Moving Forward

They were separated, their sister was with their grandparents on the gym while the four of
them, mother, father and brothers were at the elementary school near the sea. November 8, 2013. They
clashed with the waves engulfing the small buildings and fought for their dear lives, Dess’s brother – Per
was with his father and his older brother was with his mother, they were inside one classroom with
other families but the instant that the storm took its toll, they were together no more. His mother was
no swimmer and due to shock they were not able to help her and unfortunately she died. His father in
the attempt to save her was lost. The situation was hard. Looking at the circumstances at hand the two
brothers’ found no choice but to resort to looting. It was either you go and steal some food or you die.

Being a boy, it is hard for Dess’s brother to express himself when asked about how he felt when
he found out that his parents were dead. But just by looking at him and observing everything he diid
when said it was ‘masakit’ , we all knew that it was more than that. ‘Masakit’ is not enough to describe
everything, it was not even close to describing it. He was feeling reluctant on expressing himself,
because he was a boy,, but looking at his eyes, we saw the raw emotions embedded in his heart. And we
knew at that moment that if we had continued on, he could’ve been convulsing in tears already, so to
add a little sensitivity we stopped. There house washed-out all their belongings gone, their parents dead
only the three of them left alone.

Next semester he is looking forward to schooling at TESDA where he will take up wielding, and
after he graduates apprenticeship and after that hopefully he plans to work abroad.
Being a boy, it is hard for Dess’s brother to express himself when asked about how he felt when he
found out that his parents were dead. But just by looking at him and observing everything he diid when
said it was ‘masakit’ , we all knew that it was more than that. ‘Masakit’ is not enough to describe
everything, it was not even close to describing it. He was feeling reluctan on expressing himself, because
he was a boy,, but looking at his eyes, we saw the raw emotions embedded in his heart. And we knew at
that moment that if we had continued on, he coul’ve been convulsing in tears already, so to add a little
sensitivity we stopped. There house washed-out all their belongings gone, their parents dead.
Before the storm came he was attending a school, and studying criminology, but he stopped.

Next semester he is looking forward to schooling at TESDA where he will take up wielding, and after he
graduates apprenticeship and after that hopefully he plans to work abroad.

Looking at the situation at hand the two brothers’ found no choice but to resort to looting. It was either
you go and steal some food or you die.

There house washed-out all their belongings gone, their parents dead

They were fighting with the strong surge of water and lluckily they won thefight sad to say,