Leaving Unexpectedly

by: Neil Ryan Marcos

It was an ordinary night. The smell of coffee and sound flipping papers enveloped the house. It was getting late. We were tallying our survey sheets as fatigue and sleepiness were weighing down upon us. Then amidst this array of tedious workload, the sound of a ringing phone suddenly broke in. It was from our classmate, who was having her community exposure in the same municipality. She informed us about the impending security crisis at hand, and advised us to start packing to be prepared for the worst. Upon hearing such news, I can’t help but leap for joy. The thought of going home filled my mind and awoke the exhausted spirit in me. But to make things even more brilliant, it was decided later on that we would leave tomorrow, as early as possible. I immediately went to our room and started packing and fixing my things. The thought of home with its chore-free life and clean toilet bowl made me ecstatic! As a result of my excitement, I was the first one to finish packing. After doing so, I sat down and started staring at everyone and at everything. The air was filled with noises of packing tape, stuff being put in boxes and people asking about all the stuff we had to leave behind and stuff we had to bring back to Zamboanga. It was then that I realized how self-absorbed I was. I forgot that I have responsibilities to my group mates as well. Hence, I started helping out by cleaning the living room. I was amazed at how much stuff we had lying around. It was very natural for us to build clutter everywhere. But even though our living room can be such a mess sometimes, we would spend most of our time there. It is where we shared some of our hardest laughter and funniest memories together.

Luggage strewn all over our living room.

Doing some last minute checking.

After the kitchen, I headed back and saw our calendar of activities on our wall. We placed our schedule in a big Manila paper and taped it in the middle of our house for everyone to see. We would mark each day as it passes. We would carefully weigh our tasks and plan them accordingly. The decreasing number of days would tantalize our dreams of being home again. But after thinking about it, I realized something: Throughout our survey adventures and buying sprees, we would always say at the end of the day, “uwi na tayo.” Then we would journey home to our little bungalow. This was the place we yearn to go home to after a tiring day of work. This was our solace. In a span of a few weeks, this place became a home for us. Then it hit me: I am really going to miss my friends and our home.

After a few hours, we had a meeting about the implications of leaving early. But more importantly we discussed how we would break the news to the people who were so kind and hospitable to us. We felt really bad that we would leave like this, after everything they did for us. We decided to make a letter for them. We made one in English, and another one in Bisaya.


The morning of our departure came. We barely had a few hours of sleep and everyone was in low spirits. We made our last arrangements and started saying goodbye to our neighbours. We went to our Barangay Captain and told him what had happened. His face grew sad as we told him about our predicament. But he also affirmed that it might be for the best given the situation. He also said he would be happy to drive us to the bus terminal with his truck.

Leaving with a heavy heart.

Getting off at the Regional Health Unit to wait for the bus. 

After a few minutes, the truck was ready. We loaded our luggage to the truck and boarded at the back. As the engine starts to rumble and the vehicle started to wobble, we stared at our little bungalow – how humble and sweet she is. All the memories started to build up tears in our eyes. Shortly, after traveling a few meters away, our neighbor saw us from his window. He quickly ran towards the road. I thought we might have forgotten something, or maybe something was up. But as he reached the road, he quickly raised his arms and waved us a big good bye. Upon seeing this, I can’t help but smile and be proud of myself. Surely, I may have done something genuinely good for this man to go out of his way just to see us off. But it wasn’t just that! As we pass along the neighborhood, people would stop just to wave us goodbye. It was simply an overwhelming feeling. I was happy that somehow I know I was able to touch their lives, but I was also sad to leave them. As our vehicle reached the national road and left the paradise we fell in love with, one thought kept residing in my mind – I WILL BE BACK, I’LL SURELY BE BACK.