Day 14

Today was a travel day. We awoke at 3am to get everything together and loaded up. The mood was somber to say the least. The van I was to ride in on the 2 hour ride to the airport had an A/C failure at start up. I felt it a fitting goodbye. I gazed at the scenery that is so foreign it might as well be another planet. Even at this incredible early hour the streets are packed with people and traffic. That is the one thing I cannot get over, is the shear mass of humanity in the Philippines. It is just dumbfounding. The ride was uneventful. I was happy for my last can of Pepsi Light (a poor substitute for my beloved Diet Pepsi). I cleaned out 2 of the stores we stopped at for drinks frequently, so I took pride in the fact I had single handily depressed the diet pop market.

We arrived at the Manila airport to another mass of bodies. After a couple of hiccups (I hope to reunite with my suitcase again someday) we cleared the check in counter and proceeded to the gate. We boarded the plane. Much to my delight I discovered I was seated on the upper deck. There was nothing fancier up there but I had never been on the upper deck of a plane so I thought it was cool. After eating or rather avoiding Filipino food for 2 weeks the airplane food seemed amazingly good. How the mighty have fallen! Speaking of food - I know I had promised to stop my culinary critics but this is good one - I discovered why the Filipino spaghetti tastes so weird. For dinner last night we joined the Pessina's at their house while the students chowed in our normal mess area. Winnie Pessina made spaghetti. Now I am no fan of spaghetti back home but Filipino Spaghetti is a whole new kind of dislike for me. And it is the most frequent thing we got next to white rice. I think it was my 4th or 5th day in a row to see spaghetti with a meal. Filipino spaghetti sauce is a very pale, sweet sauce and has strange ingredients such as carrots and even pieces of hot dog. Mrs. Pessina proudly announced she had made real American spaghetti and sure enough it was, complete with meatballs! I asked what made the Filipino spaghetti so different. Banana Ketchup. That would explain it.

The flight was uneventful which is my word of the day. When you are traveling internationally - uneventful is very good. We arrived to Narita airport and started the process of clearing customs and getting bags. Most of our checked bags are supposedly going through to Chicago so we did not get them. I hope I see it again someday! The critical detail of which hotel the airline was putting us up was a mystery for awhile but some clever detective work paid off and we were on our way. The hotel is nice and has free Internet (obviously!). We discovered there was a free van into the downtown part of Narita - Tokyo is actually about an hour away so was out of the question. We made our way to the McDonald's for a quick meal and then some sight-seeing. Well McDonald's in Narita does not take credit cards. Thus began an epic search for an Americano friendly cash station. Let me tell you the experience of being in a foreign country where few people speak the language, signs are all gibberish, and people don't really like you based on what nationality you are - well, it's not so fun. We parked everyone in McDonald's and Bob,Bobby,Jeff Rice and I set off in search of money. Finally because Jeff Rice makes friends in a nano second we found some sympathetic co-patriots that clued us in to the fact that 7-11 was the only cash station that would work. Truly it was oh thank heaven for 7-11! The thought of return to our rag-tag, starving crew empty handed was terrifying. I pictured Garrett with packets of barbecue sauce, fork and knife in hand, glaring at me like the Christmas Goose. We feasted on McDonald's. Afterwards I enjoyed the bliss that is a heated toilet seat. I will not go into graphic detail other than to say the McDonald's toilet seats have more features than my car at home. Both the before and after experience at McDonald's was delightful.

Now I am back at the hotel. Tomorrow morning is going to be a long day as I will travel all day and get home in the morning which means I will be up for nearly 24 hours before I next see a bed.

It has been an amazingly impactful and amazingly difficult trip for me. I don't want to rush to come to any conclusions yet about what all this trip was about for me. I think some of that is yet to be worked out. I just know tomorrow I get to see my family and that is about the best thing I can think of right now. I plan on hibernating for a few days before I jump back into the grind. Thanks for following along and all the nice comments I have received. I hope this journey of mine has been a blessing to you and causes you to ask the question of what is next for you like I am asking myself. God Bless. I hope to share the stories and pictures with you in person very soon.