By Jan Vicente B. Pekas
As the sun is starting to come up, the moment to reflect and repair is nigh. The rains that have poured down the last few weeks have been an eye opener and it has only exposed the many problems of our homes and community. No matter how small the cracks are in our houses, no matter how much we try to cover them up, the water will find a way to reach these and expose them. Even schools are not spared from this as the weak parts of the roof that have been in dire need of replacing will give up and again the water exposes a problem that had always been in need of fixing. It exposes our carelessness of leaving things as they are.
In our home area the lack of waiting sheds have been put at center spotlight. During the recent weeks many have braced themselves standing up as the wind and rain did their way with their clothes since there were just no waiting sheds nearby. Some of us have been fortunate with nearby gas stations serving as temporary sheds for us to avoid the brief but cruel winds that destroyed any umbrella in their path.
But its not as if rains go on forever, like this time when the sun started to peep through the clouds, time to remedy and fix our own mistakes. Fix our roofs, wash our shoes, and buy new umbrellas, there are many tasks before us and lest we let the sunshine blind us from all these, then we are bound to face the same problems when another storm passes us by.
When electricity went out in our place, the subsequent darkness again highlighted the fragile state of our situation without the internet and how much we have come to rely on electricity. Schooling was definitely one of the severely affected with the blackouts. With how much connected schools have come with the internet, all our progress has effectively come to a stop with no internet. We are now left with rushing school work as some sort of normalcy has returned.
Being flexible is something we need to adopt should another storm come again. Plan B, plan C, and so on are absolutely necessary when times become unpredictable.
The rains have ultimately forced us to confront our underlying problems and even if we solve them, that is not a guarantee of safety the next time around. If we wish to be safe next time then it is necessary we think and plan ahead, something that may be hard with all the problems we are facing right now. Then again, the rains will just force us to confront them later on anyway. It is only a matter of when and how dry we want to be, as we try to fix our problems.**
