Mission Accomplished

I have accomplished the 49th item on my things to do in 2009: Send Tatay off to a vacation to homeland Davao. It was an idea I thought of before but have never really taken seriously until last year. Hindi ako matatahimik kapag hindi ko 'to nagawa. So last December, I made a little magic with my finances and bought the tickets for 2 for a flight in March!

The day came. It was a Saturday morning and Ate and I accompanied our parents to the airport. It was reaaaaly traffic in C5. If the passengers don't show up 45 minutes before the scheduled departured, they will give the seats to chance passengers. We arrived 40 minutes before the flight, we were only 5 minutes late and the seats were already taken. We had to rebook so they can fly on the same day. The next flight was 2 hours later.

I lined up to rebook along with the many late passengers. Ang bagal ng pila grabe! Ate took our parents to the waiting area and bought them chicken joy and fed them. Tatay didn't want to eat yet, but she insisted saying there will be no time to eat later. I got the new tickets after an hour and we accompanied the folks to board the plane. We were only allowed up to a certain area, but Ate refused to leave until they were out of sight. I didnt realized she was like that. We were relieved to know na sa wakas, kahit may aberya, tuloy ang biyahe nila. The way we ate our lunch, hindi masyadong halatang napagod kami. We were talking and one point was raised- that day, we were like the parents and the folks were like the kids.

But the time came to for us to be kids again! We toured around the new terminal 3 and took pictures! We went to Rockwell after that, and I was practically unconscious sa FX pauwi. Wala pa kasi akong tulog.

When our parents came home, they were so dark from swimming at the beach and Tatay even had sunburn on his back. Talicud Island, Davao, Philippines. Haha. Tatay has been telling us about this place ever since we were little. Ate went there in 2007, and she liked it so much she was so supportive of me with this idea. Now, Nanay has been there too, where the people in the island are mostly your relatives. She even saw the piece of land Tatay inherited. It's not much she said, but it's enough to have an island paradise living.

After almost a week, Tatay said "thank you" again to me. It's been a week na daw, and he was still teary eyed. Fifty years, that's how long it took for him to step foot on his hometown (or home island) again. The day before their flight, Enna the dog died and we were sad. And he said, that might have been the price for the happiness he was feeling. Hay, emo din si Tatay. But knowing that he was happy, was the main point of this whole thing, and if the vacation made him happy, then all the sacrifices, all the aberya, are all worth it!