THE SEVEN SUNFLOWER DAY

On my writing desk right now, there are seven big sunflowers grinning at me. Beautifully arranged in different vases, they use up most of my desk. But I am not complaining for they are tangible reminders of a happy occasion.


Three days ago, I launched my second book “Six Degrees of Expatriation: Uncovering lives of Expats in Singapore” at Borders along Orchard Road. For this writer’s life, every success is hard earned. There are no shortcuts. And this book was no different. It entailed: long hours of hard work transcribing interviews and writing each page, all the nitty-gritty production details with my publishers, and all sorts of drama along the way.


Standing before a crowd of friends and acquaintances in Singapore was surreal. It was hard to believe that just two years ago, I only knew one person in that room. Everyone else I had just encountered and connected with in the past two years. Several people I had just met a few weeks ago, yet they came to celebrate this joyous occasion.


They arrived with big smiles on their faces. Their hugs acknowledged how they shared this accomplishment with me. Two friends arrived in identical outfits. They approached me beaming the biggest smile. They gave me the tightest hug, and even a big SLR camera to capture this moment, and even handed me a teddy bear clutching a sunflower. They signed their car lovingly, “From your family” knowing that we have become family for each other in our adopted home.


When I arrived my published handed me a bouquet of three sunflowers. I told her it was perfect for it was my favorite flower. “Funny,” she said, “I kept looking at other flowers but somehow the sunflowers kept calling me.”


As I signed books, a florist delivered a large bouquet of flowers with three sunflowers right at the core of the arrangement. For a moment, I froze wondering who would be sending flowers. Was it a guy? A secret admirer or a lost love perhaps. It opened the card and sighed. It was one of the expats I featured in the book She wasn’t feeling well and could be physically present at my book launch.


Other friends arrived with their bulky SLR cameras, snapping away. My parents flew in from Manila to celebrate this milestone with me. My mother was thrilled to see her daughter sign books in Borders, a prestigious international bookstore. For me, the bookstore has always been my happy place in the three countries I’ve lived in: the US, Australia and Singapore.


The word writer is often prefaced by the adjective: struggling. And indeed, it is my reality. Only three weeks ago, I was going through a rough time. On my way home, I saw sunflowers for sale in a florist. But with limited funds, I settled on a yellow Gerbera instead. I was hoping it would cheer me up as a sunflower usually does.


One sunflower is enough to make me smile. But receiving seven sunflowers that day summed up how happy that I felt deep down. It was warm, sunny, and filled with so much hope. There are good days, blah days, and there are extra-special days like this one.


Here’s to more seven sunflower days in the future!


maidapineda.copyright2009.11.10.2009

FROM SURREAL TO SOBERING

Yesterday, I had received the first copies of my book, "Six Degrees of Expatriation: Uncovering Lives of Expats in Singapore." It was pretty exciting to hold in my hand (see photo) something I had poured myself to for several months. Writing a book is like giving birth. I posted on Facebook, a happy status to announce my joy. It read, “Maida Pineda:The courier guy just delivered a copy of my book. Hot off the press. How surreal to hold the book in my hands!
Yesterday at 12:07pm · Comment · Like”

As the comments kept adding, the excitement of having the book in my hands was immediately washed away. I got a message from my sister back in Manila asking for prayers. The floodwaters had already entered our home. It had reached the first step of the stairs, about 8 inches I estimate. As I was on mission to fix a glitch on my website with a friend, another Filipino. Our minds quickly raced worrying if our families were ok. She immediately called her mother, safely in the company of her brother. We learned a friend’s concern. Her father was in Singapore for her birthday. Her mother would have been in town too. But her passport had expired so she could not join in the celebration. Left in Manila in their bungalow in Marikina, a city in Manila, she was now standing in the roof clutching on her money, her passport, and the clothes she was wearing. Their dog had already died, as the rain had already completely damaged their one-level home. Her mother was now hungry in the roof, with no relief coming to help her. None of my friends’ friends could help either for they too were in a similar predicament.

Being away from your family and loved ones in difficult times like this one, you feel helpless. The emotion filled our hearts. My friend and I felt weak. And despite our efforts to try to be productive and focus on the computer problem in front of us, we failed. We then decided to turn to join the rest of the choir practicing for the six o’clock mass. Together as a community and the rest of the church, we prayed for the victims of the typhoon. The 24-hour rain fall surpassed the rainfall for one whole month.

I logged back into Facebook in the evening to find some friends online. They were safe and dry. Luckily, their homes were not damaged by the floods. But one friend told me all the chickens in the poultry of her recently deceased father all died. That meant her brother had just lost all the income he was set to earn two weeks from now.

The images from Facebook are surreal, cars even four wheel drive jeeps floating in the flood water. In some cases, only the roof was barely visible. It wasn’t real.

It is odd how quickly it shifts from the surreal feeling of holding a book you’ve worked on four months to the sobering reality of a devastating flood. According to my sister in the US, this typhoon Ondoy is even worse than the infamous Hurricane Katrina in terms of floods. My family is doing ok, picking up the pieces in the damage the flood has left behind in our home including the parts of our van stolen by some looters.

I ask for your prayers for all the families affected by this typhoon.

6:04pm.9.27.09.