Photos et lettres des Philippines, de France et d'ailleurs

I think it was in April after the departure of my visitors and thanks to the new statistics of Blog4ever that I realized that my site was mainly visited by robots and not by people genuinely interested in my articles, photos and Philippines .
While I was initially disappointed and the events that followed in the Philippines helping, I decided to put my blog dormant for a time.
Recently several people were worried about my silence and since Blog4ever revised its statistical system, I am now back. Regardless of the number of visits, my ego do not suffers and I do not sell anything but I just want know what is going on.
So after my friends left, the two Philippines summer months passed very quickly and soon I was back France .
Apart from a weekend in the Lot with friends, the summer passed quietly at home. Besides our stay in the South West was marked by a mishap and we still laugh about it now.

(One of our dinners)

During a canoe trip on the river, our boat capsized and our forced bath in a still warm water would have been funny if it was not until I lost my glasses at the bottom of the water, my wife and a friend drowned their camera and another one his iPhone.

(The Lot River)

(With friends, ready for the canoë ride)

Our departure for the Philippines was for the following week but nevertheless through our local optician optics 2000, I had a new pair of glasses the following week, the eve of my departure.
On September 16, my wife and I arrived in Manila where we parted two days later. With her sister Leng she went to the island of Mindoro to try to resolve family matters and me for our Negros’ house.

(San Jose in Occidental Mindoro)

(The Calintaan Municipality Hall. My wife Dhana was born here)

We met again there four days later just the time for me to restock the house and make my old vehicle functioning again.
After an unusually hot and dry summer ( April, May , June) , it was now an abnormally rainy season especially in our region. My wife’s three remaining weeks of vacation thus unfolded in large part under the rain. At least except for a few outings with friends she could have a good rest after a year’s work.

(Charly's party)

(Fabrice, Dhana and Flora)

(Invited by Fabrice for the Samboan fiesta)

(Invited by James and Flora)

(Dhana's party in a restaurant)

It is October 6, after two days of heavy rains that flash floods hit the Bayawan area where I often and just 75 km from home. The flood lasted only 24 hours but made ​​several victims and left many properties and crops destroyed.

(The mountain wounded by landslides viewed from Tayawan above Bayawan)

My wife left for Manila Friday, October 11 and the next day she had difficulty reaching the airport to take her flight to Paris due to flooding around the family home in Bacoor and she had to walk in the water up to her thighs before reaching the highway.
I had envisioned after she left to spend two to three days in Bohol and had already booked my fast craft ticket for Monday, October 14. Finally I postponed the trip to Thursday 17. What a great idea! Because on Tuesday 15 around 8:15 am while I was driving to the city, I felt like I was losing the control of my vehicle as if I had a front tire burst. So I stopped on the side to verify while other motorists were doing the same thing. The tires were intact and that is when a tricycle driver told us it was an earthquake.

(Seen in Dumaguete)

The epicenter was in Bohol less than 100 km away and I should normally have been there.
With a magnitude of 7.2 on the Richter scale the earthquake claimed over 200 victims, destroyed whole villages and seriously damaged old churches and many tourist sites that make the richness of Bohol..
Heavy rains this year 2013 had weakened the soggy ground of the slopes of mountains and hills where the poor people often live in huts made of bamboo and coconut planks. After an earthquake of such intensity, landslides were therefore numerous and deadly with likely dead bodies still buried.
Furthermore in this poor but very touristic island, how long will it take to erase the traces of the disaster and bring back tourists?
Again Negros had been shaken but there was little damage despite the amplitude of 6.2. Nevertheless we had many aftershocks the day and up to 10 pm without electricity. You should have seen my house shaking, the doors opening and chandeliers swinging to understand my fear. Especially as my 2 dogs were running in all directions frantic and barking..
The house held out the shocks and the few existing cracks were from the previous earthquake in February 2012.
On Thursday, October 17, without telling my family or my friends who would have disapproved, I went anyway to Bohol. I arrived at 5:30 pm in Tagbilaran, the capital of the island. There I could see the damage in a town supposed to be unaffected.
Down the boat, I saw that the terminal was half collapsed and huge cracks in the pavement. In town, there were plenty sections of wall buildings collapsed.
Most hotels were closed due to damage. Those that remained open were fully booked and it is through a tricycle driver that I found a room in a boarding house with just an electric fan and shared bathroom. It was better than sleeping outdoors. Night was falling so I did not take the trouble to get my camera out of the bag to shoot rubble. I also decided to take the first morning boat to Siquijor.

(Siquijor, San Juan Beach)

Unfortunately the worst was yet to come. On 3-4 November all the media began to warn us that a super typhoon Haiyan locally named Yolanda headed for the Visayas region.
On 8 November the strongest typhoon that ever hit a land first struck the island of Leyte and in particular the city of Tacloban, 280 km to the North East of Dumaguete. You have all seen the pictures of this drama on TV or in your newspapers and I will not dwell on this tragedy except to say that today the number of victims amounted to more than 6000 dead and 2000  missing.
After Leyte, Dumaguete was on the path of the typhoon but a freak of nature changed its course and headed north where the province of Negros Occidental and Panay Island were his new targets.
When the storm came upon us, it was reduced, thanks God, to a mere tropical depression.

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(At home the typhoon is arriving)

The next day when I went into town, the newspapers said the typhoon had made only a few victims and we thought, some friends and I that Filipinos media had exaggerated the importance of the typhoon. It was not until later in the day when watching the news on CNN, that I was finally able to take the measure of the tragedy.
The following day I also had news of my wife's family still living in Southern Leyte. Fortunately no loss of life was regrettable but their houses had been destroyed and except for a few clothes on their back they were left with no roof over their head and without any means of subsistence.
I had now only six days left before my return to France, just the time for my car to break down 3 times. Then I was afraid of not being able to leave because of a new typhoon named Zoraida that fell on us November 12 and I was leaving to Manila on the 14. Fortunately the storm brought only heavy rains and the plane took off as planned.
I had actually shortened my stay by one month to be present at the birth of my first granddaughter expected end of November. It seems she was in a hurry as she came to the world October 27, four weeks earlier than expected.
I was now looking forward to meeting the little Maïka-Sarah-Dana, daughter of Christelle and Alexis.
The day after my arrival in France finally I met my granddaughter. For the first time.

(Maïka is 3 weeks old here)

Since I have seen her four times and it's only happiness.

(Her first Christmas)

(Her first New Year)

Such is life..... And I have no doubt that I will hold her in my arms in the Philippines in a year or so.
In the meantime I'll have to wait until next March to be back again in our tropical environment and beach house.