In the morning we visited the Astrodome where people initially fled the storm waters of the surge and where many people died in the early days of the storm. Much has changed and while the stadium is still surrounded by a virtual tent city made up of wood scraps and tarps of any kind, the center itself mostly empty, very few people are living there and one might even call it clean.

We entered one of these makeshift tents to talk with its owner. As usual, the matriarch runs the family and this old woman told us that she had a house up the coast and when it was destroyed, the government moved her to her spot near the Dome where her family built the tented space where we met. Despite having a ceiling that is only 3′ high, her home is reasonably well put together and contains, a couple bags of rice and all of the possessions of all 8 of the inhabitants of this tiny space. She told us that while she does not like being at the Dome, it is better than living in the war zone of her prior home and now she and her grandchildren receive acceptable rations of food which is distributed by the government and her grand children are reasonably healthy and have access to medical care.

We distributed some nails to the more active residents of the dome area who were tying to rebuild and after a couple of failed meeting attempts, we ended up at the RTR hospital later than we had planned. Our timing was interesting though because it coincided with Imee Marcos’ departure from a visit at the same hospital – Imee is the first child of Imelda and Ferdinand Marcos and prior Governor of Llocos Northe. It has been over one month since the disaster and none of the Marcos family have visited this area which is the site of their family home. The people had been asking where they were as their friends and neighbors were suffering – the only answer up to now was that Imelda was unable to come for health reasons and Imee was on her way to visit her old employees in Tolosa.

Imee arrived with her Singapore boyfriend Mark Chua. They arrived in Tacloban with 8-10 boxes of supplies, hammers, saws and tarps and promises to deliver thousands of sheets of plywood to help residents close their homes to the weather. Oscar got us invited to come along on her mission and an hour later we were part of her convoy.

Before our departure we shared Lunch at one of the Marcos homes, this one in Tacloban – fortunately it was completely untouched by the storm and is being used as Imee’s base of operations. Lunch was mostly social, but at one point Imee became especially animated in expressing her views about Aquino’s handling of the situation. She feels very strongly that the Aquino party is letting the southern areas (who are more loyal to Marcos) suffer on political grounds. In any case she had much to say about the incompetent handling of the disaster, identification of the dead, and provision of emergency services. She says that while the local governments know what needs to be done, all the resources are being held back by the national government.

There is a community (Barangy Olot) there where live the staff that supported the Marcos family two decades ago.

At the school, no different than the dozens of other nearby communities we have seen the devastation is terribly terribly sad. Of their 4 classroom buildings, only one has any part of its roof left and most of the classroom equipment is stacked high in a corner of what was once a classroom itself – all of it clearly unusable (and nearly unrecognizable as classroom furniture). Throughout our visit, members of the community are maintaining a burn pit which sends terrible smoke into the air which overtakes the entire community.

Imee has arrived with a few samples of the tools she has brought for the larger community, a docrtor who we provided, a team of her personal engineers and a several bodyguards. They have arranged in advance to hire a group of day laborers and while she and her group meet the town leaders, Barry and I go to the school where the engineers are measuring and the day laborers are already up on the roofs pulling back the damaged tin and securing those pieces that are still holding firm. Within minutes, Barry is in charge of the group and we start to erect a tarped waiting area for the medical clinic we are setting up for the next day. As we set up the center beam, I jump on a broken chair to hammer the post into the ground as my coworkers tell me I cannot get high enough to do so – since I have a good 24″ of height above them, they have misjudged and I do just what I say.

As we continue working we discover that the supplies Imee has brought are too small to protect the roof they are trying to secure. With a quick cross check between the partners we agree to contribute the roll of tarp materials we have been carrying from Cebu City and donate it to the newly established medical center. Dodging the rain which comes on and off in spurts of huge downpours, in only a few minutes, we have our tarp in place and the carpenters are well on their way to securing the structure that only a few minutes before seemed hopeless.

With the process well in hand we rejoin our convoy to go to our next stop which we assume is a second school – our plan is to return to collect the unused tarp material for donation to others and to ensure the momentum we have created, continues to the completion of the project.

We drive out of the main gates and are confused by the route of the vehicles we are following. They drive out the gate and go directly across the street and through another gate. It turns out that this is the entrance to the Marcos family compound where Imee grew up. It is clear the compound must have really been something when Ferdinand was in power but now it is just a huge field on the ocean and literally everything there as been completely destroyed. The main building was a stone structure which still stands, but literally everything else is totally gone and spread out over a few acre span of broken coconut trees and other debris.

The property is directly on the water bracketed on 2 sides by small mountains. The 8 -10 buildings of their lavish home were bracketed in between the two hills – one of which has a large statue of Jesus at the top (and the local residents remark was unscathed by the high winds and they credit the statue and their ability to hide in its shadow as the reason their lives were spared).

Imee and Mark tell us of their plan to use the property (which has been confiscated from the Marcos’ anyway) and use it (and her team of engineers) to develop the space for use as a community center or to store building supplies or something.

Imee leaves her engineers to visit additional area schools and ensure the momentum we started continues as we follow her back to Tacloban to meet with a baker about a large scale project to provide bread and home study materials to students. With only an occasional reference to what it is costing her, she explains that if the children can bring home food each day, it encourages them to go to school, gets them out of the house and gives parents the flexibility to rebuild and repair without distraction – in addition the home study materials provide options to those who have no school buildings available to them.

In the van ride back to the hotel we debrief with the doctor we have brought along from Medical Teams International and begin planning their establishment of a day clinic in the space we have created to attend to the medical needs of the community we served today. After a short meeting with their team at the RTL Hospital it is agreed that we will set up operations beginning on the morning of Dec 11 until all members of that community can be seen and served.

Next stop, dinner with the Marcos team. We have arranged to meet them for dinner and we have a very nice, totally social dinner with the group which has now expanded to include the Mayor of Tacloban. If this is not complicated enough, he has just come from a meeting where he has been asked to resign due to his “incompetent” handling of the disaster and that hearing was caught on hidden video and the very inappropriate tactics of the governing party have been exposed on youtube.

Since their Dinner had already been prepared at home before we made our plans, the Marcos group has brought their own food and even their own wait staff to the restaurant to supplement our meal there. Over Dinner, the mayor also describes his personal escape from the rising surge waters where he literally almost died a few times – it is really emotional and very personal.