When supertyphoon Ketsana hit the Philippines last year, I was one of the dozen passengers stuck in a bus in the middle of the superhighway. I had been on my way back to Manila from Batangas City when the storm broke. The bus driver pushed on despite the rising floods along the road, pressured as he was by his passengers who had been receiving calls one after another from their loved ones back home who were already on the roofs of their houses, watching helplessly as the floodwaters rose higher and higher around them.

I myself had left a teenage sister in my house, and like the other passengers, I could do nothing to help her, feeling only frustration and fear when I heard her crying over the phone. We were stuck in the bus, quite powerless to help our loved ones, and tortured by thoughts of them being carried away by the floods. Tension was high inside, as the passengers grew more and more agitated when the bus kept stalling. As the hours went on, however, when it became clear that there wasn't any chance of the bus moving, the passengers' spirits began to flag until all that remained was a deep feeling of helplessness and despair.

We were stranded, and we had no way of reaching our families who needed us.

We also had another problem. Stuck as we were in the middle of the superhighway for 14 hours, we were hungry and thirsty, with no access to a food supply. I had a very small bottle of water, and I took small sips of it throughout the day, quite aware that I could need it badly later on.

I was very surprised then when I was handed a box of donuts and asked to get one and pass. One passenger had bought a box of those goodies in Batangas for his family, but seeing that we were all hungry, decided to pass it around rather than to keep it to himself.

When I bit into the soft and delicious sugar raised pastry, it was not only my physical hunger which was assuaged. My faith was also greatly boosted, and I could see that I was not alone in feeling that way. All around me, I could see the other passengers smiling. We were still worried, yes, but we were smiling and full of faith that no matter what happened, there was still a lot of goodness in the world.