**i'am a woman, a mother, a wife and a friend**

littlemiss:

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By AFP on Monday, September 28, 2009

Muelmar Magallanes braved rampaging floods to save more than 30 people, but ended up sacrificing his life in a last trip to rescue a baby girl who was being swept away on a styrofoam box.

Family members and people who Magallenes saved hailed the 18-year-old construction worker on Monday a hero, as his body lay in a coffin at a makeshift evacuation centre near their destroyed Manila riverside village.

“I am going to be forever grateful to Muelmar. He gave his life for my baby. I will never forget his sacrifice,” said Menchie Penalosa, the mother of the six-month-old girl whom he carried to safety before being swept away himself.

Magallanes was at home on Saturday with his family when tropical storm Ketsana unleashed the heaviest rains in more than 40 years on the Philippine capital and surrounding areas.

At first the family, long used to heavy rains, paid little attention to the storm.

But Magallanes and his father quickly decided to evacuate the family once they realised the river 800 metres away had burst its banks.

With the help of an older brother, Magallanes tied a string around his waist and attached it one-by-one to his three younger siblings, whom he took to higher ground. Then he came back for his parents.

But Magallanes, a strong swimmer, decided to go back for neighbours trapped on rooftops.

He ended up making many trips, and eventually saved more than 30 people from drowning, witnesses and survivors said.

Tired and shivering, Magallanes was back on higher ground with his family when he heard Penalosa screaming as she and her baby were being swept away on the polystyrene box they were using in an attempt to cross the swift currents.

He dived back in after the mother and daughter, who were already a few metres away and bobbing precariously among the debris floating on the brown water.

“I didn’t know that the current was so strong. In an instant, I was under water. We were going to die,” said Penalosa, her eyes welling with tears and voice choking with emotion.

“Then this man came from nowhere and grabbed us. He took us to where the other neighbours were, and then he was gone,” Penalosa said.

Penalosa and other witnesses said an exhausted Magallanes was simply washed away amid the torrent of water.

Neighbours found his body on Sunday, along with 28 others who perished amid Manila’s epic flooding. The official death toll stands at 86 but that excludes those recovered in Magallanes’ village, called Bagong Silangan.

Standing next to his coffin, Magallanes’ parents paid tribute to their son.

“He always had a good heart,” said his father, Samuel.

“We had already been saved. But he decided to go back one last time for the girl.”

His mother, Maria Luz, wept as she described her son as incredibly brave.

“He saved so many people, but ended up not being able to save himself.”

sinsinflames:

yopaula:

