This should have been posted last week ^_^
It's been almost a week since my 2-week getaway/adventure in Antique and Aklan. Until now, I'm still floating in the air with the memories of the good times and the hard times we all conquered. It's not easy to decide where to begin. Living in those 2 weeks felt like 2 years. But now that's over, I feel that the experience ended too fast and I wanted more.
The memories are still fresh, the feeling of nostalgia still very vivid. Such a remarkable experience.
So before the euphoria dies down, here's my top 15 photos that would best describe my Antique-Aklan experience:
I lived the dream! I went as a writer and I was the first one to use our brand new Nikon 5100 DSLR. There's nothing more exciting than going on field armed with a camera and a pen. In fact, as I mentioned in an earlier post, I was overwhelmed with so many firsts. But this one tops it all. Because of this experience, I'm starting to consider doing freelance travel writing when the right time comes.
I met my two mentors: one in photography and one in writing. I learned how to tinker the camera, shoot with the right angle, and ask the right questions to the right people in order to put substance in my story. One thing that made these mentoring sessions even better was that I was able to apply the things I learned right away. Talk about practical exam!
I sailed the rough seas of Aklan aboard this small, humble fisherman's boat. Thankfully, the waters were not as rough as it was the following day. We sailed late afternoon (this was part of our visit to one of our livelihood beneficiaries 3 years ago. It's a success story that I'm gonna right about soon). With this once in a lifetime experience, I can say that I was able to live a fisherman's life for at most 30 minutes, even though we didn't really do any catching or fishing.
If you think 9pm is early, then the province life is not for you. In Antique, all shops are closed by 8pm. So if you take a nap, don't allow yourself to sleep in after 7pm or else you won't find any place for dinner. And we learned it the hard way. Thankfully, the caretaker of the guest house and his friend knew a restaurant about 20 minutes away that is open until 12 midnight.
Welcome to THE Guest House, the place we considered home for more than a week. This was where we slept, ate, worked, and feverishly assembled the wheelchairs. This used to be a safe house for families caught in the middle of Antique's political wars. And it so happened that Paul's family, the caretaker, used to one of those. One night (while I was doing my laundry) he suddenly said that he never thought he would be back to this place. It is now bearing very little marks of what his family went through when he was still a small boy. Wearing my investigative journalist's hat, I found out that his father used to be a political player in the barangay level and was caught in the political mayhem. If I remember it right, that was prior to the Martial Law up to the transition of power to the late Cory Aquino's government. The late Evilio Javier, an avid Aquino supporter who was assassinated during the snap elections, was one of the people who took care of his family.
NOW, if you're wondering if we encountered half bodies flying around or small monsters running in circles around this fairly huge guest house (after all, this is Antique), sorry to disappoint you but we didn't. And it's not as if such weirdness was welcomed. The only annoying creatures we dealt with were dozens of jumping frogs and hundreds of flying gamo-gamo.
And FYI, we were the first ones to use this freshly-renovated guest house.
Stingy with the overloading law? Well, this is how they do it in Antique. As long as you can fit in and the tricycle can run, feel free to hitch. With pay, of course. This happened to us when we went home from Gaisano Mall. They fit all 8 of us in one tricycle. How that happened? I'll leave it to your creative imagination.
I got inked! Thanks to Mark, he pressured me into getting a henna at Boracay. I guess that's what they call peer pressure. But I didn't go off without a fight. I bribed him to pay half of the charge or else I wouldn't get a henna with him. Ha! Worked like a charm.
Last February, I prayed for a road trip vacation. But I didn't expect it would be in this form - and it was waaaay better than what I expected! A road trip it was, all right. We went back and forth to Antique (which, FYI, is a four hour drive) and then, the adventures in this mini-elf! The team started telling me to be careful with my prayers because God is answering them in extraordinary ways and it's getting them involved too. HAHA. But I know you had fun, guys. Don't deny it. So I'll pray some more! ^_^
The best and the highlight of this whole trip was that we were able to minister to people who were in desperate need of Christ. We were able to talk to them, encourage them, pray for them, touch their hands, and simply pat their shoulders. Oftentimes, these simple actions bring loads of comfort to people who are on the verge of giving up. It was a great opportunity to extend the love and care of Jesus. This made the whole trip a million times fulfilling.
I can't wait for my next adventures! Stay tuned!
It's been almost a week since my 2-week getaway/adventure in Antique and Aklan. Until now, I'm still floating in the air with the memories of the good times and the hard times we all conquered. It's not easy to decide where to begin. Living in those 2 weeks felt like 2 years. But now that's over, I feel that the experience ended too fast and I wanted more.
