Meet Rolando Pamplona, of Palo, Leyte, the recipient of NVC’s 1,000th Peter Project boat. He lost his wife to Typhoon Yolanda, as well as his newborn infant. While he was able to find and bury his wife’s body, his child was never found.
Rolando’s boat, named Comunita’ di Piansano, is a gift from the people of the pretty little town of Piansano, Italy, pictured above. Thank you, generous hearts!
And this is Maria Luisa, age 2, Rolando’s daughter.
When Rolando received his banca, the easiest way to take it home was by sea. A neighbor was asked to take Maria Luisa home by land transport.
Clutching her new doll given by donors from Australia, Maria Luisa gazed into the sea until her father’s boat was reduced to a dot in the horizon. What could have been in this little girl’s mind as she watched her father disappear into the sea, whose waves had engulfed her mother?
We can only pray, as we watched her, that the sea be kinder to her father in the years to come. Maria Luisa, you will always be in our hearts and prayers.
