I was looking at the slideshow photos posted on the Internet of the recent ferry disaster in the Philippines, where hundreds of people are feared dead and trapped within the ill-starred Princess of the Stars owned by Sulpicio Lines. It pains me a lot to hear of tragic news like this. My heart sincerely goes out to the relatives and families of the victims.
In the same slideshow were related photos of the flooded streets of Metro Manila and Iloilo, due to the same typhoon Frank.
Perhaps others would just casually look at those photos and forget about them in an instant. But as for me, the photos bring back a lot of memories.
You see, my entire childhood was practically spent in the municipality of Navotas, where floods are as commonplace as the balut vendors on the street. Our subdivision was built on reclaimed land by some half-brilliant developer, and with each succeeding year the place sank deeper and deeper. It didn’t take too long before the adjacent river overflowed each time there was a high tide, and pretty soon the water level got high enough to enter the houses. Kids from the squatters’ area would splash and frolic in the waters as if it was their personal swimming pool. (Photo credit: Yahoo! News Photos)