There's good left in this world

Our first day in Coron town in Palawan ended almost disastrously. We'd taken the afternoon flight and had decided to immediately start our vacation by squeezing in Maquinit Hot Spring before dark.

We take a tricycle to the only known saltwater hot spring in the Philippines, located some five kilometers from the town proper. My daughter balks initially at the water temperature, which locals claim range from 38 to 40 degress celsius, but soon adapts to the heat. A few visitors sit around the edge of the pool, soaking their legs in the water, which is said to be good for relieving arthritis and rheuma. We soak ourselves by the mini falls before we decide to head back to town for dinner.

My daughter decides to use the toilet so we head for the facility. I have to divest myself of all the things I am carrying to help her. It's not the nicest of toilets and my daughter changes her mind. I unhook my bag from the door lock (I'd wrapped the strap around the wood) and unknowingly leave our Olympus camera on one of the makeshift ledges inside the toilet. We leave Maquinit at about 6 p.m.

It's almost eight before I realize that the camera is missing. My husband refuses to let me go back for it. He deems it useless. I insist, I have to try. He finally decides to go back for it himself, leaving me with our daughter at the resort where we're staying.

I pray the Holy Rosary. Daughter wonders why Mommy is so worried. It's not only the peso value of the camera, it's the memories we'd already taken at Maquinit and the many more we'd wanted to document during the Coron island tour the next day.

He's back an hour later, with the camera. A member of the staff had found it and kept it for us. It's amazing. Our knee-jerk reaction had been cynical -- we didn't really think we would recover it. But hope against hope, we just had to try. And we were humbled by this display of goodness and honesty by town employees whose salaries must be consumed by the basics, not leaving them much for luxuries like a digital camera.

What's more, they initially refused Hubby's show of appreciation, only accepting the 'tip' after much persuasion.

We were lucky that the camera fell into the hands of good people. But I would like to believe that it wasn't all luck. It was also faith -- the kind of faith that makes people like the Maquinit resort employees try to continually do the right thing. The kind of faith and conviction that the good Mother, whose statue stands in Maquinit, will hear our fervent prayers.