Odd how some things just fall into place.

Today marked the first time in my entire life I ever missed a flight. I’m not about to point fingers and say whose fault it was. Instead, it was a culmination of factors that led to 6 girls being stranded in Terminal 1 of NAIA. Well, at first it was just one girl who missed her flight: me. My flight was at 10.40am but we reached at 10.25am and by then the check-in counter had already closed. Too late for them to even reopen the cargo doors. Bye-bye flight.

It wasnt too much of an issue for me since I could easily get a flight out of Manila whenever I wanted. Jetstar flies daily anyway. Plus I had wanted to extend my stay here in the Philippines, so I guess this was His way of telling me I was supposed to stay longer. But the crap really started to hit the fan when the other girls who were travelling KLM to Amsterdam didnt get to check-in.

Here’s the problem: we reached at 10.25am and long flight check-ins usually close an hour earlier so the girls had barely 5 minutes to check-in for their flight. The thing was the car carrying our luggage only arrived at 11. By then, the check-in counter had already closed. BUT, because one of the girls had asked them for grace and told them to hold the check-in owing to the delayed luggage immediately when we first arrived, tempers rose when staff denied the 5 girls access to the plane they’d been so looking forward to getting on.

We begged, asked, cried and tried all methods to get them to reopen cargo to let the girls check-in but to no available. The most annoying part was how the plane wasnt scheduled to leave till almost half an hour later. Yes, we understand protocol. But human compassion apparently didnt exist in the KLM staff working behind the counters that day. We, a group of girls, who have been far away from home for the past 3 weeks and have worked our behinds off, are dying to go back home on the other side of the world to our families were late due to reasons beyond our control. It’s not like we strolled into the airport like princess demanding to get on board because we have a habit of being late or just felt like being late.

We were late because of traffic and because our luggages had been separated from us. Goodness knows what happened to the van that was carrying it. Although it left the same time as the van we were in, it came a good half an hour later. Perhaps it met with an accident. Perhaps it was held at gunpoint. We’ll never know. So many questions but no answers.

But perhaps the biggest and most disappointing question of all is: why didnt the staff allow the girls on board instead of fighting us a solid half an hour when there was a possibility that the girls could have still made the flight?

The reason they cited was it’s the rules and that the girls had overweight luggage. Dont humans make the rules? And exceptions can always be made. If it were one passenger who was late and wanted to board, perhaps denying access would be logical. But this was a group of girls who have been away from home for so long and desperately needed to go home. Needed, ladies and gentlemen, needed to go home.

To make matters worse, after the girls had been turned away from their flight no one from KLM had tried to offer assistance by searching for alternative flights. No staff offered solace or suggested a course of action that the 5 girls could take. Instead, they were left there tearing streaming their faces, noses as red as Rudolph’s and hearts and spirits broken.

At that juncture, I thanked God I had missed my flight. It was with the serenity that came with knowing I’m only 4 hours away from home and that I could easily get a flight out that helped me work out a course of action to get the girls home. It was either they flew today at extra costs or wait another day. If they were to get a flight tomorrow, they couldnt possibly be left staying in the airport so transport had to be arranged.

After several calls to various people and trawling the various airline offices on the second floor, we finally managed to get Miss Switzerland a flight home the very same day and the rest of the girls back to Carousel. You will never believe the tension, anger and trauma we went that very morning.

I feel, however, that the puzzle pieces somehow fit.
1) Me missing my flight and being the calm one among the distraught girls.
2) Switzy being able to speak both Spanish and French and hence was the translator for the girls present. Martinique, Dominican Republic, Spain and Paraguay all speak little or no English. If I had been stranded alone with them, I honestly wouldn’t have been able to get any messsage across.
3) Us meeting two kind hearted strangers while in Boracay who, that very day, helped us check out flights on their laptops while they were supposed to be holidaying in Palawan.

Sometimes things just fall into place without you even trying. Sometime you get what you want, but not necessarily the way you want it.

It’s never easy to say goodbye. I thought I’d do okay. Afterall goodbyes dont just mean the end of something. Rather I like to think of them as the beginning of other opportunities. Plus with technology and Facebook, every one now has an address online you can send pictures, gifts, ice-cream, money, pets, a mafia invitation or even a vampire bite if that’s your kinda thing.

But honestly, after the first day of saying goodbye to the girls who left on the 25th, I thought I wouldn’t cry when it came my turn to go home. I had also planned to extend my stay a little bit longer to properly explore the Philippines; this time on my own, on foot, facing the elements one on one.

This morning, however, nursing a bad throat and a sleep deprived brain, I upped myself from the couch and went to say goodbye to the girls in the upstairs bedrooms. It would be pointless for me to stay on sick and unable to fully enjoy the sights and sounds of the Philippines.

However, witnessing some of them with tears streaming down their faces as I said adieu, the water works finally started.

The past 3 weeks have been crazy but definitely memorable. We keep saying a month but really it’s only 3 weeks that we worked our perky bums off travelling from place to place, visiting sponsors and posing for a million and one photos. Sure, in this time, through all the madness, we’ve lost a bunch of things. Some of us lost sunglasses, lost money, lost makeup and perhaps at certain points in time we’ve even lost our tempers or our minds. Contrast that with knowing we’ve gained a wealth of experience and learnt about so many different countries and cultures that school never taught us, those little bumps along the way can be considered insignificant.

I dont want to go. I didnt think it’d be so hard to say goodbye to both the beautiful girls and the wonderful Philippines who’s hosted us so well.