Scenes from my trip to Leyte

Visiting Leyte always conjures up images of my childhood -- lazy summer days spent swimming on the river, dressing up first as an angel then Reyna Elena in the annual Santacruzan, fiestas, full moons spent playing hide and seek or patintero... this was already my third visit for work and it still feels good to be back in Leyte. Never mind that I really didn't get to see the tourist sights or that I wasn't able to go home to Maasin in Southern Leyte. It was enough to observe our projects, meet our beneficiaries in Abuyog and Jaro, eat yummy seafood and just breathe in the provincial air. Here are some photos from my trip:
We took the early morning flight to Tacloban and it was nice to witness the sunrise after a looooong time. Worth waking up early and feeling groggy at the airport. I just hid behind my big shades.






Our project site in Abuyog was located beside this rice field. Abuyog can be reached via a 2 hour drive from Tacloban. When we were there, the heat was too much. The office transformed into a sauna! So we opted to hold the meeting outside with the cool breeze. We actually took refuge under the trees and took photos in between work.





I found this carabao grazing on the field beside our project site. It was a weekday but it felt like an endless Sunday afternoon... There is not much to see in Abuyog and this trip was really for work. We went back to Tacloban for our late lunch of yummy seafood at Ocho's Grill.


More photos in the coming days...