Final Day
Ramen.
That was the first thing that popped into my head when I woke up this morning. And it felt odd, not because I was craving for instant noodles, but because for the first time in two weeks, I wasn’t thinking about the morning call for the team.
Project Philippines 2013-Leyte was ending.
I stumbled groggily across the room to commence packing. Though it was scheduled to be a mild day, I wanted to finish packing so that I could see Karen off at 9 AM. She was slated to fly at 11, the first of the group to depart. PSHS had so graciously offered to bring each of us (!) to the airport, a gesture that unbelievably lightened our load. I was to be part of the next group to depart the hotel at 1:30, along with Hikaru, Audrey, Angela, Alex, Emily, Abby, Yun Chen, Parit, and Peeraya.
In the 4 hour lull between Karen’s departure and ours, we went to the school to take care of a few things. First on the agenda was the framed picture of appreciation for the school. We had meant to present it during the closing ceremonies, but due to a misunderstanding with the printing shop, we weren’t able to pick it up on time. We were glad however, that we still had this extra day to be able to give it to the school.
Second was the (attempted) recovery of a number of lost items – Ly’s laptop charger and Hikaru’s phone to name a few. We lost SO MANY items during the project that it really felt like there was somehow a portal to another dimension that these items kept being sucked into. Mrs. Gozon was not available at the time of our visit however, so we were resigned to the fact that these items were our souvenirs to Leyte.
Last, and probably the first on Hikaru’s list of things to do, was a mandatory buko drinking session at MacArthur Park. It was my third time for buko in MacArthur Park, so I begged off, but it was my first time actually seeing the statue of General MacArthur.
To digress somewhat from the project, I have to admit I was rather starstruck being in the General MacArthur Park. Having been colonized by the Spaniards, Americans, and Japanese, the Philippines and her history books aren’t particularly profuse in their praise for foreigners, if any at all. General MacArthur is the exception. I remember quite clearly how romanticized his landing in Palo, Leyte was. His ever-famous quote, “I shall return,” is the only one I can remember from my history lessons, and standing only a meter away from the statue, I could faintly hear history whispering in my ears.
From MacArthur Park, we got off the tricycles at the school, and who should we find waiting for us but some of our mentees! Another round of goodbyes were said, and the Angela Park gave Linette (and not Erica) her scarf. The past two weeks, it’s been such a pleasure seeing our mentees grow so much, and I could feel pieces of my heart slowly melting as the multicab revved up its engine and drove away.
On the way back to the hotel, we stopped by Robinsons to pick up some lunch from, drumroll please, Jollibee! Nothing beats Philippine fastfood, and I say that without any bias whatsoever :)
Now upon arriving at the hotel, it seems as if the door to the dimension of lost items opens, and they are regurgitated one by one. I receive a text from Mrs. Gozon saying that Ly’s charger has been found, and that Hikaru’s phone is in the bus. The mango jam that Hikaru bought that mysteriously disappeared a week and a half ago revealed its existence in the guys’ room (this is important take note of this hehe). The biggest surprise of all was Karen, who was back at the hotel! Apparently, her flight had been delayed for 6 hours, so she decided to reschedule her flight to the next day and spend one more night in Leyte. This worried me; I hurriedly checked the Philippine Airlines website and found my suspicions confirmed – our flight was also delayed by 2 hours. It seemed as if Tacloban didn’t want us to leave!
Despite the delay, we decided to push through and head for the airport. Mrs. Gozon saw us off, and we bade farewell to Karen, Ly, and Binh, who were staying one more night. It was a strange feeling, that goodbye. 16 days before, we had only corresponded largely by email; most of us hadn’t even met each other yet. Now, I had come to trust the members as a team that I could face challenges with, and as people I could grow with. And as we had our final hugs, I said with all sincerity, “I hope we see each other again.”
And after all that, Hikaru realizes that she left the mango jam in the bus. Lolololol.
Finally, after 5 hours of waiting (and feeding the mosquitos), we closed our chapter of Project Philippines 2013-Leyte.
Shall we return? Stay tuned and find out.
Thank you for following us on this year’s journey! Keep dreaming, and engineer inspiration!













