Flying Off

Today I went for CAMPUS. I thought that "someone" would be there. (ahem, ahem) Then I found out that she wasn't going. (ahem, ahem) You know who you are =p

It was a good thing that Charmaine and Sandra were also there. We didn't know who else was going so it was just the three of us. It wasn't bad or anything, but somehow I didn't feel comfortable. Maybe I came there with the wrong attitude. I felt forced to go just because I was there already. My heart wasn't in the right place.

After the sharing by Coach Maddie (did I spell it correctly?), Deacon Chin went up to talk about the Tsunami Relief Efforts. He was saying that when he was 17 he wanted to go to Baguio City, Philippines because a huge earthquake hit the place at that time. Then I started counting, he said that was about 14 year's ago. I counted back and realised that I was 4 then, and I was there.

Baguio City is my hometown; I was born there. I can vaguely remember that earthquake. I never even thought that it was such a huge disaster. I didn't even think that at that time, someone in Singapore wanted to actually help out. It never occured to me that the earthquake was such a huge disaster. Maybe because I was still too young and life didn't change at all. It didn't feel like I was affected too much. Sure, I think I found it quite cool when the whole house started shaking.

Now I think back, I remember the news back then. Whole buildings collapsed with people trapped beneath the rubble. Incredible survival stories now come back to memory. I remember hearing about a group of people who were trapped who had no food or water. They survived on rain water and... pee... I can say that without getting banned right? I'm not sure of the validity of that story, but my point is that the earthquake was devasting. The roads leading up to the city (Baguio City is a mountain city - it's built on mountains) where blocked off by boulders that rolled down from the top of the mountains.

Only now I realise that even then God had protected me and my family. None of our property was destroyed and not a single one from my family died during that catastrophe. I've experienced earthquakes more than once, so it's not a weird thing for me. I found it a little weird when teacher Elizabeth asked me how an earthquake feels like. It struck me that no earthquake of such devastating scale has ever occured here (none that I know of, tell me if there is).

Ah, I actually wanted to say goodbye because I'll be flying off for Jakarta on Monday. I'm going to miss all of you. For those I didn't get to see and say goodbye in person, I'd like to say goodbye. I hope to see you when I come back on the 24th (I think). I'm going to miss you guys even if it's just for 2 weeks. I'm reminded of the time when I had to leave Philippines to move here to Singapore. Hah, I shall stop before I get all drama and stuff.

See you all soon!