Going home

Even though we've been living here in manila for about more than 6 months now, i still consider mindanao my home. It is primarily Iligan but zamboanga is also home to me because of my husband. September 29 is the feast day of St. Michael the archangel, patron saint of iligan. We have been planning on taking a much needed vacation and since we will be going home we might as well go to my other home, lila, bohol. Feast day of Lila is october 7, feast of the Lady of the most holy rosary. It was a two-week vacation which my children never wanted to end. When we left zamboanga, aj cried and didn't want to leave because she likes to be with her cousins. Suddenly, they are sorrounded by kids their age who speaks their language. When we left bohol, they echo the same sentiment. I remember, i had the same sentiment back when i was still a child. I never wanted vacations to end. But being an adult changes things and you know that you can't take vacations if you don't have money to spend.

September 26 was when typhoon Ondoy made a landfall. It was a quiet but rainy saturday for us all at the house. Hubby went to work that day but he said that we should already prepare our things so that when he arrives we can immediately leave. I was a little bit skeptical, after all a typhoon was raging. I didn't know that flooding in certain areas in central luzon including parts of metro manila has worsened. There was no power starting around early afternoon, so we were clueless about what's happening. I was only alarmed when we ran out of lpg for cooking our food. I asked my household help to buy food at nearby jollibee but they returned saying it was closed , so i said just buy any food that you can find. Later that evening, hubby called me to say that he can't go home yet since all the roads leading home is flooded. Finally, he came home around 10pm with chowking-to-o meals already cold. I am just happy he is able to come home. Typical of his nature, he said to pack up because we're leaving manila for home. He is tireless.

Shaw boulevard is already bereft of vehicles except for those going to kalentong, there were still traffic there. c-5 is deserted except for occasional light vehicles being stranded. We spent longer time at SLEX because there was still flooding there along with several light vehicles being stranded. I think i may have dozed off a little bit but i try not to because i wanted to keep hubby company. I could always offer to take his place when he feels sleepy but i could not equal his speed nor his concentration while driving. Besides, i am more familiar with manual rather than automatic transmission. And so he drove all the way to bicol until 4am in the morning until we stopped so that he could take a nap. We just parked on a shell station, forgot the name of the place. We slept for about an hour and then we proceeded to his friend in Pili or was it Naga who invited us to have breakfast. We went there, we freshened up, had a hearty breakfast and we were even given packed bicol delicacy for the road. Thanks very much, you know who you are. I learned during that visit that his wife has rheumatic heart disease and so the pregnancy has to be monitored also. But that's another story.

When we reached the port of Matnog, sorsogon, it was indeed time for lunch and we ate at eatery just outside the port's gate. We boarded the ferry and just stayed inside the vehicle for the duration of the 2 hour trip. Hubby slept the entire ferry trip and the kids where just playing. Since we can't get out of our vehicle, and i needed take a pee , i peed on a plastic cellophane. ha ha ha

We reached the port of Allen, Samar it was already dark and hubby decided that we take the Calbayog road instead of the road directly to catbalogan because the catbalogan direct is mostly rough road. I had stomach upset. We stopped at a restaurant in calbayog so that i could relieved myself. We passed by San Juanico bridge around 2 am and reached the port of leyte around 4 am but we had to wait a while because the ferry leaves at 6am. We paid for the airconditioned accomodation so that we could get some needed sleep but the kids were just running around that only hubby was able to sleep. We had brunch at a roadside eatery in surigao because we were really hungry, we've eaten nothing but instant noodles and biscuits while on the ferry. We dropped by our ninong at Butuan and we were served delicious buko pandan and sweet buko straight frim the shell. We even brought home 2 seedlings for planting.

We arrived in Iligan tired but safe and happy. All thanks to hubby and God Almighty!