Meo's Journey of Awakenings: Tacloban: rock formations and air con! pg 12

The morning I left Balangiga was like any other morning in the Valdenor house. I woke up at 5am, took my shower, had coffee, called Patrick… Chatted with Mommie Anita and Poppa Tony… But on my last morning with them, my heart was shifting and hurting… quite a bit. In the 10 days I had been a guest in this household I felt as though I was leaving my family… The very first night had seemed like a hazy dream where chaos and disorientation reigned. That moment seemed so far away on day 10… like a distant clammer on the horizon. Phenomenologically speaking this trip has changed my entire orientation and I have begun to understand Sara Ahmed's word with more clarity. Doing phenomenology is stepping out of your comfort zone and activating yourself inside the landscape instead of watching the landscape roll by. At first my disorientation into this foreign world was scary, dark and hot… but in remember Ahmed her words of orientation are what got me through the first night and awakened my sense of belonging the next morning. She talks about how it does not matter where we find ourselves because we all have an innate sense of direction. We understand our left from our right, our top from our bottom… and where we are situated "IN SPACE" is of no consequence as long as we understand our center. In the Philippines, I found my center.

I packed my little room into a suitcase, a back pack and a shoulder bag and made my way out to the portico where I had spent the majority of my time. I said good bye to my parents in the Philippines in their tradition and took each of their hands and brought them to my forehead. Mommie Anita gave me a huge hug, and I hugged Poppa Tony. My eyes began to leak like crazy and told them both thank you so much for everything they have given and that I would miss this place… "I love you"

The road to Tacloban is bumpy but with air con in the vehicle, my sister Mitzi beside me and the knowledge that in a few hours I could collapse on my hotel bed, I was feeling thankful, emotional and ready for the next two days to begin.

Mitzi and I had an art day and she decided to make me a card. She asked for little notes from the family and extended family that I had met. Then she put it all together and gifted it to me. I put it in my suitcase for when I arrived at the hotel. When we arrived in Tacloban I was again disoriented… Only this time it was the sounds, busy-ness and the amount of people around where we were. I never did get used to the heat… We stopped at Chow King which is a food chain in the Philippines. There is an armed guard at the door that lets you in, you stand in line and a lady takes your order. She writes it not a piece of paper and then you wait in line to had it to the cashier. There was probably 30 people in line when we arrived. Mitzi put in our order and said we we would probably not find a table, or we would have to wait a long time. Then the power went out, another brown-out. And the whole restaurant let out an awwwwwww sigh… That was pretty awesome! When the power did not come back on the restaurant "declined" more orders and we were ushered out. We went to eat in another place where they had amazing BBQ!!! It was so good… I ate this fruit thing, warmed, and tasted like Fujiyama's yum-yum sauce.

Then we headed to my hotel which was not quite ready for check-in but I told Mitzi I was fine to wait. She and her brother left to run errands and I went upstairs to my room, took a very long shower. Shaved my legs which were looking very Evergreen at that moment and turned on the television to unwind. I went to my suitcase and took out my card from Mitzi.

I began to cry before even reading them… just taking these letters out of the envelope itself was emotional enough… but then I began reading…

Look at all this LOVE!

From Joy… My heart jumped!!! She wrote such a beautiful note!

This one had me bawling…. Anton really hit the heart strings with this message

Messages from everyone!! Mommie Anita, Poppa Tony, Mitzi, Joland, Ginalyn, Joy, Jeffrey, Rey and Anton…. The immensity of that moment, reading all these messages, was HUGE!! 33 years… This journey began, 33 years ago… and now through all of the pictures and letters we have shared we have made this physical connection and once again I have been blessed by the written word… The hearts and thoughts of all these wonderful people will stay with me wherever I go…

A note from Joy and a special letter for my mom from Mommie Anita :-)

After my emotional outburst I recomposed myself and went to the shopping mall with Mitzi. The mall was DESTROYED by the typhoon and the only thing open was the supermarket. Every line was open and the wait time was 30 minutes. The store was PACKED with people!!! I found some Sour Cream and Onion potato chips, pineapple juice, their version of Kit Kats, oreos and random snacks!! It was a neat experience and Mitzi and I just chatted the time away. :-) It was awesome.