When Lightning Strikes!

Expect the Unexpected

It was a weekend to meet and greet.  For 10 years, our med school classmate JP Rosales lived in the US, and for the first time since graduation we were going to meet up, and get acquainted with his children.

As soon as I landed in Manila, I realized that my bag was missing.  Hence, I couldn't meet with Jen in Quezon City.  Instead, I went home to my nieces.

I spent the afternoon chatting with my medschool bossom buddy Jenivic talking about our aim in life, our experiences and our lifestyles. We bonded over food and worried until the rains began to pour.

When boarding is supposed to be at 11:00 p.m. and yet flight gets delayed by 4 hours, with actual boarding time at 3:30 a.m. instead....

I realized I was no longer feeling well when my feet felt numb, then looking down I saw my swollen feet.

People were not complaining. Somehow I felt that people simply ACCEPTED that flights would be delayed. There's a sort of fatalistic warning that doom would pervade if we pushed for flights to proceed.  We were lucky that our flight was simply delayed.  Other flights were redirected to Clark airport. Other flights to Visayas like Bacolod and Iloilo, and even to Cebu were outright cancelled.

Then there was a group of passengers who gathered around one boarding gate, who started talking selfies. I wondered who the celebrity was.  As the delegation walked along, I realized that it was Bong Go, and where there is Bong Go, for sure there would be President Rodrigo Duterte.  True enough he was walking around, talking to passengers and sitting down for a snack.

When time finally came for us to board our plane, i asked the attendant for the reason for the 4-hour delay.  She answered "lightning alert" in Manila and runway repair in Cebu airport as cause for delay.  Soon as I found my seat, I simply fastened my seatbelt and promptly lost consciousness.

It seemed like a sign to see a rainbow after the difficult voyage from Manila to Cebu. I slept most of the drive home.  It was as soon as I reached home that I was beseeched with violent migraines with blinding pain scores of 10/10 when I was afraid I was having a hemorrhagic stroke.  I asked my brother to take my blood pressure and to massage my temples and to give me pain medications, as well as a receptacle for vomitus. A day in bed to recuperate.  Later on I will realize the meaning of spending the whole afternoon, evening and dawn at the airport.