Paradise Destroyed

I went. I saw. I stood. I felt as truly helpless as I have ever felt in my life. It was sickening. Not just the smell, which was so potent it nearly burned your nose, throat, and lungs. But also the site of it all. The destruction. The locals cleaning as best they could, knowing it was futile because with the next high tide all the work they had done would be replaced by yet more oil. Keep in mind when looking at these pictures that these were white sand and rock beaches. Beaches that supported the people who based there lives off of them. These are just pictures from one beach, but at the moment there are over 220 kilometers of beach front in the same condition.

Due to a lack of time I could only stay for a short while at the affected area. Myself and a new volunteer, who is located close to my site, had biked to the island from my site (minus the boat transfer of course). It was getting late and if we wanted any chance at all to get home before dark we had to leave after only a few hours. I spent a lot of that time just talking with the people there. I'm still so amazed at the resiliency of Filipinos. They all had that smile on there faces, making the best of it. "Bahala na" in the local dialect, Come what may. I was an outsider so they wouldn't show any grief to me, but I could see it in there eyes. I really don't know if they them selfs knew the scope of it, and really how long it will be to return to any semblance of normal. It turned out that in the mid 80's there was a volunteer stationed there, at that Barangay. They of course asked if I knew here, and shared their stories of her. I love hearing stories of past volunteers. They all still missed her, this was evident in the warmth of the stories. I was told when I go back to America if I see her to say hi, America's pure size is a mystery to most people here, even with all the Western media. I ask myself what the volunteer would say if she saw her past home in such disarray.

Upon arriving home, after biking nearly 150 k in two days, and seeing such heart wrenching scenes I was physically and emotionally in shambles. I sat and couldn't be bothered with reading, was in the mood for Radiohead's "Hail to the Thief," but alas didn't have it. So I sat in silence in my somber state. While doing so I dribbled this onto paper.

"Were Here" By Lloyd Banwart

Feeble. Were here to help
helplessly
bare witness. To see
squandered beauty
for some
Shattered existences.

Were here.

Needs
of validation arise.
Justification
lacking sufficiency.
All measures having merit
all actions collapsing upon one other.

Were here

Life
crawling out of the well
pulling at one another to escape.
Making escape
Unattainable
smiles on the faces, weeping within the eyes.

Were here

Waste of gifts.
awarded one, destroying too
many people.
Countless,
those awarded.
destroyed by the few.