Thursday 14 November 2013

Tacloban Typhoon 4

Guys,
you are amazing!!!

I'll try to put my words down right but to be honest all the support you have shown my wife and I, and the people of the Philippines has been overwhelming!!! I'm going to blubber like a big wean a wee bit and that doesn't look good on a 16 stone ex-rugby player.

anyway, I have received almost 200 emails, countless txts and calls from friends around the world who share figure painting, wargaming and modelling as or hobbies. I really don't know how to tell you how much this has meant to Mai and me.  i thank you so much.

The donations you guys have made will make a huge difference. I hope the guys that offered money to us direct do not feel offended that I didn't accept. I just felt the whole community of the Visayas would need it more at the moment as so many have lost everything. Their jobs, homes but most importantly their families.

Our family for the moment are hanging in there and I and my brothers, parents and Mai 's sister have that covered. We just hope the military will get to them soon as there have been a lot of bastards trying to get in at them at night (they think escaped/Freed prisoners?). During the day is fine but at night things become dangerous. The neighbours have banded together along with a local police officer to protect their families.

They are 20+ in a 1 storey spanish style house. The boys have patched the roof with anything they could find and supported the damaged wall with old tyres (Filipino ingenuity) .

We managed to get food through to them from manila but its running low and the kids are exhausted  and traumatized by what they have seen . we have  another convoy of family and friends coming down from manila. With enough supplies for a week  and should make it down tomorrow.

it was unbelievable to see the US and international troops and ships arrive in tacloban and hopefully they will advance into the city, when we explained to the guys the level of response from the world the could not take it in. They had no idea the whole city was down. The guys know that their houses are gone but they have still to learn that their places of work are washed away.

 The roads up to V&G are blocked by over turned houses, trees etc and the guys felt  cut off from the world. Globe mobile we love you. If not for you bad mistakes could have been made.

 it's a long way still to go however now that boots are on the ground hope has returned . Again I cannot thank you enough for all your support!!!

Also I'm sorry if I havent gotten back to everyone I have been a bit tied with the situation. up all night and day encase of a call. And our living room is like a military command centre with numbers and scribled options.

Our very Best
Paul and Mylene Provan

10 comments:

John (VonBlucher) said...

Paul,
Good news and hopefully it keeps getting better!!

I was going to email you but I thought at a time like this is more important to just sit tight and wait for any news from you.

Paulalba said...

Hi John,
Thanks, I was going to drop you a line to fill you in but the last few days have been hell trying to get food to the family.

As you will have guessed I didn't finish those Prussian cavalry ;-)

Hope you are well!
Best
Pail

Chasseur said...

Living in a city still recovering from a major earthquake, I know how good it is to have support from around the world coming in - hope things look up for you guys soon! Best wishes.

For any like myself who prefer it, here's a secular charity that gives 100% of donations to relief:
http://foundationbeyondbelief.org/crisis

Paulalba said...

Thanks Chasseur,
yes we try to guide the guys as best we can regarding the situation on the ground from what we could see on media. The girls still wanted to get the kids out by air For the 1st 3 days. It's hard as they are the ones who are on the ground. The people at the airport were becoming increasingly desperate and the queue stretched all along San Jose. Philippines airlines and Cebu pacific were charging for their limited flights!!!

Once the guys started to see the ospreys and seen more security around town the took the decision to stay put until the place stabilizes. Mai has a friend who's family are in the same Barangay and she has info on official info from her connections. All the overseas Filipino community have been sharing the hour by hour situations since the glove satellite went up. They have managed to bring people together and guide people to areas were a limited supply of foot or water was.
It's really quite impressive under the circumstances.

Christopher(aka Axebreaker) said...

Even though things are still very rough it's good to hear things are getting better. The best luck to you and your family.

Best Wishes,
Christopher

Craig said...

Glad to offer what support we can. Let's keep praying the weather holds and the situation improves quickly.

DaveD said...

it can be at times like this you learn who your friends are..and in the main people will want help other people. Glad to see some positive news from your family as well. Hopefully will be even better next time.

Ray Rousell said...

It does sound like more helps arriving all the time. I can't believe the UK has raised 13 Million in aid in such a short time! Glad to here that the families ok and safe.

Paulalba said...

Christopher, Andrew, Dave and Ray,
Thanks for your support! It is clear that when the task force arrived they realised that however bad they thought it was going to be it was worse and have sent off additional ships and equipment. all that heardware and the relief effort is held up by lack of trucks. I won't say anything about our plans to get the women and kids out as so many things have fallen through. The guys know relief is their but the destruction and blocked roads means they have not received any in the past 2 days. The convoy we sent made it to the city but had not delivered to the neighbourood when entering. we can only hope it wasn't stopped.

Phyllion said...

Best wishes to your famil - hope things continue to improve.