Courage in the eye of the storm

"I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear." 

— Nelson Mandela

The Philippines faced two consecutive typhoons that literally transformed low-lying areas of Luzon into water world. The challenges though, brought out the heroes in many Filipinos, who helped out in their own ways. Courage took many forms: many braved the strong currents to save the stranded, others cleared away the debris. Volunteers repacked relief goods while nurses and doctors treated people languishing in evacuation centres. Courage takes the most important form in the survivors, because for them it means picking up where they had been carried to and moving on with their lives despite the tragedy that had struck them.