The memories are still fresh, the feeling of nostalgia still very vivid. Such a remarkable experience.
So before the euphoria dies down, here's my top 15 photos that would best describe my Antique-Aklan experience:
Welcome to THE Guest House, the place we considered home for more than a week. This was where we slept, ate, worked, and feverishly assembled the wheelchairs. This used to be a safe house for families caught in the middle of Antique's political wars. And it so happened that Paul's family, the caretaker, used to one of those. One night (while I was doing my laundry) he suddenly said that he never thought he would be back to this place. It is now bearing very little marks of what his family went through when he was still a small boy. Wearing my investigative journalist's hat, I found out that his father used to be a political player in the barangay level and was caught in the political mayhem. If I remember it right, that was prior to the Martial Law up to the transition of power to the late Cory Aquino's government. The late Evilio Javier, an avid Aquino supporter who was assassinated during the snap elections, was one of the people who took care of his family.
NOW, if you're wondering if we encountered half bodies flying around or small monsters running in circles around this fairly huge guest house (after all, this is Antique), sorry to disappoint you but we didn't. And it's not as if such weirdness was welcomed. The only annoying creatures we dealt with were dozens of jumping frogs and hundreds of flying gamo-gamo.
And FYI, we were the first ones to use this freshly-renovated guest house.
Our adventures in Aklan were made ridiculously hilarious by this one-of-a-kind mini elf. This truck made tirik 5 times and the tires blew up on us twice. Thankfully, we had three strong guys who willingly pushed the truck (as if they had any choice) while we (useless) girls stayed inside. Since the truck's also a little old, we were running like 20kph. Imagine how many tricycles and bicycles overtook us. But I guess the good thing about it was we were able to enjoy the fresh Kalibo, Aklan air (while getting sunburned along the way). But hey, with this truck we were able to visit more than 20 families living far away from the city proper. At least it accomplished its purpose (even though we were immensely delayed).
Doc Yvonne and I did some cloudgazing while we watched the sun set during our R and R in Antique. As God displayed His greatness in front of us, we couldn't help but worship Him. Coincidentally, it was during that time when we encountered problems in the province (concerning our project there). But God washed us with peace and joy so we just marveled at His beauty, believing in our hearts that everything will be okay because God will handle it. And He did. Beautifully.
Radio follows me wherever I go! Even in Antique, it found me! Gah. It was unintentional, really. On our way back to San Jose, Zek, Kuya Dan and I were joking around, imitating voices of reporters and personalities, and also goofing around with the radio dramas. When we arrived at the governor's office, Dr. Abiera bumped into Roger Tamon (who happens to be a radio guy) and she introduced him to us (I guess she felt we were trying too hard with our radio spoofs). When she mentioned he has a radio program, my ears automatically perked and I talked and built rapport with him. I didn't really know my purpose for doing that. But the next thing I knew, we were already being invited to his show for the following day. Since I'm just a lowly writer, I could not speak in his program (even though I wanted to) so Elvie, being the coordinator, was the one who spoke. I think it shook her pretty hard. She was so nervous I almost burst out laughing. Anyway, she survived it and she never wanted to come near me again because she claims I have radio magnet (how I wish!). So the good things that came out from that experience are:
- We have a radio partner now in Antique,
- It's fun to build rapport with radio hosts, and
- I can now scratch and scribble an OB script in 2 minutes
My feet finally touched the shores of Boracay and my fingers sunk in its soft, white sand. The weather wasn't that good but everything else was still amazing. I just wished we had more time to go around and swim. Hopefully, I'll be back this year and the weather will be fair so that I could enjoy the sunset view - one of the things that Boracay's famous for.
This trip had something that not all mission/trips had: the BLUE ROOM! Many people often wonder what that is. Well, it's actually an open forum which we did inside the girl's room in Aklan. The room is called the Blue Room because it's painted blue. So why this picture? Well, the Blue Room experience was pretty fierce. Everything was put out in the open. Someone got the brunt of everything. But it was actually one of the things that made us closer together. Now the things discussed in the Blue Room? Well, let's just say what happened in the Blue Room stays in the Blue Room.
Of course, this trip wouldn't be this fun and memorable without these people. With this picture, need I say more? Thank you, Lord, for putting us together in this team. We learned a lot from each one and together we learned a whole lot about You.
I can't wait for my next adventures! Stay tuned!