is futile. I feel very far away indeed from my snowy home 13 time zones away. The smiling chorus of “Thank you, mam’! Thank you for helping us!” evaporates my petty discomfort. The full relief package is too much for one person to carry, especially for the elderly and pregnant women. So village men join the Red Cross volunteers ushering their neighbors through the line with their arms full of mats, mosquito nets, tarps, boxes and bags of food, and other relief supplies. When everyone has received their goods, the men get their turn. Relief distributions need lots of space— for people to assemble, trucks to line up, and for survivors to gather up their supplies. Every barangay (town) has one perfect space for this. THE singular most important outdoor meeting space in every vi...
Source: Red Cross Chat - Category: Global & Universal Authors: Tags: Uncategorized Haiyan International philippines relief typhoon volunteer yolanda Source Type: news