yobichok: The Papal Visit, January 15-19, 2015

The long wait and preparations has come to an end when Pope Francis arrived in the Philippines last January 15, 2015. It was declared Holiday from January 15- 19, due to Papal visit.

(photo from internet)

It does not happen every day that Pope will visit the Philippines, and so I thought that I should see Pope Francis just like the last time that I saw Pope John Paul II during the World Youth Day.

It was Sunday, and we just arrived from our short vacation, Pope Francis was scheduled to have a mass at the Quirino Grand stand. It was raining but we don’t care, with our windbreakers on, we went to Luneta.

When we are on our way to the grandstand, and we were on the road shortly after Vicente Cruz, we saw the convoy of Pope Francis, they were on the Nagtahan fly over. Seeing him from afar is already a strange feeling of happiness and excitement. It is unexplainable.

When we arrived at Luneta, as expected, there were lots of people waiting for the coming of Pope, People were everywhere, we just looked for a nice spot where we assumed that we can see him. Finally, his convoy arrived, we saw him but its too far.

We did not stopped from there, thus the next day, we went to Villamor where he will depart going back home. We were there as early as 4:30 am so we can have a good spot to see him. Luckily, there were only few people waiting, mostly were near the gates of Villamor, but we stayed just right in front of the Bo’s Coffee shop. We waited for so many hours, and did not mind the fatigue, thirst and heat.

Policemen were scattered to ensure tight security.

Finally Pope Francis and his convoy arrived and we're glad that he rode on the Pope mobile and not on his service car. The effort of waking up too early, waiting for hours, the thirst and heat from the sun was all worth it in exchange of seeing Pope Francis up-close and personal.