MANILA, Philippines?Some felt sad over losing their books and bags. Others were scared their teachers would scold them because they had lost their school uniforms. One girl had a different concern.

?Nasaan po si Bro?? the girl asked her teacher. She meant, ?Where was God??

The question?asked during a counseling session for students at Miriam College in Quezon City on Monday as schools reopened days after Tropical Storm ?Ondoy? (international codename: Ketsana) pummeled Metro Manila?seemed understandable.

The girl belonged to a family whose house was swamped in the massive floods.

Her question was one which the school teachers found difficult to answer.

Not only the students but even the teachers themselves underwent counseling sessions conducted by psychologists at Miriam.

The college?s lower school assistant principal, Carmela Arreola, told the Philippine Daily Inquirer the purpose of the sessions was to ease the trauma both students and teachers might have suffered during the disaster by giving them a chance to share what they had been through.

Some students were unusually quiet.

School guidance counselor Analiza Soriano said the trauma could also make people experience psychosomatic illnesses, like loose bowel movement.

Nightmare afterwards

Soriano said some teachers, whose houses were also flooded, experienced nightmares.

At least 41 Miriam employees were badly affected by Ondoy. One of them was science teacher Aprilita Gonzales, whose house in Karangalan Village in Cainta, Rizal, was flooded for two days.

The experience left Gonzales crying for several days. ?The counseling helped me a lot because I was able to share what I went through,? she said in an interview later.

After undergoing counseling, it was the teachers? turn to conduct similar sessions for their students.

The session for Grade Six students started on a jolly note, as if the calamity had not affected them, their adviser Joyce Guerrero said.

But after each of them was given the chance to narrate what they went through, the students became quiet.

Most students at the school, where tuition is about P70,000, come from fairly wealthy families. But the wrath of Ondoy ignored economic classes.

One student from Cainta said she saw her aunt die.

The flood in Cainta had trapped the student, her aunt and her brother on the rooftop. It took hours for a military helicopter to rescue them.

By then, the aunt was already dead.

The disaster changed the priorities of the children.

In one exercise, they were asked to write down what they considered the most important things for them before the floods struck. One girl wrote herself, her grades and parties.

Her priorities after her experience with Ondoy changed. Now, she listed the names of her loved ones, classmates and teachers.

?They realized that the people they care about are the most important,? Guerrero said.

No black shoes

The session was lighter among Grade One pupils who told their adviser, Maricel Francisco, that they really wanted to swim in the water.

Francisco said one pupil approached her, saying she was sorry she had to wear rubber shoes to school even if they were required to use black shoes as part of their uniform.

The girl said she not only lost her books and bag to the flood, but that thieves also took away the little that her family had left.

?They even stole my black shoes,? she said.

Asked to illustrate what they felt, the children drew sad faces showing raindrops falling behind them.

?I expected they would talk about their PSPs (play station portable), but they were more concerned about their families. They were happy that their families were complete,? Francisco said.

The Grade Three students of homeroom adviser Aisha Cola Saavedra talked about what they learned from what happened.

One of her students talked about the importance of being prepared for school by packing bags and books early. Another stressed the need to take care of the environment.

One of Saavedra?s pupils, lamenting what people had done to the environment, said: ?We should take care of God?s creations.?

In a few places, efforts to resume classes descended into chaos, with some schools remaining under water, and others occupied by homeless survivors with nowhere else to go.

?We were instructed to resume classes today but look around, the situation will likely not allow it,? said Eliza Servesa, assistant principal at H. Bautista Elementary School in Marikina City.

Only three students in mismatched uniforms and carrying books salvaged from the floods arrived for morning classes. Before the disaster, the school bustled with 3,500 children.

Marikina was one of the worst-affected by the flood waters.

At H. Bautista Elementary School, many of the nearly 5,000 people who initially stayed there had left?either returning to their damaged homes or going to stay with relatives?but between 300 and 500 remained.

?We can?t force them to leave. That is against humanitarian principles,? Servesa said.

Ailyn Evangelista, a 39-year-old mother of two, said leaving the school would eliminate all hope for her family.

?Here we have water, and toilets we can use. And if the flood waters come again we can run to the second floor. Also, we won?t have to beg,? she said, adding that relief items were being delivered regularly by various charities.

?Nobody wants to stay here if they still have a house to go to. But we don?t.?

Eduardo Tan, his wife and two children aged 5 and 7, had also bunkered in a hallway, creating a fenced-in space using desks.

Records lost

At nearby Santa Elena High School, only about 20 percent of its 5,000 students showed up and principal Elizalde Cena was forced to let them go at midday as teaching was impossible in the mud-filled classrooms.

?All our records were lost. I have yet to begin doing a proper accounting of my students,? Cena said.

Officials in the worst affected areas said many of the schools in their districts were unable to open as scheduled Monday either because the rooms were still under water or occupied by evacuees.

Pateros Mayor Joey Medina said that, with about half the district still under water, he had ordered its 10 public schools to resume classes on Wednesday instead.

?This is to give our school and local government officials sufficient time to clean up and ensure the safety of the returning students,? Medina told reporters. With report from Agence France-Presse