5:45 am. I usually take photos of the sunrise with clouds above me. Today, I shot the sunrise with clouds below me. Our plane left Manila at 5:45 am -- the sky was still dark and the city streets still empty of busy vehicles. Halfway into the hour-long flight, the sun rays started to peek through the cumulus clouds. With only ten people on the plane, I was able to move from one seat to the other, to get a good angle of the sunrise. Here is the scene from my airplane window: the sunrise at around 20,000 feet above sea level.
Our work began the minute the plane touched down on Dumaguete's airport. Soon, we found ourselves in a series of meetings, briefings and tours that I did not have enough time to savor the refreshing landscape. Relief came after a hearty lunch at Rizal Boulevard when they took us back to South Seas Resort for an hour of relaxation. Lacking in sleep and overloaded with too much information in just half a day, I went straight to my room to grab a few winks and recharge my batteries. One hour was enough to refresh me. I even had enough time to enjoy the scenery outside my window where white boats sailed across the sea. I found the image to be so refreshing that I simply had to preserve it on my digicam.
A tour of Silliman University was next on our itinerary. It is a very impressive school -- next to the University of the Philippines, of course (love your own! hehe). An extensive fiber-optic network runs through the whole campus alongside century-old acacia trees. It was a perfect blend of the old and the new. We were in the campus' oldest buildings when I saw a familiar scene -- and took this photo with memories of my own school.
At day's end, we proceeded to Bacong town to visit a small stonecraft factory called Noah. The owner was a sweet old lady who shared with us how God led her to start their stonecraft business, and, because of her faithfulness, her work prospered. Hearing her stories, I was inspired to wander around her factory, and see for myself the once small business that blossomed into an enterprise that employs over 200 workers. I soon discovered that the factory was situated near the seashore. I took out my camera to take a picture of the sunset, but then I remembered... I was in Negros Oriental! It is that part of the island where the sun rises. Even without an image of the sunset, I took this picture, smiling at the thought that each time the sun shows itself on this part of the Negros island, it is always rising.
I never expected to have an enjoyable dinner with the governor and Dumaguete's big businessmen. I thought I'd be too tired to even appreciate the food, but these people are such a jovial bunch that I found myself amused by their stories and ideas. While chatting with them about kayaks and sharks and lakes and fishes, a scene has caught my eye: out in the open sea was a lone fishing boat, its tiny silhouette visible only through the faint moonlight's reflection on the waters. I sneaked out of the group for a while to capture its image on my camera.
