Grand Trip to the Zoo

As early as 2015 my daughter had already been planning for our family’s grand trip to the zoo. “The Zoo” of course is not Manila Zoo but traveling to the Zoo-Zoo, where animals roam free, Africa.

I went along with the planning, meaning, I didn’t object. But deep within me, I was not at all excited to go to Africa. I never dreamed of going to this far away continent. I am not one who seek adventure. My definition of adventure is going to Portobello Market in London or going to the weekend French Antiques Market. It never crossed my imagination that one day I would eat cheesecake beside a wild monkey.

My daughter did a lot of research about African Safari. She contacted her friends who had been in this kind of adventure. She also hooked up with a travel company based in Hongkong specializing in African tours.

The grand trip to the zoo was supposed to be her birthday gift to her father.

Then the series of tsunami-like family problems engulfed us. We discovered about what my son got himself into in May 2015. We thought we were able to address it but we didn’t know he continued to allow himself to be duped by his so-called friends. He blindly believed their promises to him. In the process, he buried himself in bigger problems hoping that those people were sincere in their promises to him. It was like a canon ball that decimated everything in its path. My son tried to catch the ball to prevent other people from being hit, but as a result, he was the one hit the most.

So who wants to see a lion when you are dealing with a problem taller than a mommy giraffe? Who is in the mood to shop for safari clothes when your world has turned upside down? My daughter was in a quandary. She had already paid for our tickets and hotels. To go or not to go. To proceed or not to proceed. She was spending her own money and it was not cheap. More so because her dad’s request was to make sure that every arrangement would be first class. The trip was supposed to be Edmund’s grand birthday party attended by 3 of his favorite humans and hundreds of animals. And who would care to blow a candle when you are reeling with a problem bigger than the Kruger National Park in South Africa? You want to blow your problems away, not a birthday candle.

To be continued…