Nula Tula, No Paradise

Living in NULA TULA has a nice ring to it but it is not paradise by any means. One thing bad about an iPAD is you are staring at your reflection while you waiting to boot up and the sight is not pretty at the moment. As we drove through Tacloban yesterday, I kept seeing signs TINDOG TACLOBAN! At first I thought this was some dude buying scrape, but then I found out it means STAND UP  TACLOBAN!

As we went through the city there were 1000's of concrete houses with collapsed roofs, walls caved in, sometimes only a small piece of foundation left, or at times you would see the front of the house missing and then the back of the house buckled out and bowing from the force of the water hitting it.

They are raising the official death count now, but the locals still do not believe it. Some of the locals said many were killed not only by drowning but by debris penetrating their bodies. I remember as a child someone bringing a 2X4 to school with a piece of pine straw penetrating through and through a piece of wood with such force that it did not even break the pine straw. We have to remember this typhoon was essentially a class 3-4 tornado that was massive. At the village where we have been the people are smiling and the children are happy and playing. People ask them why are you smiling? They say we're alive and are thankful .

The sermon this morning was 3D -- 1. Divine warning 2. Divine promise 3. Divine dwelling. The people here have one room to cook, eat and sleep in. But they have the assurance of a Heavenly Mansion in the future and that keeps them going and happy despite the loss of everything.

I was reading that in disaster situations that a large number of mothers sell the medications of a sick child to feed the others. They also said 36% share their medications with others. Also, there is cultural problem with the fact they believe a little pill is for a little person and a big pill is for a big person.