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

On September 26 , the tropical Storm 'Ondoy' the worst in forty years, hit the Philippines with a maximum intensity causing hundreds of casualties and tens of thousands of homeless especially Manila and surroundings and around Laguna Lake. A week later it was the typhoon 'Pepeng' which again struck the country, particularly the mountainous part of northern Luzon which in turn engulfed hundreds of victims in landslides.
In some submerged parts it will take months to dry up leaving these poor people homeless and destitute. The next Christmas looks very sad for them. Now we must add the epidemic. Hundreds of cases of leptospirosis have been reported in Manila causing many deaths. This disease is transmitted by water and animal 'bites, namely rats that thrive with the tons of garbage mixing up with the stagnant water.
Apart from the torrential rains and crops destroyed, the island of Negros was much less affected and in my case, I just had to suffer a power outage of thirty six hours from September 26 to 27.
My wife arrived in Dumaguete via Manila on September 30 for his four weeks vacations and it is with great pleasure that she found again our house and it is a problem of another order which was awaiting us a few days later and below is the mail that I wrote to our two children on October 4, the day after the incident:

Hello kids,
Here are some very sad news even if they are not catastrophic this could have turned into drama.
Yesterday evening while your mother and I watched the DVD 'Australia', the alarm suddenly blared. The monitoring center immediately called us but I saw nothing unusual and told them. It's your mother who found it odd that our Doberman dog, Brousse, did not bark as she opened the front door and saw our brave faithful dog stretched dead. I immediately called the police and rearm the alarm blaring again to alert the neighborhood and the monitoring center
Dodong and Nora arrived immediately and the police thirty minutes later.
We have been victims of attempted burglary. They came by the beach and first poisoned the dog. We had heard the barking but this was not the first time so we had not paid too much attention to it.
Then they took a chair on the terrace and try to enter by the small window of the second bathroom but they might have found the opening too small and they tried to break in through one of three windows of the dining room  WHILE WE WERE INSIDE THE HOUSE AND THEY WERE AWARE OF IT.
They sure had watched us for a while because the dog was already stiff when we found him and furthermore they had had the nerve to eat our rambutan fruit left outside because of ants.
Dodong also cried over the body of Brousse as your mother and I did.
The SOCO, the scientific police of Dumaguete came this morning to lift fingerprints. We were advised to strengthen our security and also to buy a gun and shoot on sight any intruder inside our property.
Finally we must live with it or sell the house. We even considered canceling the fiesta party we had planned for October 13 but life continues.
Our brave Brousse died doing his job because four pebbles used by the bad guys to hit him before he was poisoned were found on the lawn. As for us, what would have happened without an alarm? In any case I do not regret the cost of the investment.
Our doggie was buried this morning by Dodong on the left side of the beach and two of his buddies' cats attended the funeral. Too sad!
Tomorrow we will deal with motion lights and license to possess firearms and we will seek to find not just one but two dogs. Probably still Doberman.
Yesterday and this morning I wanted to sell off and return to France with your mother, but why? I must confront the situation. Nevertheless I am still thinking about all that and if I do not feel well there, I will leave definitely.
Do not be unduly worried but we just want to let you know that we all have to be cautious there.
Kisses and see you soon.
Your parents

(Pictures taken on request of the police. From top to bottom, our dead dog, a pebble used to hit him, the bathroom window, the dining room window, the footprints) 

I must say that the shock was severe because it followed the robbery of December 11, 2008 where more than 3000 € in computer, camera, etc. had been stolen. However I differentiate both cases, in December the house was unoccupied when the burglary took place, and our dog had just been drugged while yesterday, October 3, 2009 our dog was killed and my wife and I were inside the house. What would have happened to us if we had surprised them inside? Life is cheap here. It's a whole other dimension in crime and according to the police they are dangerous people.
Since I still live badly and I look forward to returning to France but we continued with our plans. The celebration for the fiesta was held October 13 with our 30-35 guests, my sister-in-law arrived from Manila for eight days vacations and another couple of friends from France are visiting us on Monday 19 for two weeks.

(The preparation of the lunch)

(The traditional roast piglet)

(The blessing of the food)

(The guests)

I will see after they leave if I always want to anticipate my return and if some thugs certainly dangerous, managed to disgust me forever of  a place and a house where I invested myself so much and I am not talking of money. As they say in the North of France, my adopted province, we have to let fall the foam before drinking our mug of beer.
We have also to relativize the incident for what it is worth against all the tragedies affecting the Philippines since late September?
On Saturday, October 17 we drove my sister-in-law to see the lake Banalan but unfortunately the weather was cloudy and rainy.

The Banalan lake on a cloudy day)

My wife and my sister-in-law strolling)

(A mountain boy from Banalan lake)

Sunday 19, I made my first photo session with the beautiful gift given by our friends Elma and Angelo, namely Zoey and Zarah, two dogs brother and sister, aged of thirteen months and born from a cross of Rottweiler and Doberman.

(Dhana and our new friends)

(Zoey and Zarah)

They are nice with their new masters, but probably ferocious with intruders and our poor 3 cats that dare not approach the house anymore while they were in the habit of sleeping between the paws of our Brousse so friendly with them.