I'm Pressing On.

I won’t sit back and take this anymore, I’m done with that. I’ve got one foot out the door, I’m Pressing On.

Coke from a bag:
(they only have glass bottles and you can't take them away from the stands, so they poor it into a bag with a straw.)


Last week Friday I woke up at 2:30a.m. just to catch the morning bus at 4:30a to reach Ubay, Bohol in order to take the 8:45a boat to Bato, Leyte. There is a van that leaves at 6am from the same bus terminal and reaches Bato about the same time, 8:45. However, I feel safer in the giant steel bus. I found myself allowing anxiety to well up inside my chest as we neared the port. I have taken this route many times in the past because it is about $7 total rather than the 30$ by plane it would take me to get to the other island.

This small boat has taken me safely to the other island many times in the past, but my confidence in its tiny structure was minimal at this moment. I even planned ahead for some kind of mishap on the ocean, so I left my laptop at home since I have pictures on it that would be lost forever should the boat sink.

Once arriving safely on the island of Leyte I had one more van ride from Bato to Tacloban. 3.5 hours later I found myself stepping into Vanessa’s car at the meeting place, McDonalds downtown Tacloban. Vanessa had bought the car in December when I was there with Josh and has now learned to drive on the crazy roads of this third world country. Somehow, I get around just fine on my motorcycle but can not imagine driving a car.

Vanessa and her car, Sam:



Friday night we met up with a few friends that I haven’t been able to see since I arrived here 6 months ago. It was much needed medicine. On Saturday Vanessa and I went all around Tacloban and had a friend, Jam, drive us everywhere. This was a more elite way of living than I have experienced here. No jeepneys, tricycles, or peddy cabs. We would just shop a little then wait for Jam to pull around and pick us up.




This place had no memories of Scott nor of Lee, so I was able to let go of all of that. Most of these people didn’t even know what had happened, so I didn’t need to spend time dwelling on it, or explaining why we were so curious about the cave in the first place. Although my mind often wondered to thoughts of Lee, I refrained from texting him all but twice, to let him know I was doing alright and to respond to his messages checking in on me.

Sunset in Samar:


Sunday morning we got up at 4am to pick up my friend from Manila, Irvin, at the airport. Since this was his first time in the province of Leyte we took him all around. The province of Samar is connected to Leyte by a giant bridge called the San Juanico bridge. It is a famous tourist place. We took a road trip about 2 hours to reach a beautiful resort on the province of Samar. This was also my first time here. We could not swim in the ocean due to the jelly fish, but I was excited to have a pool.





Monday and Tuesday were full of more touring around Leyte and laughing a lot. I had so much fun with these great friends. I love Bohol, but as I have said before, my best friends are in Tacloban. I can live without the white sandy beaches and tourist malls of Bohol if I had these friends around me all the time.

It is only 12 days now before I arrive back in the US A and I am trying to prepare myself for whatever reality might bring. But in the process of this, I realized that THIS is my reality. Right here, my Bungalow in Bohol. After each trip I took, whether it be to Indonesia, Tacloban, or just spending a night somewhere else in Bohol, I always feel relaxed coming back ‘home’.

Once returning to Bohol I took Irvin and a friend from Bohol to one of the white beaches and my favorite place to watch the sun set. It was a great end to a wonderful week with friends. who would have known there could be such great people even on this side of the world!

It is high tide right now, so it was difficult to sit in the water for a picture:











I spent all afternoon until late into the evening recapping my week with Deb and Lee. I am going to miss them the most. Their contract is up with IDEA also the end of March and they will be returning to Virginia. So, they won’t be too far away. Lee has been able to sleep the past 3 nights without medication, but his elbow is still swollen something terrible. I do not think it is normal, but the doctors here all tell him he should already have full mobilization. But he is taking it slow before trying to do pull ups again.

Things are going well. Thank you for keeping up with what is going and for the wonderful emails and messages. It has helped this time go much more smoothly. Please do not stop, as my anticipation to arrive home is heightened, I know I will really miss this place.
Preparing to leave what has become my normalcy and arrive once again into an unknown world,

Toni