The day that never seemed to end.

Like I said in my earlier post, we left Steubenville Baptist Church at 5am on Monday Jan. 30th. We landed in Tacloban on Jan. 31st around 7pm. It all seemed like one big day. After a 2hr bus ride to Lexington, we flew out to Detroit where we waited for an hour or so in the airport. Then came the longest leg of the trip....a 13hr flight from Detroit to Nagoya, Japan. We basically got off the plane there and walked through security and right back on the same plane for a 4hr flight to Manila. I remember looking at a clock as we went through customs in Manila and it was midnight which was 11am on Jan. 31st at home. After getting through customs, we had to round up all of our luggage and meet Mary's sisters who lived in Manila. By the way, Mary is from the area where we went on this trip. Bro. Mike met her while he was in the Navy and working at a hospital in the Philippines.

We met Mary's sisters and they had arranged for 2 Jeepneys to take us to another airport in Manila where we would catch our flight to Tacloban. After loading all the luggage into one Jeepney, only half of us would fit into the other Jeepney. So, half of us went and half of us stayed. I was in the half that stayed outside the airport and waited for the other Jeepney to come back and get us. Man, the heat hit me like a ton of bricks. I still had on lined Nike pants and long sleeved shirt under a short sleeved shirt. In all of our meetings it was stressed that nobody goes anywhere alone. So Aaron and I dug through our carry-on luggage and found some shorts and went to the nearest restroom to change. This is the only time during the trip that I almost felt like a girl but it was worth it. Shorts never felt so good! The other Jeepney came to get us in a few minutes and we were soon reunited with the rest of the group at the other airport. It seems like we were there for hours and hours. I'm guessing we were in the same spot on the floor for about 5hrs. Some people slept but there was no way that I could. I read my bible quite a bit and fiddled with my camera. Finally, we started moving and before I knew it we were on a nice mid-sized plane that was fairly comfortable. The flight from Manila to Tacloban was only about an hour long and was quite nice. We landed in Tacloban where we then loaded a bus for a 2hr bus ride to our final destination.