Leaving on a Jet Plane

Sitting at the departure gate for my first flight from Manila to Seoul. Hard to believe the trip is ending. Of course, “ending” is kind of relative, I don’t make it home for quite some time.

The past few days have been fun, but definitely bitter sweet. Wrapped up all my work, finished reading The Call by Os Guinness, bought some presents for my host family. The youth at church threw me a little goodbye shindig, complete with competing to imitate me and forcing me to try grilled intestine, congealed blood, chicken feet and grilled chicken head. None of them were great, but all were actually fairly edible. Except the chicken brain, that was a little gross. Then it was off to Michael’s house for dinner with his family. Sadly his dad wasn’t there, and they were all fairly nervous about talking to the American, so mostly I chatted with his mom. Perhaps more sadly, his pet monkey was at the other house. Yes, Michael has a pet monkey. And, yes, that makes him cooler than all of us.

Then it was home and waiting up to meet Ate Lanie, my host mom’s daughter who was just finishing a year of being on staff with FH-Indonesia. It was fun to meet her for sure, as I’d heard tons about her, lived in her room, read her books, and laughed with David about the fact that he was interning in Indonesia and knew her before I did.

Then one last fitful night of sleep in the Philippines as I thought about leaving. On the positive side, it was the first night I’ve ever turned the fan the whole way off, as the Philippines are getting drenched with a tropical storm and it finally got cool enough for me to be comfortable sleeping. Woke up, ate breakfast. Then I ate breakfast again as they had, in typical Filipino fashion, prepared special breakfast. I should’ve guessed.

Mom called one last time. Very excited for me to be almost home. Alas, there were four solid days between that phone conversation and when I will actually make it home. Hope she’s not that anxious for the whole time.

Kuya Edmund, the driver, and Michael showed up in Filipino time, a good half hour after Leo and Genny. Then it was a 3 hour trip to Manila through streets frequently flooded with more than a foot of water. Like I said, it’s been raining a lot. At the FH office I gave my final presentation, talking briefly about all my interviews and success stories, and then more at depth on perceptions of the phased out communities. And, for perhaps the first time all summer, I felt that my work had some real significance. Not that I haven’t enjoyed it. Not that I don’t feel like the success stories will be used. But I at least hope that my observations are going to have an effect on future FH centers and make the program a little bit better. I wasn’t really expecting that going in to my presentation. Mostly I was nervous about telling some development professionals, a group of women who are all older than me and much more experienced, that I thought only 3 of 6 communities they have left were doing well. There was some fairly direct criticism, which isn’t necessarily a typical part of Filipino culture. But I didn’t feel like I could leave without honestly giving my observations. And I really felt like I was listened to. They were sincerely glad to hear what I had to say, and seemed to have not known it all already, something I was a little worried. They commented, and I agreed, that as an outsider, sometimes the communities/pastors/staff/etc were more willing to be honest with me than with the national FH staff. So maybe I did something of lasting value! Sweet!

Then it was off to two malls to buy my pasalubong (travel gifts) for the family. And my copy of Harry Potter. Figure I could use some reading material for the flights and I sincerely don’t want to find out what happens before I’m done, which gets harder as I get back to America.

As I approached the entrance terminal with Michael, Genny, and Leo, suddenly I was alone. I turned around to see the three of them stopped a few paces behind me. I had officially crossed the line into leaving. No one was coming any farther with me and I couldn’t go back. As excited as I am to see the other interns in Phoenix and even more excited to get back to PA, the parents, and PSU, leaving is lame. In the words of The Normals:

Goodbyes are never easy
And goodbyes never tire
Of making me feel guilty
For being dragged through time.