LOST In Translation

Okay, okay, okay. I don't need to hear I told you so. But you did tell me. Today, for a brief, frozen moment in time, I thought I had been kidnapped. This is why I never wait.

It was a dark, rainy morn when our driver dropped us at the pier. There was an ununderstandable exchange between him and the old men of the sea before shuffling us toward an unseen boat far below my feet. At this point we were manhandled down some steep, slimy, slippery steps in complete and utter darkness onto our itty bitty boat.

What I understood was we were off to see dolphins; what I couldn't understand was where were 30 of my newest, closest friends supposed to sit?? I sure hope we are meeting them on a bigger boat and not ferrying to fetch them from another dock... If I knew any Tagalog, I know no Bisayan or Mindanaonese (great, now I'm making up words in other languages!), or whatever combination of vowels these guys were stringing together.

And off we went.  I have no idea what a knot or nautical mile looks or feels like, but I can assure you land was becoming a faint memory. There we were sputtering along in complete and utter darkness, I'm sorry have I mentioned that already? Well, there were moments of light as Captain Ahab, or Gwapo Ako, as he is known on FB, continually consults his high tech nautical equipment.  Let's just call that a compass, I don't think there is an equivalent English translation...basically a toy from a crackerjack box.

And we stop. In the middle of the ocean. Two men heatedly exchanging vowels and us not moving. My co-pilot knows enough to tell me, they are arguing. ABOUT WHAT!?!? "We drop them here!" "No we have way with them first!" "You take her!" My eyes dart across the horizon calculating the distance between me and the tiny dots of light in the distance. I think of home; I think I can make it.

"We're on the wrong boat" The wrong boat?!? (allow me to pause to say, sometimes I use italics because I need to, not because I want to...and I'm not trying to flaunt the ease at which I maneuver between the two....It's just sometimes necessary and sometimes desired...you try to figure it out). Back to the wrong boat.

The boat men were informed via cell phone (I know, but they really do come in a crackerjack box over here, that must be why everyone has one) the couple cancelled the trip because of the weather. As we, the wrong couple, sat stranded in the dark, in the rain, on the wrong boat.  They were not happy, but I was ecstatic...they're NOT pirates. I'm NOT kidnapped.  phew.