Here's Part 2 of my story of our trip to the Philippines. In this part, I'll explain about my trip to Bacolod to visit Crystal, Fidel, and their family.
On
the way to the airport, the car we were borrowing overheated twice, and
we even ended up paying a nice homeless man for some liters of water to
use as coolant. When we finally made it to the airport, the car was
still overheating, and Jonald's parents dropped me off, telling me they
would head to a mechanic before heading back home. Then, Kayelee and I
headed to the check-in counter, only to be told at the counter that I
needed a medial clearance to fly since I was past 24 weeks pregnant, or I
couldn't get on my flight. Uhm- hello?! Who has their restrictions to
not fly at that early in pregnancy? All the international airlines I
checked (before leaving for the Philippines) had a cutoff restriction at
36 weeks, so I (stupidly) assumed the domestic airlines had the same
rules.
Anyway, so there I was, pregnant with a toddler,
being told I couldn't fly to see some of my best friends that I hadn't
seen in over a year and a half. My eyes welled up with tears as I tried
to hold my head up high and walked away from the check-in desk. I then
headed straight to a corner and balled my eyes out. I tried calling both
Jonald's mom and dad, but no answer. I found out later that they had
forgotten their phones at home, and they were still at the mechanic when
I was trying to call them. My sister didn't know what to do, as she was
home and certainly couldn't come pick me up with no car in a foreign
country she wasn't familiar with. I tried speaking to the customer
service to see if they could make an exception to the rule and just let
me fly, but they still refused to let me fly without a medical
clearance. They informed me there was a clinic near the airport, and if I
could go there and get medical clearance by later that day, they would
let me fly. That told me that was the only way they would let me fly,
and even drew me out a map on paper on how to get there. So, I had a
decision to make.
My reasonable side would have told
me to stay at the airport and wait until my in-laws arrived at home
(hours later) so I could get a hold of them, get picked up, obtain a
medical certificate later, and fly to see my friends another day. BUT,
my raging, I'm-gonna-show-you, pregnancy hormones took over, and all
common sense went out the window with it. So you can guess what I did.
Yup, I wiped those tears from my swollen eyes, picked up my daughter,
grabbed that hand-drawn map, and walked out of the airport boundaries
into Metro Manila. Yup, w.a.l.k.e.d. I was afraid to take a taxi, for I
heard stories of foreign people being taken advantage of by taxi drivers
and being forced to pay extreme sums of money to be able to be let out
of the car. Plus, I would have had to pay the driver to drive all the
way around the loop of the airport and to the clinic, when I could just
walk the opposite way of traffic in a shorter distance to the clinic.
Call me a stubborn cheapskate, what can I say?
It was
blazingly hot. Being pregnant and carrying a toddler didn't help how hot
and sweaty I felt, either. I certainly got a lot of strange stares, I'm
sure the locals thought I was plain-out crazy, but, there I went,
stopping and crossing 4 lanes of traffic to get there. It took a good,
oh, 20 minutes or so to get there. Upon arriving there, I met a sweet
lady who pointed me in the right direction and even went in the clinic
to make sure I was seen by the doctor. The doctor told me she couldn't
give me medical clearance without an ultrasound, which, they didn't have
the equipment to do that there. Oh sheesh. Luckily the doctor was very
sweet and convinced the other lady that was there with me to find a way
to get me to yet another clinic for an ultrasound and return to her
clinic for an evaluation. Then, that lady went downstairs with me and
introduced me to her son-in-law, who agreed to take me to the other
clinic and bring me back. Poor guy! It was so awkward anyway with the
language barrier (I know only a little bit of Tagolog, and he apparently
only knew about the same amount of English), let alone the fact that he
had to watch my screaming daughter while I peed in a cup for laboratory
results and during the ultrasound. He was very nice, though, and we got
all of the results we needed and headed back via jeepney to the first
clinic.
While waiting for my turn with the doctor, the
nurse came to me with the biggest smile and said, "You're having a BOY!"
to which I responded, "Uhm, yeah I know." I think she must've thought I
didn't know what I was having. After that, she told me, "Oh! That's
perfect! Then you will have girl and a boy! You know, you should stop
now. You can talk with our nurses about family planning." "Yeah, uhm, no
thanks." *awkward silence* Finally, the doctor came out to get me and
then cleared me, wrote the medical clearance, and was so sweet to not
even charge me for her services. My eyes welled up and I gave her a big
hug to thank her- I don't think she was expecting that, saying she just
stood there and half awkwardly hugged me.
Finally, I
gave the nice guy who took me to the other clinic some money for helping
me and was off walking back to the airport. Everything after that
worked out fine, and I was finally able to fly to Bacolod later that
afternoon to see Crystal and Fidel! Phew!
Staying with Crystal and Fidel was fantastic. I felt so bad, though, because they were all sick when I got there and for the first couple of days. It was so great to be able to talk to and hang out with her and her family.
We were able to meet some of her American friends out there, have a
playdate at the mall, eat yummy American Mexican food at Army Navy, go
swimming at their housing complex, eat amazingly delicious cake (I
forget the name of the place, though), and even go to a resort to swim
and eat. We also had to get
another medical clearance for
me to fly back to Manila, but at least it wasn't nearly as complicated
to get it that time as it was the first time, haha!
Crystal
and Fidel are among the sweetest people I know. They have been/are
going through imaginable trials, yet their faith in the Church is so
strong and their love for each other is so sweet. They are amazing,
wonderful parents, too. I hope Crystal doesn't get tired of me asking
for advice about how to raise my kids. I just look up to their parenting
skills so much. They are such an example to me in so many aspects of
life. I wish they lived closer, and miss them so much!
Looking
back, I can see how stupid it was to leave the airport and venture out
into Manila by myself, being pregnant, carrying my backpack, money,
important documents, and Kayelee. I could have run into trouble in so many situations. The possibilities are endless and scary to think about "what
could've happened." Luckily, those things didn't happen. I know my
husband, his family, Crystal and Fidel, and my sister were all extremely
worried about me (and probably angrily thinking I was an idiot) when
they found out I decided to go out in Metro Manila by myself and try to
fix the medical clearance issue on my own. I honestly feel terrible for
making them so frustrated and worried. On the other hand, I know I was
incredibly blessed to meet sweet, honest people who helped me while I
was in need. I am so blessed they did not take advantage of me in any
way. Although most Filipino people do not have much, they are so happy
and great examples of Christ-like love.
On to part 3... coming soon!
