A Traveller’s Act Of Compassion (A Helping Hand)

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The last time I’ve visited Cagayan De Oro was last January 7 of 2011 and I had a blast with its extreme adventures like the White Water Rafting, as well as its delicious mouth-watering grilled foods in the street party held every weekends. Cagayan De Oro gave me a unique journey where no other place in the Philippines can make you experience, people’s golden smiles have also warmed my heart, it’s as if I am one of them… So in the later part of 2011, I heard a very heartbreaking news, that Typhoon Sendong, the last typhoon to hit the Philippines on 2011 has left nothing but a tremendous catastrophe to the people living in Cagayan De Oro especially to those near the Cagayan De Oro River where the popular White Water Rafting is held. Typhoon Sendong washed out the entire village and killed an estimated 2,000 people and it really broke my heart coz’ a place that was once dubbed as the City of Golden Friendship has been totally destroyed and the most painful thing is, it happened just a few days before Christmas. They said that it just happened overnight, people from their houses were already resting until an unexpected flood with a strong current carrying large logs that were cut off by illegal loggers just splashed on and hit every household and people within it. Just imagine that there was a sudden 20 feet high elevation of the water from the river with strong currents that you can’t swim against with plus big logs just hitting every part of your body especially your head and you can’t see it because there was no electricity and it's dark, no doubt even the most alert and trained person couldn’t escape death. They said that the flood and logs came from its neighboring province Bukidnon. I was shocked and sympathetic, I felt the sadness brought about by this tragedy, I even imagined myself in that situation, thinking of ways on how to escape, or if I could even escape that dreadful situation.

In one of my first articles written 2 years ago, I experienced a similar situation but a lighter one, but still I know the scenario of what happened there in Cagayan De Oro. And I wrote in my past article and even predicted that in the future stronger storms, earthquakes and other natural destructions will arise because of the consequences of our unthoughtful actions. We created all of these, there is no other to blame but ourselves and now, hard as it may be, we must face nature’s revenge to us and the only thing that we can do is not to cure our dying nature but to prolong its destruction. To act now to prevent the further annihilation of our world. Let’s increase our awareness, let’s make our voices be heard and let us make a difference… Let us not wait for the time that even us would lose our loved ones and would also feel the hopelessness that people from Cagayan De Oro Felt just because we didn’t do something about it. It is now time to start paying respect to Mother Nature.

As a start of help, me, Armie “Happy Loner Traveller” Yuson together with my Vmobile Business Partners are already helping our brothers and sisters from Cagayan De Oro by giving boxes of goods for their needs… I am encouraging you to be one with us… Remember, that a Compassionate Heart will always be the greatest gift we can give to them…

- Happy Loner Traveller

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