I'm off tomorrow to the island of Bohol in the Philippines to help with the disaster relief under the volunteer organization All Hands. On October 15th, the island was devastated by a 7.2 Mw earthquake, which was the most deadly earthquake to hit the Philippines in 23 years. The energy released was equivalent to 32 bombs being dropped on Hiroshima. Before there was much opportunity to recover, the island was hit by Typhoon Haiyan on November 8th, the strongest recorded storm to make landfall in history. So you can only imagine the havoc that the Philippines are trying to recover from right now.
The island of Bohol has been famous worldwide for the Chocolate Hills, a popular tourist destination, and for being home to the smallest primate in the world. It's been known as a beautiful island with crystal clear waters and lush pockets of rain forest in the highlands. I just hope I can help in some small way to restore the place to more of its former glory. If possible, I will post updates from the islands, however it's hard to know what the communication system will be like if existent at all. But first, two days of flights and the joys of modern day transpacific travel...
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