6 Long Hours of My Life

I woke up at 3am, checked my inbox, then went back to sleep finding there's no message of good value there.

I felt excited, very excited. I woke up 6am again, and prepared myself. While the husband has to vote here in Gensan only, I had to go to my hometown, an hour's bus ride away - Koronadal City, to cast my vote.

Mom and Dad were already there in the polling place as early as 6am, and so were my sisters. I arrived at 8. Good for Mom who works in the elementary school where the election is held, she was allowed to sell goodies from sodas to junk foods, biscuits and candies. There were a lot of voters, and good luck was with my Mom, she was monopolizing the market as there were no other vendors in the place. The candies and biscuits were fast gone due to the heat and the tension in the place. Children come back again and again for the ice candy Mom was selling.

So while I was waiting for my turn to vote bearing number 249, I helped Mom in her store. I couldn't quite understand the chaos inside the polling place as voters lined up for priority numbers, and another line was for the actual casting of votes. It was hot in the morning, but heavy rains fell starting 11 o'clock, and some voters were soaked wet!

The system was very unorganized, I believe the BEIs were not that prepared, and I could hear the angry shouts of those in queue to already give out the numbers in order for them to go home and have their lunch.

To make the long story short, I was able to cast my vote at 2:45pm, I was the 347th voter. To which dismayed me, because there were still 600 voters in our precinct who needed to vote. Arghhh, darn system. It's a good thing many people were helpful with each other. They shout the numbers being allowed to enter the room, for the others outside to hear.

I am proud to be Filipino, and while I voted, I softly mustered a prayer for my vote, that whoever I chose, be God's anointed.

My desire for a better Philippines followed my vote, and now that we are waiting for the results, let us continue to pray that everything will be just fine.

I may have sacrificed the longest 6 hours of my life waiting, but hey, only for a better Philippines, so help us God.

Comments

kg said…
yay sheng! i'm proud of you! you withstood 6 hours to vote!
Reena said…
yes, it was all so worth it, diba? :D
bertN said…
An hour bus ride and 6 hours of wait time to vote! I'm embarrased to admit that our voting precinct here is only a 5 minute walk from my house but I still vote absentee (mail-in vote)during elections.
Anonymous said…
it took me more than 2 hours to complete the process. but every sweat we had while on queue just to vote in our respective precincts was worth it.

like you, i'm also proud to experienced it.
Kayni said…
my sister and i were talking about how the voting went last night. she was online at 8 am, but didn't get to go home until about 3 pm. she said she was so hungry.
SleeplessInKL said…
belated happy mother's day, sheng. i loved what ppl were saying on twitter on mother's day: "today for mother, tomw (election day) for motherland."
Eds said…
yay! mabuhay tayong lahat. 3 hours din akong nakapila. muntik na akong magwalkout pero iniisip ko ang kinabukasan ng anak ko, ng aking pamilya at nating lahat kaya ayon kahit sobrang uhaw, gutom at migraine eh nagtiis pa din. and i'm so happy & proud dahil naiboto ko ang bet ko.
escape said…
yana ang mga responsableng pinoy! good job sheng!
Heart of Rachel said…
It's great that you exercised your right to vote. Grabe yung six hours. I wanted to complain about lining up for an hour but I guess I'm still quite lucky.

Popular posts from this blog

Warning! Allergic Reactions Appear

Famous Cultural Landmark in Surallah, South Cotabato

The First Ever Traditional B'laan Wedding Ritual I Witnessed