What Good Is A Typhoon?

Simply putting it as a typhoon would understate its effects. No, there were no strong winds that left houses roofless like Milenyo did. But Ondoy, oh Ondoy, your typhoon name sounds so cute but your wrath inundated roads, businesses, houses, and lives. You are terrible. There are many writeups in the Net about Ondoy and the evidence of its trail in Metro Manila. But what was I doing on a Saturday of heavy downpour? I had all my time to sleep that day. I stayed up most of Friday night until past 12:00 AM watching Dr. House and his team, enjoying their differential diagnosis each time. Saturday welcomed me with an enticing pouring of rains; I felt sinful but I had all the excuse to be a sloth. Enticing because I could curl on bed all day, what with the cold weather. But not for long. My brother woke me up to convince me to relay a message to our landlady. He complained of cockroaches crawling out of our bathroom's drainage hole, because the strainer was out of place. Cover it, I mentally suggested. But then he was persistent of ruining my lethargic mood so I did sent an SMS to our landlady anyway. I stayed on my bed though with my thoughts kicking already. Whoa, the sound of the rains could translate a rainbath into a hard back massage. I went down to pee and was welcomed with crawling creepy creatures and my brother's dancing-killing techniques. I only came to realize that by cockroaches he meant MANY cockroaches! Where did they all come from? I never managed to relieve my urine bag that morning. A little hour before lunch, I can hear Regie (one of my housemates) calling me downstairs. You see, I stay in my room most of the time. When I came down the second time, water is seeping through the doorsill that he has to use the dustpan to throw the liquid out of the house. I could hear one of our neighbors shouting, "Dalian mo, tumataas na yung tubig." Of course he meant the water was entering his house, and it was rising fast. Hmmm, I thought Regie could handle it anyway so I went back to my cave. In a matter of minutes I went down to ask him buy us lunch. He did, only to return soaked up to the hips and large raindrops marked his shirt. He changed clothes and we ate lunch. You see, we were spending a Saturday like everything was normal. Until I received text messages from friends asking how we are doing and if we are home. Why the sudden surge of concerned messages, I wondered. I switched on the television. It addressed my question. Marikina, San Mateo, Cainta -- three Philippine geographic terms that would consistently be written in the papers for the next days of the coming week. They all share something in common, along with other affected areas: devastated. I never knew how intense the typhoon was until I saw the scenes on the screen. They were depressing. And I have friends and relatives who live in those areas! I texted them but there was no reply. Come Sunday, the news would bear even sadder stories. My cousin was stranded at the airport. We could not get out of the house. We were watching news on the television the whole day to keep up with, well, the news. I could go on and on relating what happened during that weekend but I'm cutting this short to say what good things I learned. Filipinos are still Filipinos. They help each other. That's the bayanihan spirit. I myself was restless. What can I do to help? In my own way, I sorted my clothes, gave cash, and prayed. I chose to help those people close to me that needed my help. I have a really close college friend whose house was literally swept away with nothing left. I know there are still a lot out there in dire need of clothes, food, drinking water, medicines. These are immediate relief goods but any help they would receive during these times would echo a lifetime. I will be going now. Volunteerism is another thing. :) Mabuhay.

The Cost of Poor Customer Service

I must be really a magnet for experiences of poor customer service. Early this month alone, I have had encountered terrible treatment from cashiers of two different establishments. Pardon me having to expose the names but sometimes I wish I could have been that person who is bad with names. Knowing myself better than other people in this aspect, I commit to my memory names of people who have extremely affected me – in a good or bad way. This time around, I could still vividly picture the faces, along with their delicately pinned nametags, of those cashiers I encountered. But let me clear this though. I have no intentions to badmouth them. I only wanted to relate my awful experiences with them. Awful because they could have done better. And maybe my awful reaction (yes, I admit to be a horrible monster as a customer!) could have helped them in any way to improve their customer relations. If only my awful manner of confronting them has been taken constructively, it would be great. So do not gawk at me like I’m the bad guy. Hear out my side of the stories first. First Encounter: MINISTOP (Skyland Plaza, Buendia Branch) It was a really early morning and I felt my empty stomach calling for food. I thought, since I have had an unhealthy dinner the night before, I deserve a healthy breakfast that morning. Ministop is a haven! I always think of it that, until this incident. I grabbed myself a sachet of instant oatmeal and a stuffed bread called Twiggies. The damage was only worth PhP22.50. I took out my wallet and, unintentionally, I discovered I have only a PhP500 bill and several coins not even enough to count to PhP10. So I handed out the PhP500 bill only to be given a are-you-serious-about-paying-500-pesos-early this-morning look from the cashier. She quickly put into words what I interpreted saying, “Mam, wala po ba kayong barya?” I said, well-mannered, “Wala eh.” She replied, “Kabubukas lang po kasi ng kaha eh. Wala po ba talaga kayong barya? Kahit PhP22.50 lang po.” What was she thinking? I know I was supposed to pay PhP22.50! So I said, still aware that I should be courteous, “Wala talaga eh. Kung meron binigay ko na sana sa iyo.” And I meant that. Because in the first place, I do not want to waste my time waiting for my change when I could have used it checking my Facebook. Feeling helpless, she turned to her colleague to ask for assistance in obtaining loose bills of smaller denominations. I waited in front of the cash register but I gave way to the next customer so she could pay her purchases. Her items were punched and when the cash register opened, the cashier took her change rashly as if she loved to have me hear the discourtesy. The annoyance I have been disregarding came to a boil instantly. And as if her rudeness was not enough, she closed the machine with a bang that only the most insensitive of insensitives would not notice as a sign of disrespect. I glanced at her namepin, it read Arsil. I kept my peace but I was struggling. When her colleague came with the loose bills and she finally handed me my change, I interrupted her and said, “Ah, Arsil, the next time you encounter a customer with a large bill, you don’t give an excuse that you don’t have change for it, okay?” I was not done with my speech when she gave an unwanted answer, “Eh Mam talaga naman pong kabubukas lang po ng kaha eh.” But in rebuttal I answered back, this time with a pitch higher than my previous statement, “No, you listen to me. You are a 24-hour establishment.(Fact!) A convenient store with cash flows. (Fact!) And it’s not my problem if you have change or not. So you don’t give me the reason that you only opened your cash register this morning when you can ask for loose bills from your manager.” I was thinking I could have added, ‘You’re such a lazy ass to have my bills changed from your previous collections!’ but I chose not to. When I finished speaking, I felt the world (really) stopping and I could only see her and me exchanging uncalled-for words. It was only when she said “Sorry po Ma’am.” did I bring to an end the evil urge to rant some more. People were coming in to buy themselves something but I only realized that when I turned around to leave. They were all quiet. I started breathing normally again when I was outside Ministop. Ah! It will be a fine day. I never set foot on Ministop again after the incident no matter how much I crave for its sundae. (to be continued for Second Encounter)