Part 19

Benjie has purchased us plane tickets to Tacloban, Leyte where we join up in only sporadic moments while he has plenty a business meetings. Also there to my surprise is Noling, my dear old friend and driver from 1994 -2000. There is also a new person, Bokyo and his wife, Amabel who shall also be helping and driving as around.

This traffic is intense, choked impact to get to the restaurant and hotel. It is the last day of The fiesta celebration and of course~ the President Duarte flies in at the same time with three huge Helicopters........ Go figure?

We stay a few days because we are also going back to where foolishly I abandoned my nipa house & 3 hectors overlooking the Pacific Ocean in 94~2000 when I got married in year 2000. Across the San Juanico bridge Leyte & Samar we cross, through the mountains along the west side we come to the halfway point, the crosshairs of the island to cross over Eastward. 

The same ol canderia is still there, nothing has changed including the paint except perhaps a newer dog laying in front waiting for scraps. A bite to eat and over into the hills of more virgin forest we pass. Finally reaching the east side of the town Taft we drive a bit more into my old town which looks familiar I points. Out at the end of town is an abandoned airstrip from World War II with the military planes were during the battle -this is the beach where I lived. The only constant thing in life that I know is that nothing stays the same and everything changes. Even here now where I was completely alone, there are houses and a resort were John and I are booking two to where we will be staying. Long are the days I live here in my native Nipa for three months out of the year without fan, aircon, TV, phone, refrigerator, cr, - of course there was no internet then? What a fossil relic I have become? My son compares it to the Tom Hanks movie castaway without Wilson!

The sun comes screaming in from the windows and I'm out snapping photos of the sunrise showing its glory and majestic grandeur! I swim in the warm waters soothing ocean like a massage all over. I stroll the new houses in attempt to find my foundation of my house of course turn down any signs of its existence other than some rebar bent over the cracked concrete. Yolanda hit also through here pretty bad as this is the gateway path of typhoons when they continually confront the islands. The beach side has also been washed away and is about 150 feet closer then was prior.

Awaiting me back at the resort is my breakfast, I think they could've smelled of me coming from 100 km away. The breakfast is Easley big enough for three or four but it's ours? Time to wake the boy up cause I need reinforcements! John's new favorite food this time is Sigsig or pork tocino. Me~ I'm missing the kinilaw- Jackfruit- seashells- shrimp & lobster & whateverelse there is!

The staff at seaside resort or a bit curious about us both and a bit too shocked to hear me speaking although tragically broken Bisyan Waray dialect? Betcha they weren't ready for that! Now comes the big eyes like pancakes and totally taken aback that where we all are now~once was mine! Now like a good mystery novel- soap, comes The history lesson of when I tell them about my living totally here alone, other than the Wakwak-Aswang (a legend of vampire lady that lives in the trees), but I have to tell them it's just a joke cause many still are quite superstitious!!!! 

Not too many people here can imagine and well, not too many people can either in the US that I did the survivor thing many years before they ever got to a reality show? I didn't survive ~ I thrived  very pleasantly in my time here!

Now settled into our 3rd day here, with the usual barrage of food being cooked for us (total overkill~~~~please!) We somehow manage to get through the breakfast. I am out continually strolling around and reexamining the beach from long long ago. It shocks me- although it shouldn't really that people stop and recognize me and even remember my whole family name!

This has my hair standing up on goosebumps all over as I'm flabbergasted and amazed by their sharp retention of what sharp memory  they have! Maybe I'm not as young as I was before? 

There's plenty of chitchat down memory lane on this dirt road next to the ocean of years when I lived 3 months out of the year in my simple nipa and friends I'd visit. My son knows that I don't exaggerate or lie but now he gets an earful from the direct source, of the younger man, blue eyes and big nose with freckles that blend in all to well long ago! Lol, 

A couple of days later we take a pump boat out to the islands that were my picture window of my nipa, I would spend lots of time there but unfortunately- not this time. Not too much time is allowed because our companion is doing business it seems, but at least my son got to experience what I had endlessly spoke of.

John gets to try a semi automatic weapon under careful guidance

I'm so so deeply honored that I was able to share and have him witness why I was and always am in awe and deep respect for the country and  its people.

Back toward the evening time once again arriving at the resort a late lunch is laid out for although we didn't order food, but here it is? Sigsig, Lechon, eggs, pancakes, bananas & mangos! The folks that run this place are great, brother's Dante and Dex, sister Rizza, Uncle Peter and anty Jeneng and their sweet baby girl along with Jephanie the girlfriend of Dante. They are just fantastic making my son & I feel family, like long lost relatives, like a 5th cousin twice removed from my mother's brother's nephew's friends brother.... Something like that? This is what I love and hate adored for so long and desperately missing in my life, world connoisseurs of hospitality back in the land of smiles!