
Mati City, Philippines — When the 7.4 magnitude earthquake struck the southern Philippines on the morning of October 10, I truly thought it was the end. I live in Mati City, a small coastal community in Davao Oriental, about 1,000 kilometres southeast of Manila.
Life here is slow and peaceful. People fish at dawn, children play by the shore, and the sea is almost always calm. That morning shattered that calm forever.