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Simbang Gabi, the nine-day series of early-morning Masses celebrated in the Philippines in anticipation of Christmas, will be a little different this year in some parts of the southeast Asian island country.

But Kareen Smith of St. Gabriel's parish in Rotterdam, a native of the Philippines, says her relatives in that country are joyfully continuing the tradition - despite living under tarps amid debris, without power and with limited food, water and supplies.

They are just grateful to have survived Nov. 8's Typhoon Haiyan, known as Yolanda in the Philippines. The "super typhoon" claimed more than 6,000 lives, displaced more than four million people and damaged more than a million homes, according to USAID.

Still here
"They thank God that they're all alive," Mrs. Smith said of her mother and five sisters, most of whom live in the city of Ormoc on the island of Leyte. "That's all they can ask for. Whatever was lost, they can just replace slowly.

"We are used to this," added Mrs. Smith, who came to America in 1999. "Our country always gets hit by storms and hard times. Prayer is one of the things that holds them up."

More than 90 percent of Ormoc's structures have been damaged or destroyed, according to The New York Times. Mrs. Smith's sister, Jiji Apao, had opened a convenience store in her home less than a year ago with her husband, Val; the store's roof was torn apart by the storm.

"Wood is all over the place," Mrs. Smith said. "It's all damaged, the whole entire building. There's basically nothing left that's going to cover them from the elements. They can't live anywhere else. It's their source of income."

Mrs. Smith and her husband, Bruce, approached St. Gabriel's earlier in the month about putting an appeal for donations out to parishioners. They say government corruption in the Philippines has prevented survivors from getting the help they need.

Political problem
"The relief is very limited," she said. "It becomes politics: If you don't vote for this mayor, you don't get anything. If you have family members abroad and you're in line [for help], they question you. It's sickening."

Mrs. Smith's family members have received small amounts of rice and noodles. They have reported that steel roofs are only given to people with nothing left. Residents have been using money sent by foreign relatives to travel by boat to the island of Cebu to buy food and water to share with neighbors.

"It's just family helping each other or neighbors helping each other," Mrs. Smith said. "They're starting to get back up, but it's a very slow process. The government is very slow.

"It's devastating," she said of the conditions. "You just feel miserable. Everything is dark. When it's not raining, it's very hot."

The free cell phone service to the Philippines provided by many American companies last month has ended, so Mrs. Smith is out of contact with her relatives now. But the last she heard, they were concerned about the long wait for carpenters to rebuild - and they were frightened for their safety, since about 600 inmates had escaped from a Tacloban jail.

The Simbang Gabi devotion will provide much-needed comfort and familiarity this year, Mrs. Smith told The Evangelist: "They're very excited to do it. It just helps them."[[In-content Ad]]

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