1st yr anniv : Looking back (by jom)

A year has passed since that fateful day in anawangin. As I look back and remember all the that has happened, I can’t help but thank God for keeping us alive. I thought of a way on how to bounce back this blessing that we have received so I thought of building a blogsite to spread the word to keep safe when going to places like the beach.

Perhaps the movie The Beach has inspired me and led me to discover my love for the sand, sea, and sun. I have never gone to a picturesque place other than boracay or a more intriguing beach such as anawangin cove. And the incident has even made it special. Made Ml/Tierra closer to each other.

I bet you are confused what I’m talking about. Kase ganito yun…

We had this trekkers club in the office and the trip for the summer was Anawangin Cove in zambales. No climb. Just the beach. This should be an exciting trip since arnel will be coming with us. The person who introduced me to nature tripping. I almost backed out because I was feeling nauseous day before the night trip. But the experience may not happen again so ready or not I drank all the meds I could get and off I went.

We arrived at the beach around noontime. We set camp had lunch and everything. The beach is truly mystical as what the websites has been telling about. We rode on the waves and closed our eyes with every splash. Float above the water, floating with each coming wave. It was exciting because after the drift the water’s shallow and we’re already far from the shore. It was like swimming in the middle of the ocean.

All of a sudden, the water abruptly came up. “uyy, teka lang.. tumataas ang tubig.. balik balik” I clamoured. But we we’re too late, one step more back to shore was impossible. I could not feel the sand in my feet. I was already screaming in long tagalong sentences..”tulungan nyo kame nalulunod kame.. nalulunod kame om my…”. I wasn’t crying. I was scared to death. I thought for a minute. Is this it? Is this the way how I’m gonna die? It was like that. I looked around and everybody else was shouting and swimming to shore. I was alert though that cramming would only cramp my feet and disable my paddling. I took a very long and deep breathe and plunge into the salty water thinking it would make me float. Silly. When I ran out of oxygen I took a big flap and gasp. I saw arnel. His head in the water.  Trying to swim back but in stable locomotion. It wasn’t taking him anywhere. He was far from me. I saw Niel who attempted to swim but remained contained. “nalulunod si arnel niel”, pointing to nel repeating the shout several times. Nothing is happening. I could hear kaye and Elaine and Julie. Like me, they were also drowning. Im still far from  the shore. I couldn’t touch the ground still. I was getting tired of my freestyling. I dived under the water again. I was praying.

When I looked up again, people are coming for arnel. And nobody’s coming to my direction. No ones going to save me but myself. I saw Niel. “konti na lang joms. Langoy pa. malapit na.”. and like a dog, I kept my focus and swam for dear life. I knew the coastline was some 4 meters but to make sure I swam some more. Retarded. But safe. Thank you God I am safe. We are all safe except for one.

The shore was filled with lots of spectators and swimmers lying in the sand. But the most crowds were in our group. Our friend looked like vegetable already. I wouldn’t tell other details. (Please read other details in www.anawangin.i.ph). A boat came and he was sent to the nearest clinic possible. He was with Kaye. Just the two of them on the boat. Plus a doctor.

We left the beach around 5. the sun struggling to shed light against the darkness. We packed up and went back to pundaquit. It was a gloomy moment for all of us. Waiting for news from ely about our friends’ condition. As we left the place, the villagers came to us as if they were pleading. Because soon, as we go back to the city, we will be telling out this horrible experience where it will destroy the tourism of the place– a source of their living. But we couldn’t care much during that time. We just wanted to go to the hospital and go home. But we don’t know how long the night would be. A lot of things are still to happen. What if he ddnt make it. Or if he make it, how long? When?

We found the hospital after an hour. Turns out sa kabilang bayan pa un hospital. There’s a hotel beside the place. And there we waited. We took turns looking after him. There were several funny moments though. Before the rooster yell its first crow, we got a call from archie, Our friend is conscious. That was all we needed to hear, and I went back to sleep.

The morning next day was bright and sunny. Our friend is sitting on his bed. His face on his usual smile. As if nothing happened.

We all went back to manila. Took lots of pictures. There are a lot of things to say and im filled with overwhelming feelings. It was perhaps my most memorable summer. A summer I will never forget.