Filipinos take snowstorms in stride

By Willie Jose



As I’m writing this piece, outside our home here in Toronto, the temperature is between -30-40 C and though many people are anxiously thinking of how they could possibly bear this extreme coldness, I’m sure that many of our Kababayans are taking this kind of adversity in stride.

We Filipinos are a rare kind of people in the sense that we can easily bear any hard situation we might   face given the experiences we have had back home in overcoming more difficulties such as earthquakes, super typhoons, volcanic eruptions and other natural calamities.
 
Well, I don’t mean to say that the extreme chilly weather we are experiencing in Toronto is not a serious matter but for us Filipinos, our normal reaction is  “ this is a temporary thing, Bahala Na”.

This Bahala Na attitude, roughly translates as “come what may or what must be, must be “ is something that serves us well during times of calamities that come our way; we endure and bear any kind of hardship this life has to offer. This kind of attitude gives us the strength and perseverance to adapt to different situations, particularly those things that are beyond our control such as the occurrence of natural calamities.

We could even claim with certainty that as a people we are  “ survivors” in a sense that we’ve migrated in Canada to escape the worst kind of storms hitting regularly back home-- the storms of corruption, the blizzards of economic uncertainties, and the ice storm of violence and criminality.

Tell me now, who among us cannot survive this -40C chilly winds and snowstorms?

Right in the middle of the snowstorm in a few weeks ago, a neighbor of mine, Jesse de Leon, talked to me about the possibility of tapping the services   of the Filipinos living in our   condo complex to volunteer in distributing the salts in the complex, and clearing some areas, instead of waiting for the contractors to do the job considering the urgency of the times.

In short, that’s our Bayanihan Spirit in action—and we ‘ve seen this kind of community spirit in our complex last summer when some people volunteered their time and service for sprucing up the complex.

On a personal level, I had to push through the get-together party I had scheduled to celebrate our 40^th wedding anniversary right in the middle of the storm; I didn’t have the way to cancel the affair because everything was down, no phones, no internet, no way to contact our guests. So the party went on and it was unique because literally it was a candlelight dinner and the only party where the host was telling his guests not to take off their jackets and only the loving greetings of our guests warmed the occasion.

Because of the natural calamities I have experienced back home, now I make it sure that I’m always prepared for any unforeseen happening to us, so I have a number of candles, flashlights, well-stocked food, a little butane-fuel stove, water and other emergency provisions.

My whole family members, including my daughter Katrina and her husband Fred, who came all the way from Ohio, were with us at home, persevering, and enjoying our togetherness/bonding during the three-day, no-electricity, snowstorm in December.

The lesson—it pays to be ready all the time.