Last May 15th, I thought the universe conspired to prevent me from flying out of the country. Almost everything that could go wrong, did and at the worst time possible.
We were not able to get on the bus as we've planned because a group of people, all 30 of them, decided to take the same bus we're taking. The thing is, the day before, sweetie and I asked one of the "barkers" there if we have to reserve a ticket for the bus. We were told that we can just get tickets when we get there tomorrow. The bus arrived an hour late (12noon), we took a chance but we did not make it, the bus was full in a matter of minutes. We were told that another bus would come by soon. At this point, we did not want to take the chance. So we came up with plan B. We decided to ask tita jo and pia if they can drive us to the airport. This cost us double than what would plan A have cost (coz we have to gas up and pay the driver) but at least, we're comfy (plus sweetie was able to come with us too!). They arrived almost an hour after the second bus arrived due to Makati traffic. We almost wanted to curse ourselves for being impatient. Now we have to get to Clark in 3 hours or we'll miss the flight! But thank God for He made the roads clear at that time and we got to the airport in Clark in a record breaking one hour and a half (I don't know if that's normal, but it's record breaking for me and this is my blog so get over it). Just in time for our 4pm flight.
So we checked our bags, paid for the terminal fee, lined up for the immigration. But just when I thought my luck is starting to change for the better, it suddenly went from bad to worse. Immigration asked the usual questions, but one question got me dumbfounded... she asked, "Ano nangyari sa DOST mo?". Perplexed, I was only able to say, "huh?". She said I am on their watchlist and I cannot leave the country. Then it dawned on me, she's talking about my DOST scholarship. I got qualified in the scholarship examination way back in 2000 and a 5-year service under them is part of the contract. So is a course in bachelor of Science. The whole world knows I took a course in bachelor of Arts. My parents paid for my tuition fee with our own money. PLUS, I was already able to leave the country last year! Evidently, I did not avail of the scholarship grant (I wanted to, but I did not). The Immigration officer is your typical heartless totalitarian who almost always never lets anyone go past him and makes no consideration whatsoever. He is asking me to present a clearance form from DOST no matter how much I try to explain that it's been eight years and I've never heard anything from them since then. He insists. I asked him if there is a phone I could use, he says no. Imagine, an airport with no phone...but they have a fax machine. So I made do with what I have, I got DOST's number from the sample clearance letter the dictator showed me and called them through my low-battery cellphone. Thankfully, God was on my side that day and He sent me a miracle. I was able to ask a certain Dante from DOST to fax the clearance on a long-distance fax number in a truly miraculous and (yet another) record-breaking 30 minutes! When I had it in my hands, I almost want to slap it in his face. But that would be stooping down to his level and very unlady-like of me. I can see he was quite dismayed with the fact that I got what he asked for in such a short time given the circumstances. I gave him the you-just-got-served look while he was talking to me and I know it irritated him coz he resorted to talking to my mom about it even though I'm clearly not a kid anymore. Haha! At that point, I felt I've won the war. With God on your side, who can be against you, right? I got to Singapore as I had planned and He has planned. Watch out for the pix! ;P
