Island Hopes

I was tossing and turning one evening, dreaming in fits and starts, when I suddenly thought, if I don’t write this down I’m going to forget it by morning.  So reluctantly I got up and started writing, doodling, thinking, which inevitably led me to more of the same.  Pretty soon the sun had peeked through the horizon and the black skies lit only by the amber street lights had become bright again.

In my hands was my favourite Moleskine sketch book, filled with all sorts of scribbles and attempts at brainstorming with my alter ego at 4am.

Several pages later, the lack of sleep was making me feel like Don Quixote so apparently I started drawing windmills and had grandiose designs of unlimited power in my noble pursuits.  I don’t even remember sketching that but closer inspection shows that its a “green center” to showcase to the villagers how they can use the simple things around them to create energy sources, to insulate their homes better, to become more comfortable without harming the earth or having to spend money they don’t have.

Exhausted and satisfied that what my memory would forget my notebook would remember, I fell back to sleep and started dreaming again of the many islands and its people and the stories they wanted and needed to share.
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Fast forward to 2012 and I finally stopped thinking and clicking and started moving. It has been a humbling experience so far, meeting so many wonderful people and being amazed by the grand vistas and pristine shorelines the Philippines has to offer. Travel, even just for travel’s sake, is enough. But to travel with a definite purpose, so much more rewarding.