Calamity is about People

"They fled a toxic cocktail of volcanic gas and ashes and then suffered an avalanche of volcanic debris that has buried most of their homes," he said in an official sounding voice. "Now they shelter where they can —"

He pointed the camera directly at Mouse.

Mouse puckered his lips and made a rude noise, "Pfffttbbbfff."

Excerpt from Volcano Child

When you watch television news videos of calamities in the Far East, do you see sad, hopeless, faces with nothing much to say and nowhere to go?

When I see videos like that, I see my own brown face multiplied a hundredfold.

It happened again the other day.

Around Mayon Volcano, the scenery turned from this:

To this:

A super typhoon slammed into the Philippines and Mayon Volcano unleashed a torrent of mud and boulders, burying towns and killing (by the most recent count) almost 1,000 people. And there, on the BBC news, were the sad fathers and the sobbing mothers and the homeless orphans.

This is one of the reasons I wrote Volcano Child. I wanted to show that calamity happened to real people.

Like me.

Like you.

The Philippine Red Cross is on the scene now and I am sure donations will be welcomed. This can be done via a bank transfer (see the bank details on their website). From the UK, funds can be transferred more cheaply via a Filipino remittance firm. The one I use is London Manila Express

Photographs © Tommy Bombon, English Al-Jazeera and Red Cross Philippines