Journey to Nowhere

   I am on a journey … on a road that leads nowhere. I have been here before, lingered, waited for a rainbow that never came. Wandered til my feet ached and couldn’t take anymore.

   I am on a journey to nowhere, more uncertain than the last time. I don’t know where I am going but I know why. I am home although I am lost. 

Because

Haiku

The dance is over.

Waiting, anticipating,

I long for another.

Traded Water for Air

   I should’ve been fishing by this time today but I traded that for a helicopter ride. Call time at villamor Airbase 505 Squadron was 0900 H but I was still praying for a taxi by 0830 H. Time for drastic measures. I asked a female Taguig Traffic Officer nearby to bring me to Villamor. Whoa! I spent the whole motorcycle ride from East Service Road to Villamor praying. For my safety. 

   I specifically chose my Astroboy shirt for this ride. We’re flying! That’s my ticket on the left.

   We did aerial survey of typhoon affected areas of regions IV-A and NCR. Our helicopter went around the perimeter of Laguna Lake which measures 220 km with a total area of 91,136 hectares. Thanks to friends who texted me the stats so I can tell Dr. Soe Nyunt-U, WHO representative to the Philippines.  

   The dark blue shades in the shoreline of the paw print-like lake indicate the still flooded areas 6 days short of 2 months after typhoon Ondoy struck. I can’t help but think that Laguna Lake just reclaimed what was rightly its waterway. It is sad though that the affected population have nowhere to go. 

   Waterworld. That strip of green on the lower part of the photo is a road now transformed into a canal. Small boats take the place of cars and tricycles. 

  Fun fact. That’s my village!

KayaKo ‘to

Witnessing the second leg of the 2009 Philippine Kayaking Series held in Corregidor gave me a flashback of my kayaking experience at Dos Palmas in Palawan. I had the scare of my life then, along with my travel buddies. We paddled too far out the sea where the strong wind and not so gentle waves threatened to knock out kayak over. The man in the cottage 100 meters away only waved back when I tried to call for help. He must have thought I was just too happy to be out in the sea. We must have been paddling in synchrony to make us appear professional kayakers.

I was more scared then than when I thought I’d fall off the rice terraces in Batad. 

It was not that I couldn’t swim. The life vest will take care of it.  The possibility of sustaining head injury when the kayak overturns was just too real for me. 

After a series of “left, right, left, right” we made it to shore unharmed…and relieved, realizing the strength of our characters in the face of trial. We could’ve died together. For the second time. A day before that, a snake almost hitched a ride on our boat at the Underground River.

But that is another story.