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Honeysweet Learning Center, for two years now have been offering services aside from tutorials. We have encoding or computerization, printing, lay outing, photocopy, scanning and many others. Because we value our customers and would like them to have an easy way in our center, we have provided them a cheaper price for printing by buying a new printer that costs less for ink and toner for the photocopier. We have upgraded our printers and all other media based on its output and the price of the ink. People who come here to use our computers for research eventually end up having their research printed and if copies be made, will have them photocopied. But before we bought our printers, we had to consider the brand, the availability of printer toners and the price range for every print job parallel to the cost. So we searched the market for the printers. And we found Hewlett Packard Laserjet 4000, which we liked. However, when we were about to go to the counter, my father pointed to another printer which we also like, a Canon. Both are of good quality, and the out put are definitely overwhelming. It’s like having the big print shop printers in front of you…On the contrary, we were not able to decide that day, so the salesperson told us to think it over or buy both. Hahaha…we only needed one. So a choice had to be made. We reached a point where everybody voted for a time out and headed for the nearest McDonald chain to eat. Thinking and deciding made us very hungry…

So we talked everything out and we had to decide fast…as business should not be disrupted…But my father told us to take our time. He said we only fell in love with two, and there are still more in the market. We have to have many printers before our eyes before we decide to get the best one. So consensus of the group was to go to another store. And that’s just what we did. We ended up buying an HP but it was different kind. My father said, it should be the smallest to fit in our very small space…and we all agreed with him. The output and the price is similar to the first two, but the owner of the shop gave my father another deal. To what the deal was, the two of them only knew..

As for the new printer, I love it. I have been printing everything with it. Including our family pictures and stuff…Need not worry about the cost for the ink…it’s definitely affordable.

It seems that mother nature is quite tired already of people not hearing her cries…After the Cagayan de Oro River Flash Flood, now Balulang is into another calamity. The Balulang Landslide.

The rain kept pouring last night. When we closed shop at 9:45 yesterday night, we noticed a different chill in the air. When we arrived at the “orange house” (Lili’s petname for the new place. hehehe..), Marivel told us to look up and watch the moving clouds as they pass so fast. There was the moon and the clear Cumulus clouds behind the swimming Nimbus clouds. I told her then that it will soon rain because the dark clouds look heavy and dark already. After we washed up and hit the sack, we heard tiny drops of water until it begun to rain like crazy. We woke up this morning with rain heavily pouring. We couldn’t get out of the house mainly because the street was covered with water. We had to wait until a trisikad would come by. And so we readied every thing we had to bring. When at last a trisikad came, we closed the gates and proceeded to our house. We were so wet. Considering that it could have been just a few meters away. We could have walked if the rain stopped, but it didn’t. We had lunch and after that we headed for Honeysweet, Marivel and I. Although it rained, it was rather a good day. I had a $10 opp sent through my email. I love it. A customer came in and everything was okay. Until—brownout!!! Oh my goodness! Not again. We opened the door, the customer left. We stayed outside and watched the people hurriedly walking towards the curve going to the church, beside Balulang National High School. “What is wrong? I think there is something wrong again”, I told Marivel. So I got my camera and started taking pictures…later, I know everything will be pieced together…later…

Here are the pics I took. Click on them to see larger images.

People were all bringing their things and walking towards the church. I asked myself, “Could it be that there is something that happened earlier in the morning? What with the heavy rain? Hmmm…we just had the Flash Flood victims housed temporarily at the Balulang National High School. Now, people are going there again?”

Anyway, while taking pictures, I noticed a man on a truck, together with those being evacuated, waving at me and Marivel. We asked who that guy was, but we couldn’t quite figure out. So i set the photo to max to make it clearer…It’s our next door neighbor, Uncle Bobby. The owner of Nady’s Tailoring. Anyway, we continued watching the crowd gather across the street as there are no jeepneys available. Then Uncle Bobby arrived and told us what happened. Minutes after, Sonia, our house help before, passed by so I called her and asked if her how her family is since it’s near their place. She told me that her kids are already at Balulang National H. S….so my hunch was right. Something indeed happened…The landslide….

Anyway, I went with Sonia and Auntie Nady (wife of Uncle Bobby) to see Sonia’s place after the landslide. There was just a drizzle, so the two ladies, Sonia and Auntie Nady and I went walking towards “Mangahan”. There were no jeepneys, so walking is not an option..hehehehe….

We saw people still on their houses gathering their belongings for the evacuation. While others were already returning to get more. Here are some of the pictures of what I saw on the way to Sonia’s area.

These are just minor damages… …We have met people on their way to the evacuation site… …Here is Sonia’s son, the reason she is going back to her place… …What a long walk that was, but we were not as close yet…On the way, people pointed to where the landslide hit…If you click and magnify this next picture, you will see a child in their house…, their house is said to have been covered with mud already… I wanted to take a closer look…then we met this couple here who lives atop the hill. They came down to get their belongings and stuff ready for the move. Auntie Nady and Sonia suggested we go up for a closer look…so we did…this scenario is what we saw… The owners this house will soon have to evacuate as the wall will soon give way for the waters
, or the wall itself will collapse unto the house….See the plant that’s uprooted? …The guy here do not have the other pair of his slipper…he was in a hurry to go down as a house next to theirs have already been hit by a huge boulder, as big as a multicab—that’s how he and his partner described it… We talked to this couple and they said they came from farther up…The woman told us that their house bumped a Gemilina Tree, so they were spared. But they have to go down because it is not livable anymore…

…Contrary to what is going on, I cannot help but appreciate the sight , These people live overlooking the Cagayan de Oro River and its former grandeur…before the flash flood, of course… This photo here is the stairway going up farther from where we were…I told Sonia and Auntie Nady that we should go down already…And here is what we saw…remember the woman in green shirt? They are actually loading their stuff on a trisicad— trisicad driving is usually the work of most men in the area….So moving further, as we were nearing Sonia’s, I took this picture of a house partially hit by the landslide, and was also partially hit by the previous flash flood……The houses across the street… There are still other houses found on top and further up other houses that have also been hit by the landslide…

Finally, we reached Sonia’s place…

Notice the wall? The wall has collapsed earlier in the day…and here’s what’s left of it… Now,here’s a crazy story within this story. Something you will dread or perhaps find awful. On this picture,

you will see a man selling pork—the people said he slaughtered a dying “Anay”…a sow in English…and since he had no refrigerator, he stored the meat inside the sack…Today he was trying to sell the smelly flesh, but no one dared buy. Instead, the people, specially the drunkards, wanted the old man to simply give them the meat…My goodness! The smell is not tolerable, it smelled like a spoiled meat that’s rotten and have maggots on them…well, that’s what I can picture out because of the smell… but the men said it is only because the meat had not aired out due to the fact that the old man placed them inside the sack…

Here are more of the pics, click them to enlarge…

These ladies are on their way to the evacuation site too..

This last picture is taken inside the jeepney, when we went back to our own worlds, Auntie Nady and I…

Food and Warm Clothing is still needed by the people who were evacuated at the Balulang National High School…thank God the Red Cross and all other government entities were already there since this morning…