1. You point with your lips.
2. You eat using hands and you have it down to a technique.
3. Your other piece of luggage is a balikbayan box.
4. You nod upwards to greet someone.
5. You put your foot up on your chair and rest your elbow on your knee while eating.
6. You think that half-hatched duck eggs are a delicacy.
7. You have to kiss your relative on the cheek as soon as you enter the room.
8. You’re standing next eight big boxes at the airport.
9. You collect items from hotels or restaurants “for souvenir.”
10. You smile for no reason.
11. You flirt by having a foolish grin in your face while raising your eyebrows repeatedly.
12. You go to a department store and try to bargain the prices.
13. You use an umbrella for shade on hot summer days.
14. You scratch your head when you don’t know the answer.
15. You never eat the last morsel of food on the table.
16. You like bowling.
17. You know how to play pusoy and mah-jong.
18. You find dried up morsels of rice stuck on your shirt.
19. You prefer to sit in the shade instead of basking in the sun.
20. You add an unwarranted “H” to your name, i.e. “Jhun,” Bhoy,” “Rhon.”
21. You put hands together in front of you as if to make a path and say “excuse, excuse” when you pass in between people or in front of the TV.
22. Your middle name is your mothers maiden name.
23. You like everything imported or “state-side.”
24. You check the labels on clothes to see where it was made before buying.
25. You hang your clothes out to dry.
26. You are perfectly comfortable in a squatting position with your elbows resting on your knees.
27. You consistently arrive 30 minutes late for all events.
28. You always offer food to all your visitors.
29. You say “comfort room” instead of “bathroom.”
30. You say “for take out” instead of “to go”
31. You say “open” or “close” the light.
32. You ask for a “pentel-pen” or a “ball-pen” instead of just “pen.”
33. You asked for “Colgate” instead of “toothpaste.”
34. You refer to the refrigerator as the “ref” or “pridyider.”
35. You say “kodakan” instead of take a picture.
36. You order a McDonald’s instead of “hamburger” (pronounced ham-boor-jer)
37. You say “Ha” instead of “What.”
38. You say “Hoy” get someone attention.
39. You answer when someone yells “Hoy.”
40. You turn around when someone says “Psst”
41. You say “Cutex” instead of “nail polish.”
42. You say “he” when you mean “she” and vice versa.
43. You say “array” instead of “ouch.”
44. Your sneeze sounds like “ahh-ching” instead of “ahh-choo.”
45. You prefer to make acronyms for phrases such as “OA: for over acting or “TNT” for, well, you know.
46. You say “air con” instead of “a/c” or air conditioner.
47. You say “brown-out” instead of “black-out.”
48. You use a “walis ting-ting” or “walis tambo” as opposed to a conventional broom.
49. You use a “Weapons of Moroland” shield hanging in the living room wall.
50. You have a portrait of “The Last Supper” hanging in your dining room.
51. You own a karaoke system.
52. You own a piano that no one ever plays.
53. You have a tabo in the bathroom.
54. Your house has too many burloloys.
55. You have two to three pairs of tsinelas at your doorstep.
56. Your house has an ornate wrought iron gate in front of it.
57. You have a rose garden.
58. You have a shrine of the “Santo Niño” in your living room.
59. You have a “barrel man” (you pull up the barrel and you see something that looks familiar. Schwing…)
60. You cover the living room furniture with bedsheets.
61. Your lamp shades still have the plastic cover on them.
62. You have plastic runners to cover the carpets in your house.
63. You refer to your VCR as a “beytamax.”
64. You have a rice dispenser.
65. You own a turbo boiler.
66. You own one of those fiber optic flower lamps.
67. You own a lamp with oil that drips down the strings.
68. You have a giant wooden fork and spoon hanging somewhere in the dining room.
69. You have a giant wooden tinikling dancer on the wall.
70. You have capiz shells chandeliers, lamps, or placemats.
71. You have a Mercedes Benz and you call it “chedeng.”
72. You own a huge van conversion.
73. Your car chirps like a bird or plays a tune when it is in reverse.
74. Your car horn can make 2 or 3 different sounds.
75. Your car has curb feelers or curb detectors.
76. Your car has too many “burloloys” like a Jeepneys back in P.I.
77. You hang a rosary on your car’s rear view mirror.
78. You have an air freshener in your car.
79. You have aunts and uncles named “Baby,” “Girlie,” or “Boy.”
80. You were raised to believe that every Filipino is a aunt, uncle or cousin.
81. Your Dad was in the Navy.
82. Your mom or sister or wife is a nurse.
83. You have a family member or relative that works in the Post Office.
84. Your parents call each other “Mommy” and “Daddy” or “ma” and “pa.”
85. You have family member that has a nickname that repeats itself, i.e.”Deng-Deng,” Ling-Ling” or “Bing-Bing”
86. You put hot dogs in your spaghetti.
87. You consider dilis the Filipino equivalent to French fries.
88. You think that eating chocolate rice pudding and dried fish is a great morning meal.
89. You order thing like tapsilog, tocsilog, or longsilog at restaurants.
90. You instinctively grab a toothpick after each meal.
91. You order a “soft drink” instead of a “soda.”
92. You dip bread in your morning coffee.
93. You refer to seasonings and all other forms of monosodium glutamate as “Ajinomoto.”
94. Your cupboards are full of Spam, Vienna Sausage, Ligo, and Corned Beef, which you refer to as Karne Norte.
95. Goldilocks means more to you than just a character in a fairy tale.
96. You appreciate a fresh pot of rice.
97. You bring your “baon” most of the time to work.
98. Your “baon” is usually something over rice.
99. Your neighbors complain about the smell of tuyo on Sunday mornings.
100. You eat rice for breakfast.
101. You use your fingers to measure the water when cooking rice.