The Way We Were - Annie has no house
26.11.2009
In the Philippines, typhoons generally originate in the South and travel northwards. As the centre of the storm passes over a particular area, the wind ceases, only to begin again with renewed fury from the opposite direction. If the centre of the storm passes to either side of a particular place, instead of the calm, the wind shifts systematically by degrees from south to north.
Two years ago, a little girl named Annie was crouching in a neighbour's house with her parents and family as a violent hurricane tore the nipa (palm thatch) roof from her house. Then, there was an ominous snap, and a tall coconut tree fell on one side of their house. Annie was terrified and began to cry.
As the storm intensified, the wind shifted from the southeast to the South. The tall trees swayed with the violent wind and shed their palm fronds. There was a second snap and another coconut tree dropped down on the other side of Annie's house. The little girl, too frightened even to cry, shuddered as it fell.
Before the destructive winds - blowing at 90-180kph - had ceased, yet a third coconut tree had fallen on the small bamboo and wood house. Now, there were splinters left, with the three coconut trees criss-crossed over the wreckage. Annie and her family were in shock, their house in ruins, their few possessions scattered by the wind; only a table and a few kitchen utensils remained.
The destruction meted out by elements was both spectacular and irreversible. Annie, quite simply, no longer had a house to live in. Her father gathered up whatever materials he could salvage from the flattened house and built a small shed where his family could live. And the table - though small - was just to big to fit inside the shed.
When I took Annie's picture, she was sitting on top of the table eating from a chipped enamel plate. Her breakfast was just a small dried fish and a bit of cold rice. For such a small girl, she was unbelievably beautiful, undisturbed by the disaster that had fallen upon herself and her family, and she watched me take her picture with those gentle, mischievous eyes.
Now, Annie and her family have a new wood and nipa house, built out of funds provided by the Presentation Sisters of Himamaylan (Annie's parish in the Philippines) because they, too, fell in love with my little friend.
Annie is older and just a little bit bigger than she was when the great typhoon destroyed her house. She is still the kind and gentle person that I discovered sitting on top of a table three years ago.
And she knows that God has not forgotten her - as small and insignificant as she may be - for He who has arranged the path of the winds and the rains, has also numbered the very hairs of our heads.
- Taken from The Far East, December 1992.
