Lactarius Indigo

This is my friend, Elan (with me in the background), during our annual office Christmas party last Friday, December 16, 2011. In this picture, she is seen getting cracked up at her new title as “Elan, The Little Princess” (“Elan, Ang Munting Prinsesa”). In my introduction of her award, I referred to her hometown as the “City of Waterfalls.” We would only realize the irony of that phrase after a few hours.

Elan had every right to wear an ear to ear grin that evening. Her team won the Christmas party group games. She was honored as the “Star of The Night” for 2011. And she stuffed herself with fine food and drinks. As much as she wanted the feeling of contentment to remain, she had to return to the apartment she rented with her twin sisters in Pasig and face some heartbreaking news. The excitement to fly back to her real home for the holidays was replaced by distress as she discovered that the bungalow she reared childhood and teenage memories in, “the house that her parents painstakingly built together for years,” now consists of nothing but muddy waters and wrecked belongings.

Elan and her family are part of the thousands whose homes got destroyed by the recent Typhoon Sendong (Washi) in Mindanao. She is lucky enough to have food, water, and most especially, her loved ones still with her. But for many other victims, it’s an entirely different story.