At 11:30 AM, the French group departed from Tanay on board a jeepney. They were accompanied by Elaine Salazar, a Filipino staff, to facilitate trip concerns. Through heavy rain the group traversed the heavily congested traffic of Manila and arrived at the airport at half past 3 o'clock in the afternoon. It took some time to negotiate with the airline personnel for accumulated baggage allowance in order to avoid excess baggage fees.
The Korean team was already waiting for the team when they arrived, having checked in with their boxes of medicines at 1:00 PM. The Korean team were met at the airport by Yolly Gamutan, the Filipino mission coordinator, and Volker Schultze, a German volunteer.
After the group had checked in, Yolly called Sr. Eva to determine her location, as she was the only one in the team who had not yet arrived at the airport. Sr. Eva was the director of the mission for the natives of Leyte and she was to meet her team at the airport but she had not arrived yet. Sr. Eva said she was caught in the traffic mess as there were many roads in her area which had become impassable due to flood. What followed was a series of bargaining speeches with different airline personnel from the first level to the supervisory level, to beg for consideration for Sr. Eva who was running late. Intermittent calls to Sr. Eva and rounds of begging kept the counter open until Sr. Eva could arrive and also personally beg for consideration to be allowed to board the plane. Finally, after what seemed like an eternity of begging, Sr. Eva was instructed to rush through the gates in order to catch the plane. After passing through the gate, airline personnel ran after Sr. Eva to tell her the flight was cancelled due to aircraft condition.
A new problem arose. Yolly, Elaine, Volker and Jisub (a Korean volunteer who was not part of the Leyte team) had to wait for the airline management to decide what to do with the passengers whose flight were being cancelled. Together with Sr. Eva, they waited at the lounge for the French to come out of the departure area. Sr. Eva had not yet been introduced to the French team and she preferred that Yolly can introduce her to the team before they embarked on the trip to Leyte.
Finally, as the afternoon turned into evening, the French volunteers came out of the departure area. Introductions were made and goodbyes said as the volunteers boarded the bus to go to to hotel where the airlines were putting them up for the night. Some volunteers asked permission to go strolling around Manila that night, and they were instructed to inform Sr. Eva of their whereabouts as Sr. Eva had taken responsibility for her team already. Group safety was her first concern.
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