Typhoon Yolanda Destroys My Home Part 3 continued

I think the best way for me to describe thoughts and feelings is more pictures and less words. Agreed? I think that's how most successful bloggers are well, successful. You stay up to date when you type less. Well, lets try it. On Tuesday November 26 we split up into different areas to assess and find some people. My group of CJ, Mindy, Amy and myself went to Tanauan, Tolosa, Dagami, and back to Tacloban. Dagami was my second area. So much joy!

sister alpino kept repeating, "agi daw! agi daw!" We spent some time explaining to them our plan and promising we would come back. We felt from the beginning that Dagami was where we would stay. It was close enough to Tacloban, but far enough away to be safe. We went into the town a bit and discovered so. much. damage. The roads had definitely not been cleared, schools were destroyed, homes, everything. they needed a lot of help. we stopped by my old little home where I lived with sister brinton. The roof was gone. the neighbors totally remembered me and started screaming my name. it was hilarious. a group of boys/kids/ men and one nanay. memories came flooding back. i missed my anak (sister brinton-the girl i trained.) Dagami had been such a joy and light in the mission for me. such a sacred experience. it was also the place i grew so much spiritually and we taught mildred and many other dear people. oh my heart. many prayer of thanks occurred as we went through the town.

We felt good about dagami and decided we would move our team there. we picked up all the assessments we had dropped off on our way to dagami and headed back to ormoc to report. on our way we saw much of this:

We loved seeing the filipino flag despite the destruction. we arrived back in ormoc and found the church was full of supplies from all of you who donated to the church's humanitarian fund. what a sight to see!

On our way back we also stopped by McArthur's Park. a beautiful park where Mcarthur landed to help the Philippines back in WW11. He had to leave when he first came, but promised, "I will return." and he did. as missionaries on our first day and last day we would gather at the landing and President Malit would relate it to missionary work and helping our brothers and sisters. it was one of my favorite places in Tacloban.

And then, when I cried:

robinsons mall opened in 2010-the first and only mall in our mission. Shakeys is a pizza place that was also my little sanctuary of sorts. so many good memories and delicious food with great friends occurred there. starting with my hilarious trainer, sister lemmon and us literally ordering everything on the menu to me teaching my anak, sister brinton how to do just that on my birthday november 2010. oh yes and the infamous quote by elder evans, ' watching you two eat makes me less attractive to girls in general.' happy birthday to me back in november 2010 at shakeys. so many office lunch outings there too. and even some valentine's day celebration with my comp. shakey' was indeed my favorite place in tacloban. so, basically see it all destroyed, deserted, and distorted hit me in a strange way. i teared up a bit. i think that's when i really started to understand the magnitude of what i was seeing and living. i think it hit all of us at different times, but for me, it was staring at my favorite old restaurant. ha. sounds about right for me, though, doesn't it???

well. i believe that is the end to tuesday. until next time.

heart, tori