Yusuf here,
Wow. After months of planning and preparation we have finally arrived in Puerto Princesa. I just finished my Tauber internship at Amazon and hopped onto a plane from Seattle to Manila, and I can’t wait to unplug for two weeks before the craziness starts back up in preparation for Spotlight! presentations. The 12 hour flight gave me a lot of time to ruminate about Tauber, VA, and the EGL experience. As an EGL you hear about Tauber for two plus years before you go through it, and now that it’s over it’s amazing to think that I’ve passed that milestone. All the things that the masters students have said to me about the experience in previous years were spot on, and it has finally come full circle. I look forward to answering a lot of questions about the Tauber internship, but I know from experience that you’ll never really understand Tauber until you go through it. In a way this is also the beginning of the end. I sort of felt nostalgia at the beginning of senior year because it was my last year of undergrad, but this time around that feeling is settling in closer to the heart. It’s hard to believe that this is going to be my third and final VA trip, and I’m so fortunate to have to had this opportunity.
I met up with Umang, Corinne, Jason,and Maddy in Manila when I arrived. Robbie and Charlie were going to arrive later. Since a few of us had a long layover before the flight to Puerto princesa we met up at the airport Marriott to eat, freshen up and regroup before the final leg of the journey. The flight from Manila to Puerto was only an hour, and it was amazing to look out over all the islands that dotted the waters along the way. The water was an amazing cerulean blue. I hope it’s a sign for what we should expect when we arrive to the volunteer sight.
All in all, we landed in Puerto with no problems. In hindsight it actually worked out really well with no one missing their flights or losing their luggage (phew). We got picked up by IVHQ and reached the volunteer sight a little bit before nightfall and were treated to an amazing sunset. Here’s to two weeks of volunteering and seeing more sunsets like this.
EGL Family Abroad 