August 25, 2022
Happy Thursday everyone.
As I have posted yesterday, there was a typhoon coming to Hong Kong so we readied beforehand. We bought food supplies and other necessary things at home as we don't know if the typhoon will stay longer or not. The weather here is always unpredictable anyway. Sometimes typhoon signal #3 seems like #8, and typhoon signal #8 seems like #3 😅.
There was a little rain yesterday but the wind started to strengthen in the afternoon. At night, the wind howled banging windows and doors and gushing sounds were creepy. My paranoid boss started to tape our glass door on the balcony as if signal #8 would exceed 10. That's what she felt, lol.
There were no signs of a strong typhoon when I woke up this morning. Later at 10 in the morning, the sun started to show up occasionally and the rain receded but eventually came back. The typhoon signal was lowered to 3, which is like a normal day, so working people were back to work. I wasn't sure though of those going to school this Summer.
During my entire stay here in Hong Kong, I encountered a lot of strong typhoons, but only two were the strongest, as for my preference since I came from a country where more than 12 typhoons are coming each year. I survived the strongest typhoon in the Philippines' history and the strongest one here couldn't be compared to it. The strong wind and rain are there but do not have the same impact as in my country.
While listening to the gushing sounds of the strong wind last night, and hearing raindrops tapping the roof, memories started to flash back to when I was still younger during typhoons.
Some would be concerned, like my mom, if a weather forecast says a typhoon is coming. But for us, kids at home, we were even looking forward to it. Sounds crazy, isn't it? My mom would start to prepare necessary things, stack some food, and candles or kerosene just in case the electricity would be interrupted as it always happens in our country when there is a typhoon.
As the typhoon comes, we kids prepare for some fun, haha. If the typhoon lands during the day, we will be happy as we can bathe and play in the rain. That's also an opportunity to save rainwater that could be used in cleaning or even washing our clothes since there was a lack of water supply in our village
Image from Pexels by Thanh Hue Dao
We wouldn't mind the rambling thunder in the sky and we would play under the rain until we felt content. Then regrets will just follow later if we catch some cold, lol. We didn't care about it either since our mom was there to remedy our sickness 😅.
Since there weren't any gadgets yet, we used to play "bahay-bahayan" or make a house in a form of play. We would collect our linens and pillows and we would make a tent using linens by attaching a string to the sides and tying them to our chairs. That will serve as our house and we would play anything under it. Oftentimes, at night after dinner, we would cover our table with linens and underneath would be our playing house.
Image from Pexels by cottonbro
If there's a strong typhoon in our country, it is expected to experience power interruption. Candles and kerosene lamps were our tools to survive in the dark at night. We used to play hand shadowing by the lamp facing our wall forming shadows of different pets. It was truly entertaining.
Image from Pexels by Anna Nekrashevich
While others are panicking because of the typhoon, we kids are having fun, lol. I guess that's the most unforgettable memory of our childhood life and I am certain that many Filipinos here could relate to this 😊.
Our country is always experiencing different typhoons and other forms of calamity each year. But that's what makes us resilient and stronger in facing certain unfavorable circumstances and devastations.
What about you? What are your memories during stormy days?
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I always feel sad to hear about typhoon which creates alot of destruction everywhere. In childhood we were just used to find fun in everything, no matter how hard it be for our elders.