GOING TO CAMIGUIN IN A YELLOW JEEP 2012

GOING TO CAMIGUIN IN A YELLOW JEEP 2012

March 31, 2012. We decided to move early in the morning. Destination - Camiguin, a volcanic island with all the verdant green in the world that you could imagine. There were four of us all in all in the family - mama, papa, daughter, son. All of the dogs were left behind - Titum, Mokmok, Bongol, Panzer. They would be dangerous to passengers in the sea crossing. Our vehicle, a vintage yellow jeep.

All were excited in this voyage. This is the first time that we brought along the ageing vehicle back to Camiguin where it was once had its home in grandfather's home. It was taken to Cagayan de Oro City on the year 1995 where it had faithfully rendered service up to the time of this writing. All is well along the road. It took us two hours to reach the port of Balingoan, Misamis Oriental.

We waited in line for our chance to ride the ro-ro vessel that would bring us across. There was a long line of vehicles that waited their turns to be ferried across the enchanted island of fire and plants and fine people. Father had a good time taking pictures of the island from the port. I looked stunning as the sky was clear and the weather was fine. He enjoyed the scenes and the sun, and the hustle and the bustle of passengers and stevedores in the terminal and by the side of the port nearest the sea.

And after sometime, we were ferried towards the island where our yearly adventure will begin once again as it did some few years back ever since mother and father were married and begot the son and daughter. There was laughter in the air and we shared each others happiness to the delight of others too. After all happiness is addicting and contagious too. This is not just taken from mere laughter but also by the silence of being contented with each others company for it may be that once face is laughing while the heart is bleeding within.

We reached grandpa and grandma's place safely, carried by the yellow jeep. His name is yellow bird. He nestled on the paved portion of the ground under the shade of the grown up lanzones trees where up above were nestled real birds who smeared their droppings on the hood each morning.

The people ate in a hut and sometimes played in the canvas tent on the sodded ground. It gave the children happiness that only they could have enjoyed. The grown ups might have experienced it before but now marveled at how strange the experience of the children are.

We've gone to places near the grandpa's place to enjoy year after year the experience of being there, of being in mother's home place where she had grown and enjoyed the same sceneries years before. But there was no way of being bored in a place where the whole family was there for all the bends of the road, all the trees, animal and people offered a surprise all unique to their own kind. We were just lucky enough to enjoy it as one family.

The sea may offer a warm water to bathe, the sun may offer a shining light to appreciate, the rain may bring the water to make the plants sprout but all these things are useless without LOVE that gives meaning to everything, and in this part of the world where our little yellow jeep had carried us as an instrument of God, we shared all the things about familial love in God's time where he had sown us.

At the end of the appointed time of our yearly sojourn, we wondered at how we enjoyed the things that we had done time and time again. The boat carried our jeep back to the other shore, till it carried us again to the place we called home.

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