At exactly seven in the morning, my eyes snapped open to the startling sound of Taylor Swift’s song set as my alarm tone. I looked down and didn’t see the big dark figure that should be lying there on the bed. And then I realized, maybe my friend is now cooking and preparing for our field trip and tree planting somewhere in Tanay, Rizal. After we drink a 3-in-1 coffee, brush our teeth, take a bath and packed the necessary things needed for this not-sure-where-will-we-end-up trip (i.e., water, towel, extra towel, extra shirt and slippers) in our ultra-mega back packs, we lunged through the door and went to the meeting place.
Fifteen minutes before 10am, we arrived there and waited hours for the others and then rented two jeeps and then start our agony you call a road trip. While travelling, we took pictures, joke around, cursed each other, and laughed, and then more pictures, cursed, joked and laughed hard until we couldn’t breathe. While our jeep is swaying, making a small right turn there, a big left turn here, going down a slope, swirl around, struggling to climb a slope there and another turn that makes some of our friend’s stomach churn. What a fun ride. I almost couldn’t feel my toes because of having the same position for hours. And then, after a couple of decades of being vagrants, we reach our destination.
Because of our long, long road trip, it’s not that easy to find enthusiasm about what we have to do next: Plant trees. Yeah, plant trees, the sole reason why we were here, in this place. Well, not a bad place after all. A place, filled with smiling and curious-looking kids and welcoming adults and a couple of small homes and a barangay hall. It’s surprising to know that there’s a small barangay in the middle of nowhere, dominated by huge trees, bushes and plants. And oh, we arrived there three in the afternoon, and that’s the first time my mouth and stomach tasted real and heavy food for that day. And tried my very best not to throw out all the food I just ate. And after that, we fetch the seedling up to the mountain’s environs, five seedlings each. And when I said seedling, it means a plant which stands four feet and still has wet soil attached in its roots. And it’s heavy. The locals dig, while we (my classmates and the barcada-ca-javama: cha, venus, jen, em and tina) fill the depressions with plants.
After the dirty task, we were soiled, filthy and stinking and badly needs a bath. But unfortunately, we didn’t bring a single underwear with us, save the extra shirt, that’s why we settled on washing our face and our muddy hands to the clean brook. So much for being prepared. We stayed there for half an hour, savouring the freshness, cleanliness and coolness of the water and we kid with the local kids and took more pictures and then we changed our clothes, hopped in the jeep, checked our belongings and readied ourselves for the long ride home to the city over populated by cars and dominated by different kinds of dusts.
Although we were so tired and our muscles were aching, we still manage to take a bunch of pictures, chat, shout, eat, joke, laugh and enjoy our trip way back home. And I think, I’ll never forget this crazy experience you call tree planting. How we felt so lost because every person we ask where is the tree planting place is, they would said,
“malapit na”
and that is still 10 kilometres from our spot and another 10 kilometres and another. And I almost lose the will to save my sanity because of that. Thank goodness! We arrived drained yet safe and we still had each other. And it’s good to know that you helped to conserve nature by our own five-seedlings-per-head little way and to know and see that there are still clean and fresh rivers and streams left in this world. And if you think that I would want to repeat this expedition just because of what I’ve said above, then you had another think coming!!
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